Rating: 
Summary: The truth.
Review:
An 86-year-old friend who grew up in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, and who had her own works on Broadway, gave me this book for help with my writing (I'm 42). Laurents is remarkably inspiring, even when he doesn't necessarily intend to be. His stories about writing for the war effort, writing radio plays, mapping plots of popular films, and turning out work for deadline demonstrate a TREMENDOUS work ethic and a resilient willingness to write and re-write...., but gay lives weren't well documented in that era. Worse, "liberal" Hollywood was thought to be generally accepting, when in fact the opposite was true. Laurents was under enormous pressure to stay in the closet, as were most writers and stars. The narrative hops around a bit, but he's a gifted writer, and soon you'll settle in. If you want to be a screenwriter, read this. Some of the political nonsense that goes into making a motion picture still happens, even in 2003! Arthur Laurents is an amazing man whom I hope has a magnificent decade as an octogenarian. If his vibrant words are any indication, then in spirit he'll always be 33 and ready for the next adventure.
Rating:
Summary: AN ORIGINAL PAGE TURNER!
Review: Arthur Laurents' professional life has taken him from obscurity to the highs of Hollywood to the highs of Broadway. And personally, he obviously always felt that a lover was more important than a hit. Laurents pulls no punches. He takes the reader on a journey like none other I've read about: having worked with almost every big (and little) name in the theatre and film, he lets us in on backstage drama and trauma. And he tells how he survived. As to his personal life, it is ALMOST as heady as his writing career. His story is informative and exciting and romantic and funny and moving. This is a MUST READ. 400 pages goes by in a flash.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, quirky addition to theatre history
Review: Arthur Laurents, by chance and by design, has been near the center of theatrical landmarks like WEST SIDE STORY. Thank God he lived to write this memoir. The most fascinating character revealed is Laurents himself, a highly intelligent, ambitious writer driven and sustained for decades by anger, political self-righteousness, and sex. The passages (there are many) about his busy love life come across too often as the barroom boasting of a man chronically insecure about his looks and physical appeal. Laurents tells us again and again how beautiful his lovers were, and how great they were in bed, etc. etc. A gentleman would withhold most of this, but Laurents doesn't pretend to be a gentleman. He throws acid on everyone who ever crossed him or disagreed with him politically. For a man angered above all by "injustice", he shows little concern for the names or reputations of colleagues and friends he trashes on nearly every page. All this settling of old scores makes lively reading, but one is surprised that such an angry, vengeful, judgmental guy has any friends left at all. Like so many in the arts, he uses leftwing politics as a substitute for personal morality. In other words, he may lie, cheat, deceive, and lay waste in his personal life, but his Leftist convictions automatically make him feel superior to everyone he knows. All this adds to the psychological interest of Laurents' self-portrait, which reveals more, I suspect, than he knows. That said, it's a fine book, an important book, and should be read by anyone with an interest in 20th century American theatre, especially musical theatre.
Rating: 
Summary: Engrossing but self-absorbed
Review: I just finished reading this fascinating but maddening autobiography last night. There is no doubt about it - Arthur has quite a story to tell. His storytelling pulls you in, making you feel as if he's telling the stories directly to you. He's met or worked with virtually every major star of the past 60 years so he's definitely got tales to tell. However, after reading for awhile, I found several things off-putting. Early on, Arthur starts to regale us with endless stories of sexual conquests. He inevitably describes his partners as "handsome", "beautiful", etc. A few stories like this would have gotten the point across, but I eventually came to the conclusion that Arthur was very insecure about his attractiveness and had to make sure that we readers knew that he was very desirable (even if pictures don't seem to tell that story). Then there's the sexual encounter he has with an old friend and sex partner who was starring in a play that Arthur was directing - it was simply creepy to me. As I continued reading, it just seemed that Arthur wanted to dissect and criticize almost everyone he came across, especially those who had disappointed him, and on several occasions I thought he was incredibly unkind. His portrait of Jerry Robbins is one-sided at best and mean at worst - he definitely comes across as if he has an ax to grind with Jerry. His coldness upon Jerry's death struck me as amazingly hard-hearted, considering all that they had done together in their lives. Arthur also never seemed to turn that critical eye onto himself. He generally comes off as good in all encounters, while others are usually immoral, dishonest, etc. I also had the sense that Arthur might have embellished the details to help himself come out so well in his stories. (This is especially ironic, considering his comments about how Gypsy Rose Lee did the same in her autobiography.) If you're interested in Broadway and the movies in the second half of the 20th century, this is a great read. Just beware the shortcomings of the author.
Rating:
Summary: How I would like to know this man!
Review: I was about 20 pages in to this wonderful autobiography when I found myself thinking, "Man, I'm going to like this". All 380 other pages, I was right. Actually, I wish I could give it four and a half stars, because I do have one small complaint about it -- Arthur Laurents in many places in the book seems to be writing to people who know him already and are, so to speak, looking for themselves in the index. The story leaps around from place to place and time to time and age to age fairly randomly, and in more than just a few places people's first names appear with the apparent assumption that all of us are going to know exactly who it is that Arthur is talking about. That said, there are also lots and lots and lots of people that everyone knows about, and it is sort of gossipingly wonderful to read interpretations of Katharine Hepburn as being sort of weird, Lena Horne as being sort of wonderful, Jerome Robbins as being sort of way too much about himself, etc., etc., etc. Beyond all that there is this man, Arthur Laurents, himself. The flyleaf to the book says that he has had a "rich life", and that's putting it mildly. There is not only the magnificence of the body of his work, but there's also just a guy who lived life to its way-beyond fullest. He smoked dope (and, unlike Bill, inhaled and liked it), he slept around because he found lots of people sexy and attractive, he did what his heart called him to do in his profession, he bitched with a lot of people and made friends with lots of other people -- in short, if that's not necessarily who I would want to be myself, it sure enough is somebody I would like to be friends with and know. This is a wonderful autobiography even for someone who has never heard of Arthur Laurents, because it is all about people you've known all your life, but it is also a wonderful autobiography because few people who write autobiographies ever let that much of themselves show. I loved it, and I think you will, too.
Rating:
Summary: How I would like to know this man!
Review: I was about 20 pages in to this wonderful autobiography when I found myself thinking, "Man, I'm going to like this". All 380 other pages, I was right. Actually, I wish I could give it four and a half stars, because I do have one small complaint about it -- Arthur Laurents in many places in the book seems to be writing to people who know him already and are, so to speak, looking for themselves in the index. The story leaps around from place to place and time to time and age to age fairly randomly, and in more than just a few places people's first names appear with the apparent assumption that all of us are going to know exactly who it is that Arthur is talking about. That said, there are also lots and lots and lots of people that everyone knows about, and it is sort of gossipingly wonderful to read interpretations of Katharine Hepburn as being sort of weird, Lena Horne as being sort of wonderful, Jerome Robbins as being sort of way too much about himself, etc., etc., etc. Beyond all that there is this man, Arthur Laurents, himself. The flyleaf to the book says that he has had a "rich life", and that's putting it mildly. There is not only the magnificence of the body of his work, but there's also just a guy who lived life to its way-beyond fullest. He smoked dope (and, unlike Bill, inhaled and liked it), he slept around because he found lots of people sexy and attractive, he did what his heart called him to do in his profession, he bitched with a lot of people and made friends with lots of other people -- in short, if that's not necessarily who I would want to be myself, it sure enough is somebody I would like to be friends with and know. This is a wonderful autobiography even for someone who has never heard of Arthur Laurents, because it is all about people you've known all your life, but it is also a wonderful autobiography because few people who write autobiographies ever let that much of themselves show. I loved it, and I think you will, too.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I wish I could say this is a good book, because I truly like and admire Arthur Laurents-- his work, his intelligence, his integrity. But "Original Story By" is unevenly written. Some paragraphs are so poorly put together they require rereading and even then the author's meaning remains obscure. The book is full of interesting gossip-- almost too much... however rather little is revealed about the author himself. What I liked best was the description of how stage productions and motion pictures are creatively formed-- how they can be so easily sabotaged by an unsympathetic director, self-centered actors, profit motivated changes and cuts. Under these circumstances, it's truly amazing and rare when everything can come together and result in great theatre and film.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoy the Ride!
Review: If you live to be 82 years old and fortunate enough to have lived the life that Arthur Laurents has then you've earned the right to say what you damn well please. Arther Laurents does just that in his autobiography and in a very honest an entertaining style. Sit back and enjoy the ride, you just might learn something along the way!
Rating:
Summary: The truth.
Review: Now THIS is an autobiography! It is the story of a man, the last of his peer group, who, at 81, is healthy, athletic, sexual, productive in his craft, and in love. He is joyous and it reflects in his writing. Vitriol, if not burned away, has often been reduced to pithy one-liners that zing with word-play. Apathy seems to have replaced anger. Mr. Laurents is too busy living to show resignation or to bemoan the passing of relationships, so his book is vital, alive. He is blunt and ruthless and he shows us the sage as scrappy youth and unformed man as well as (bad)businessman and lover, plus playwright, director and Hollywood hack. He has little respect for the movie industry and when black-listed,was more relieved than aggrieved! He spares himself nothing, is quick to offer accolades and in stories that are pay-backs, with time and acoomplishment to back him up, chummy fact can be damning! He has a gift for knowing that someone loves and respects the famous people he mentions and he writes accordingly, whether he shares their regard or not, and even when a relationship has lapsed, if praise is due, he generously heaps it on. Incidentals are rampant. Some add to the whole, like how Geraldine Brooks' breast cancer led to her marriage with HUAC informer Budd Schulberg and how this impaced her friendship with Mr. Laurents, or how Lillian Roth's fight with alcoholism helped Mr. Laurents direct her in I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE. Other tidbits just make juicy reading, like the stoicism of Hal Prince learning to water-ski. It is so easy to link the vision of Prince dropping rather than veer out of the boat's wake, with his dogged direction of PARADE a few years back! It is fascinating to hear how life experiences made their way into his work, to hear the power 'stars' had to pervert an author's intent, and to see how some events became motivations or mere moments of dialogue in a play, while others became entire works. Sometimes, Mr. Laurents himself was unaware of where a line or a thought came from, and when he recognizes the origin, his delight is triumphant! Bad psycho-analysts become saccharine characters in admittedly mediocre plays, a handsome Jew in love with a Nazi becomes a portly Italian shopkeeper/love interest, and the Hollywood Witch Hunt becomes THE WAY WE WERE, before politics were 'expunged', Robert Redford collided with his role and the climax of the movie (not film) was edited out. (It seems Katherine Hepburn had a knack for turning her character into herself too, not the reverse!) Included too, is director Laurents' dealings with star-in-waiting Barbara Streisand, manipulative producer David Merrick, sweating co-star Elliot Gould, and costuming goddess Theoni V. Aldredge. He loved working with Jule Styne, Len Bernstein and Steve Sondheim and has high praise for master craftsmen Shirley Booth and Angella Lansbury. It was fascinating to hear him revisit GYPSY over the years as his role changed from author to director. Reading about Miss Lansbury performing the bows at the end of "Rose's Turn" was electric. I wish I could have seen an actual performance! There is over-lap between Laurents and the ballet world through Jerome Robbins, Nora Kaye, and Harold Lang, and superstar Erik Bruhn makes a moon-lit naked appearance. Robbins seems to be the only one of the four Laurents didn't sleep with, and I question his use of 'balletomane' as a verb! His friendship with Robbins runs as deeply as Nora Kaye's and Robbins plays a major part in the book, as friend, informer, collaborator on famous works, and betrayer. To hear his stories of W.W. II, where he wrote training films, gays in the military should NEVER be an issue. Actually, he finds handsome men all over the world and his search to not only accept what he is, but to prefer it, turns up in much of his writing. Too much so in fact, if there is anything to criticize about ths book. His exploits during the war read like fiction! Early on, he announces his intolerance of bigotry of any kind, especially against homosexuals, Negroes and Jews but I find this odd since he flatly dismisses his Bar Mitzvah as 'meaningless.' This is really the first book I've read that deals pointedly with McCarthyism and the Hollywood Witch Hunt. He voices what many must have felt, sharing freely his feelings of the time and his feelings now! Informers are pariah, yet some who informed remained Laurents' friend, some did not and we learn the whys of each, first hand. Judgments are presented factually along with consequences of decisions that were made. This book is a wealth of history but for those interested in fair play and looking at all sides of an issue, don't bother picking it up. This is Arthur Laurents' story, and I not only respect his right to tell it, I revel in it! Five stars for this one, and the moon has come out again!
Rating:
Summary: Broadway and Hollywood Memoir
Review: Original Story by Arthur Laurents is an excellent autobiography by a very talented man. His talents include screenwriting, directing, playwriting. His story is told with candor and humor. He is very upfront about being gay and his various affairs in Hollywood and New York, noticeably his long affair in the late 40's, early 50's with Farley Granger. The book takes you behind the scenes of the movie industry and the people who ruled Hollywood. He is frank in his opinion of the people he worked (and lived) with. A Marxist since the thirties, he shows no affection for director Elia Kazan who blew the whistle on many of Hollywood's greats during the '50s. Laurents has wonderful stories about working on Broadway with West Side Story and Gypsy. His priceless vignettes about Ethel Merman are worth the price of the book alone. Many other celebrities are mentioned throughout his book.He has lived a very full life and it is very evident in this entertaining book. And he's still going strong at 83.
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