The biography of three great musicals--My Fair Lady Camelot and Gigi--this account highlights the on-stage and off-stage moments of triumph and disaster of professionalism and pettiness. Paperback
Warm witty loving often hilarious and poignant in its affection for a glorious era in the American theater it is the story of what Mr. Lerner calls "the sundown of wit eccentricity and glamour." The author himself try as he will to keep himself out of his pages emerges not merely as a great talent but as a man of laughter and love. His principals however are Moss Hart and Fritz Loewe with a stupendous supporting cast: Julia Andrews Richard Burton Rex Harrison Cecil Beaton Louis Jourdan Maurice Chevalier Leslie Caron Vincente Minnelli Arthur Freed ...and on an on. They are seen intimately in moments of triumph disaster doubt and panic pettishness and hilarity. Sometimes they were amateurs at private living but they were always professionals at the creation of theater. And the creation of theater is the matrix of this wonderful book. Here is how a show is conceived financed written (and rewritten and rewritten) produced staged saved and finally given to the public.
