This is a highly personal biography of three great shows: My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Gigi. Warm, witty, loving, often hilarious, and poignant in its affection for a glorious era in the American theater, it is the story of what Mr. Lerner calls "the sundown of wit, eccentricity, and glamour." The author himself, try as he will to keep himself out of his pages, emerges not merely as a great talent, but as a man of laughter and love. His principals, however, are Moss Hart and Fritz Loewe, with a stupendous supporting cast: ...
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This is a highly personal biography of three great shows: My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Gigi. Warm, witty, loving, often hilarious, and poignant in its affection for a glorious era in the American theater, it is the story of what Mr. Lerner calls "the sundown of wit, eccentricity, and glamour." The author himself, try as he will to keep himself out of his pages, emerges not merely as a great talent, but as a man of laughter and love. His principals, however, are Moss Hart and Fritz Loewe, with a stupendous supporting cast: Julia Andrews, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Cecil Beaton, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier, Leslie Caron, Vincente Minnelli, Arthur Freed . . . and on an on. They are seen intimately in moments of triumph, disaster, doubt and panic, pettishness and hilarity. Sometimes they were amateurs at private living, but they were always professionals at the creation of theater. And the creation of theater is the matrix of this wonderful book. Here is how a show is conceived, financed, written (and rewritten and rewritten), produced, staged, saved, and finally given to the public.
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From the first paragraph, you know you are in for a good time. There are no dull patches, and Alan Jay Lerner entertains us yet again with biographies of his three wonderful stage shows : "My Fair Lady", "Gigi" and "Camelot" (and in the case of "My Fair Lady" and "Gigi", the films). We find out how the main stars behaved (some rather childishly and most impeccably), the temporary disasters, the difficulties, the victories, and through it all we are privy to wonderful vignettes of the talented people whom AJL knew : Astonishing that George Gershwin took days to come up with the line "Come to papa, come to papa do.. from "Embraceable You". Funny when Rex Harrison''s hairpiece sails up into the flies one night upon raising a part of the scenery. Rex played on!)
This book is simply a winner - it has humour, wit, pathos and entertainment, but what else could we expect from such a great playwright/lyricist of the American theatre.