Ask
who Arthur Laurents is/was people outside of the theatre world would
probably give you a blank look. Ask who wrote the books for the original
musicals "Gypsy" and "West Side Story" not to forget his directing
successful revivals of them , the former in 2008, the
latter in 2009, or directed the original Broadway musical "La Cage Aux
Folles" in 1983?  As you read this are you aware that Arthur Laurents
wrote the book and screenplay for "The Turning Point" starring Shirley
MacLaine and Anne Bancroft, wrote the screenplay for "The Way We Were"
with Streisand and Redford? Did you know that he wrote the play "The
Time of the Cuckoo " with Shirley Booth that was made into
a movie with Katherine Hepburn titled "Summertime"? He wrote the
screenplays for Hitchcock's "The Rope" and "Anastasia" with Yul Brynner,
Helen Hayes and Ingrid Bergman. With all this people still wouldn't
knowwho he was.

Arthur
Laurents was born in 1917 and died last May 5, 2011 at the age of 94.
He wrote an autobiography in 2000 called "An Original Story by Arthur
Laurents" in which he was campy, dishy, gossipy, settled old scores and
brought up new ones. He talked about his gay affairs, long and short
term relationships, about other gay men in Hollywood and Broadway
including his affair with Farley Granger. He talked about his career,
the bad along with the good, and the many famous people he worked with.
It became a best seller as people called Laurents a curmudgeon, among
other names, but they didn't skip a page.

"Mainly
On Directing" subtitled "Gypsy", "West Side Story" and other musicals"
starts off slamming Sam Mendes, who had won an Oscar for directing
"American Beauty", who was directing a revival of "Gypsy" with
Bernadette Peters, mentioning his name as little as possible but
deriding everything he said and did regarding the production. He drops
his attack to acknowledge his lover of 52 years, Tom Thatcher, who died
in 2006 and who Laurents gives complete credit for the successful
revivals of "Gypsy" and "West Side Story"2 years previous to both.

Laurents
gets into directing, mainly musicals, what it takes and what it needs
but mainly crediting 'musical bones' that a person must have whether
director, actor, designer or any other position in a stage production to
make it a success. He does go into details with each of his productions
very seldom taking the blame but not being shy about taking the credit
though he will mention Tom in 'helping' him. He can't help taking pot
shots at people but he doesn't hesitate to tell his admiration of
others.

As
a neophyte in the world of directing I didn't learn much about the
field except that the director is boss in the theatre according to
Arthur Laurents and he is probably right. He lead a good, long,
accomplished life and shared more than half of it with a mate he loved
and who loved him.

******************************************************************

"Tom
and theatre, that's what my life has been. And that's what this book
is---an effort to say thank you by doing what I can to make the theatre
industructible and to keep Tom alive."
Arthur Laurents