Arthur Laurents

b. 14 July 1918, NY, USA. A recognized stage director, writer and screenwriter, Laurents offers enjoyed equal achievement in both musical and genuine theatre. His parents didn’t approve of his early ambitions to be always a playwright, and youthful Laurents went only to NY theatres in the Depression-hit early 30s. He produced his name as the writer of plays such as for example Home FROM THE Daring (1945) and ENOUGH TIME FROM THE Cuckoo (1952), before composing the libretto for the landmark musical Western world Side Tale (1957). The 50s had been troubled situations for Laurents: blacklisted through the McCarthy witch hunts, he was almost bankrupted with the attorneys costs incurred in obtaining the come back of his passport. He and composer Leonard Bernstein auditioned Stephen Sondheim as lyricist for Western world Side Story, allowing him to create his Broadway debut. Laurents and Sondheim collaborated once again in 1959 on Gypsy (music: Jule Styne), Anyone Can Whistle (1964, Laurents also aimed) and Perform I Listen to A Waltz? (1965). Laurents produced his debut as the movie director of the musical in 1962 with I COULD Get It FOR YOU PERSONALLY Wholesale, where Barbra Streisand produced an enormous influence, stopping the present every night using the comic ‘Miss Marmelstein’. Since that time, Laurents provides experienced blended fortunes. Hallelujah, Baby! (1967), along with his libretto and a rating by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, was regarded failing in NY, but the initial West End creation of Gypsy in 1973, starring Angela Lansbury, which Laurents aimed, was acclaimed, and eventually used in Broadway. Laurents also aimed another NY revival of his most liked musical in 1989, with Tyne Daly. In 1979, The Madwoman Of Central Recreation area Western world, a one-woman entertainment that Laurents composed with as well as for Phyllis Newman, performed off-Broadway on the 22 Techniques Theater. After getting nominated for the Tony Prize for his path of the initial Gypsy, Laurents’ staging of La Cage Aux Folles finally gained him an Prize in 1983. Nevertheless, there have been no Tonys honored to Nick And Nora (1991); Laurents was connected with this colossal flop as writer and movie director, but ironically, for him individually, some good originated from it. Disillusioned with musical productions, he instantly launched in to the creation of some plays, their articles spanning four years: Jolson Sings Once again, a bit about politics and concepts occur Hollywood through the McCarthy period, a humor of manners entitled The Radical Mystique, My Great Name, and Two Lives. He also resolved on two locations sympathetic to his function, Seattle Rep as well as the Manhattan Theater Club. Laurents’ additional notable contributions towards the right theatre over time possess included Invitation To A March (1960), which experienced incidental music by Sondheim, JUST HOW We Had been, Scream, A Clearing In The Woods, as well as the homosexual-themed The Enclave (1973). One of is own earliest efforts, ENOUGH TIME FROM THE Cuckoo, had currently provided the foundation for the musical SHOULD I Listen to A Waltz?, just before it had been filmed in 1955 simply because Summertime, starring Katharine Hepburn, as the Way We Had been found the silver screen in 1973, with Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford in the primary roles. Laurents composed the screenplay for the last mentioned, and he also scripted The Snake Pit (1948), Rope (1948), Captured (1948), Anna Lucasta (1949, with Philip Yordan), Anastasia (1956), Bonjour Tristesse (1958) as well as the Turning Stage (1977). In 1995, the York Theater Company provided Laurents using its 6th annual Oscar Hammerstein II Prize, and his a great many other honours possess included Golden World, Drama Desk, Country wide Panel of Review, Authors Guild of America, Country wide Institute of Arts and Characters, Screen Authors Guild, Sydney Theatre Critics honours. He continues to be inducted in to the Theater Hall of Popularity.