Drama Queen! Born On This Day, July 14th... Living Legend- Arthur Laurents

As the story goes... late for his place on a panel discussion, Arthur Laurents burst on to the stage draped in mink & announced- "behold, a living legend!". Stephen Sondheim, also on the panel, looked up & said- "wrong on both counts".

 I just ate up his memoir- Original Story By, which was chock full of great dishy theatre & Hollywood stories. He is important to me in the many ways.  I admire him & his work, but most especially because he wrote the book for my favorite musical- Gypsy, which I find to be a near perfect piece of theatre. He directed 3 rivals of Gypsy including my favorite with Angela Lansbury in 1974 (Tyne Daley in 1989 & the recent Patti Lupone outing). This year, at 92, he directed the revival of West Side Story, a classic for which he wrote the original lean & strong book. In this production, it was Laurents's conceit to have most of the the Sharks & their girls, who are from Puerto Rico, speak & sing in Spanish & the cast would all be young & if not Puerto Rican, at least Hispanic. Laurents has explained that the idea came from his partner of 52 years- Tom Hatcher (Laurents & Farley Granger were lovers in the late 1940), who saw & loved a production of the musical in South America. It was also Hatcher that urged Laurents to revive Gypsy with Patti Lupone, so that the Sam Mendes directed production with Bernadette Peters would not be the last one in Laurents's lifetime. Laurents has won 4 Tony Awards & been nominated for 6 Oscars, winning 1 for the screenplay for The Turning Point. He is, by all accounts, a real son of a bitch... but, what a talent.

This is a partial list of Arthur Laurents's contribution to popular culture:
Librettos:
Gypsy, Nick & Nora, West Side Story, The Madwoman of Central Park West, Hallelujah, Baby! Do I Hear a Waltz?, & Anyone Can Whistle

Direction:
Anyone Can Whistle, La Cage aux Follies, The Madwoman of Central Park West, Gypsy (1974, 1989 & 2008), I Can Get It for You Wholesale ( with a very young Barbra Streisand) & Invitation to a March

Plays:
Invitation to a March, A Clearing in the Woods, The Time of the Cuckoo , The Bird Cage, Home of the Brave, & Jolson Sings!

Screenplays:
Anastasia, The Turning Point, The Way We Were, Gypsy, West Side Story, Bonjour Tristesse,
Summertime ( from his play "The Time of the Cuckoo"), Anna Lucasta, Home of the Brave, Rope, Caught, & The Snake Pit