BOOKS BY OR ABOUT LERNER & LOEWE
Alan Jay Lerner, THE STREET WHERE I LIVE, 1978. A memoir whose first chapter includes his early relationship with his father and Larry Hart and then consists of three long chapters on the original productions of his three most popular works -- all from the glory years,1956-1960 -- the shows MY FAIR LADY and CAMELOT and the movie GIGI -- with occasional asides to his other works and associations.
Alan Jay Lerner, THE MUSICAL THEATER: A CELEBRATION, 1986. Written right before he died, Lerner delivers a lively history of the American musical from his perspective.
Benny Green, A HYMN TO HIM: THE LYRICS OF ALAN JAY LERNER, 1987. A compilation of many of Lerner's lyrics from his 18 shows and movies with each production usefully introduced, beginning with WHAT'S UP (1943) and ending with the unproduced MY MAN GODFREY at the end of his life.
Gene Lees, INVENTING CHAMPAGNE: THE WORLDS OF LERNER AND LOEWE, 1990. A very readable book with philosophical, psycholgical, historical overtones as well as L&L biography. Presents useful insights and information about the productions and interesting anecdotes concerning the author's own experiences with L&L and others associated with them. He also comments on how Lerner's creative work reflected his life and personal beliefs.
Doris Shapiro, WE DANCED ALL NIGHT: MY LIFE BEHIND THE SCENES WITH ALAN JAY LERNER, 1990. Written by Lerner's personal assistant in the middle 1950s-1960s period, noted mainly because of information about her and Lerner's doctor-injected drug use during the latter part of this period.
Edward Jablonski, ALAN JAY LERNER: A BIOGRAPHY, 1996. A thorough-going biography by the author of well-known books about other classic American popular song writers (the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, etc) and a number of books on other subjects.
Stephen Citron, THE WORDSMITHS: OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN 2nd AND ALAN JAY LERNER, 1995. An interesting dual biography of the two lyricists.
No comments:
Post a Comment