Monday, March 16, 2009

When You’re a Shark You’re a Shark All the Way

In the fifties, with West Side Story and Gypsy, Arthur Laurents made theatrical history. Later he became famous for his lacerating tongue. At 91, both he and it are having a comeback. - New York Magazine

(from Towerload)
"As his West Side Story returns to Broadway following the recent revival of Gypsy with Patti Lupone, New York magazine serves up a big profile on 91-year-old Arthur Laurents, big on details of both revivals and Laurents' relationships with his collaborators, rivals, enemies, and late longtime partner."

"The NY mag article goes more into Laurents' relationship with Hatcher, who died in 2006 of lung cancer: "After 52 years together, Laurents understandably sees his partner’s hand in everything he does. Until Hatcher died, Laurents didn’t even have an ATM card. And it was Hatcher who convinced him to direct the LuPone Gypsy, so that Mendes’s version wouldn’t be the last one seen on Broadway in Laurents’s life. Part enforcer, part enabler, part keeper of the flame and of the grudges, Hatcher made Laurents’s writing life possible and somehow still would."

While I believe that West Side Story deserves all the accolades it recieves, there's just something about Gypsy that appeals more honestly to the classic post war musical form that I respect. Or, it could be that I just love strippers doing showtunes in fabulous costumes....enjoy.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous18/3/09 19:08

    SWEET JESUS! WHERE did they get those voices???? Didn't ANYONE in voice school tell them that they were supposed to sing and not scream???? LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I doubt that as strippers they ever went to voice school; vice school perhaps....

    ReplyDelete

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