To Broadway

 To Broadway by Maurane Mazars (2025) 248 pages

This is historical fiction set in the late 1950s about a young gay German man studying modern dance who dreams of Broadway or Hollywood in America. The watercolor art is brilliant. We ride the ups and downs of Uli's career, love life, and friendships. Fantastically emotive with the use of visuals without too many words. And the Epilogue reveals some of the real people involved in the story. Translated from French.

Unmasked

Unmasked: A Memoir by Andrew Lloyd Webber  544 pp.

This memoir by the world's most successful composer of musicals covers Lloyd Webber's life and career from childhood through the production of "Phantom of the Opera." Much of the book is about his youth and education - he was an Oxford University dropout - while the rest covers, in detail, the creation and production of his works beginning with "The Likes of Us." While the process of creating and bringing a major musical production to the stage is interesting, the book gets repetitive as it goes through six major productions and five minor ones. He wrote candidly about his personal life including the dumping of his first wife for the young Sarah Brightman who became his muse for "Phantom". I listened to the audiobook version read by Derek Perkins with the Forward and Afterward read by Lloyd-Webber. Their voices are so similar I felt like it was all read by the author.

Hamilton: The Revolution

Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter, 287 pages

In this book, Hamilton creators Miranda and McCarter reflect on the years of work, inspiration, and collaboration that went into making the groundbreaking Broadway musical. While plenty of people, myself included, would use the word "genius" to describe Miranda, he refreshingly and enthusiastically sings the praises of the actors, musicians, costume designers, set designers, choreographers, and lighting designers that made the musical possible, and I positively loved learning about the care he took to work with author Ron Chernow (whose Hamilton biography inspired the hip-hop musical) to make the musical as historically accurate as possible. History nerds FTW! This was a fun book, one that I listened to most of the way through before grabbing the physical copy to see Miranda's annotated libretto (those notes don't make a lot of sense without the visual). It makes me want to both listen to the cast album on repeat and see the show again.

Hank and Jim

Hank and Jim: The Fifty Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart by Scott Eyman  367 pp.

Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart met when they were young actors just starting out. They developed a friendship that lasted in spite of their many differences. Their friendship 4relied more on proximity than conversation. They were happiest just being with each other, frequently not even speaking, making model airplanes and kites, or reminiscing about their days as struggling young actors. Both were very affected by their military experiences that neither discussed; Fonda in the Navy in the Pacific Theater and Stewart flying bombing missions over Europe for the Army Air Corp. The two were wildly different in many ways. Stewart married once at the age of 41 and remained married until his wife's death, Fonda married five times. Fonda was liberal politically while Stewart was very conservative. Stewart had a loving and involved relationship with his twin daughters and stepsons but Fonda's relationship with his children was a prickly one at best. That these two men stayed so close, even during the times they didn't see each other for months or even years is fascinating. Eyman used archival material and interviews with the Fonda and Stewart families and friends to flesh out the story of these two different men who were both legendary actors and devoted friends.

Easy Street (The Hard Way)

Easy Street (The Hard Way): A Memoir by Ron Perlman   pp. 297

 I've been a fan of actor, Ron Perlman, for years. After reading/listening to this book, I like him even more. I am very impressed with how well educated and articulate he is as well as his classical training as an actor. The audio book is read by the author who along with his acting, has had a strong background in voice over work for cartoons, and as a narrator of other audio books. Perlman tells it like it is, or was, and openly describes his successes, failures, challenges, and his disappointments. In spite of fighting hard against it, he has tried hard to avoid being type cast but, because of his size and unique appearance, has ended up known mostly for parts involving many hours in the makeup chair to become characters in "Beauty and the Beast", "Hellboy", "Conan the Barbarian", "The Island of Dr. Moreau", "The Name of the Rose", and others. In this book, Perlman relates more than just his career. He speaks very proudly of his family and fondly of the friends he has made during his career, including Sammy Davis, Jr. and Frank Sinatra. (Sinatra was a big fan of "Beauty and the Beast". Who knew?) I am impressed by this book and the man.

Maggie Smith: A Biography

Maggie Smith: A Biography by Michael Coveney   353 pp.

Multiple award winning actress, Maggie Smith, has had a varied and extremely successful career on stage and both the big and small screens. Lately she as had a popular resurgence as Violet Crowley in "Downton Abbey," Muriel in "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," and the intrepid Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter movies. Ms. Smith is an extremely private person so most of this book consists of a litany of her performances and reviews of those performances with only her major personal life events included. There are also anecdotes about her stealing scenes and butting heads with performers like Richard Burton and Lawrence Olivier, who really disliked her. Coveney wrote the original version of this biography several years ago. This edition is an update of that volume. I think the best part of the whole book is the epilogue where the author describes a meeting he had with Dame Maggie. I have been a fan of Maggie Smith for years and found this book disappointing.

Yes, My Accent is Real

Yes, My Accent is Real: and some other things I haven't told you by Kunal Nayyar  245 pp.

Kunal Nayyar is best known as the character "Raj" on the television show "Big Bank Theory". In a series of anecdotes, Nayyar chronicles his life from his childhood in New Delhi, India through his college education in the U.S. (University of Portland and Temple University), early acting jobs, landing on "Big Bang" and his marriage to an Indian model. While many of the episodes are amusing, he also touches on more serious topics, and occasionally waxes philosophical. I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by the author.

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda  272 pp.

Actor Alan Alda, born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo, tells the story of his life from his days as a young boy traveling the vaudeville circuit with his parents. Yes, they did have the family dog, Rhapsody (named for his father Robert Alda's film "Rhapsody in Blue") stuffed with garish results. After surviving a string of bad tutors, Catholic School, Fordham University, and travels in Europe, Alan set his sights on writing and acting with mixed results. Until his acting career took off he worked a series of odd jobs including driving a cab and as a clown who appeared at business openings. When he was offered the role of Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H. his life and career changed forever. After that show ended he wrote, acted, and produced movies and became the host of the popular PBS show Scientific American Frontiers. Since then he has had recurring roles in a number of television shows. Alda tells his life story in a matter-of-fact style while being able to look at his past with humor. But he doesn't gloss over the hard parts: his mother's alcoholism and mental illness, his bout with polio and the painful treatments, counting pennies to pay the rent, and nearly dying of an obstructed bowel while on location in Chile. This isn't a scandalous tell all because Alda is not that kind of guy. His home is still in New Jersey where he raised three daughters with his wife of 58 years. He is now the grandfather of eight.

The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood

The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood by Diana McLellan  508 pp.

What could be a juicy, gossip-filled, romp through the bedrooms and sex lives of famous actresses from the age of silent films to the start of the gay rights movement is actually dry as toast. The women focused on include Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, and others with the main focus on Mercedes De Acosta, who seems to have had relationships with all of them and more. Supposedly the author used old FBI documents, private letters, and other sources to make her case for many of the goings on and the book reads like a dusty old file. The most interesting fact in the book is that Tallulah Bankhead's father was a Congressman and Speaker of the House. A disappointing read.

Dropped Names

Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them by Frank Langella  384 pp.

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir by Tony Award winning actor Frank Langella. This isn't a biography but a series of remembrances about the famous and infamous he has known as acquaintances friends, and lovers. Most of the "names" in the book are from show business but there are a few, such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Queen Mum who played large and small parts in his life. Langella has not written about any living celebrities but in his 50 year acting career his acquaintances were many and varied. This isn't a tell-all book but he doesn't shy away from admitting to romantic and/or sexual liaisons or to discussing bad behavior of himself and others. I just wish he hadn't said Cary Grant was boring in person (Say it isn't so, Frank!).

Better Nate Than Ever

Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle, 288 pages
A 2014 Stonewall Honor Book in Children's and Young Adult Literature
2014 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults

Middle schooler Nate Foster has a dream to some day star in a Broadway show. So when his best friend, Libby, sees on Facebook that auditions are taking place for E.T.: The Musical, she and Nate hatch a plan for him to sneak away from his home in Jankburg, Pennsylvania and head to New York so that he can try out. Taking advantage of his parents going out of town and leaving his brother in charge of him (and more than happy to let Nate spend the night at Libby's), Nate is supposed to be in and out of New York by the early afternoon, but naturally, things don't run as smoothly as he plans. Between the arrival of his aunt Heidi, who his mother hasn't spoken to in years after a major falling out, and surprise callbacks, Nate is determined to do anything if it means stardom and a chance to tread the boards. And maybe, just maybe, he'll find himself along the way.

This is one of those books that kind of just rolls along, throwing a new mishap or obstacle in the way at every turn. In some cases, a story like this can strain belief, but Nate is such a likable character, that it's easy to suspend your disbelief and just roll along with him. Tim Federle does a great job making Nate seem real enough and drama-kid-crazy enough that all of this seems plausible (and if you've spent any time at all around theatre types, it'll definitely seem real). And even though Nate's immediate focus is on auditioning and getting the part, he's also hoping that all of this will catapult him into a bigger and better self. New York is basically one big It Gets Better video, a place where you can be you, and nobody cares, unlike Jankburg, where simply liking musicals is enough to get you shoved into lockers and picked last in gym class. Better Nate Than Ever is a charming, easy-going book, with a good dose of humor, even when dealing with a few serious issues.

(Read as part of YALSA's Hub Reading Challenge.)

Wendy and the Lost Boys

Wendy and the Lost Boys by Julie Salamon  460 pp.

While this book may sound like a Peter Pan sequel, it is subtitled "The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein." Wasserstein was a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (for "The Heidi Chronicles") and the first woman to win a solo Tony Award for a writing the same play. She was also named after Wendy in Peter Pan by her oldest sister. This book chronicles her life from her childhood in Brooklyn through her death of lymphoma at the age of 55. She was an uncommon talent but constantly dealt with the demon of not being "good enough." Her mother, Lola, was an important presence in her life and the main source of Wendy's insecurities. Her siblings were highly successful in their chosen fields, due in part to Lola's prodding. But Wendy was never pretty enough, thin enough, stylish enough, never married a nice lawyer or businessman, and, in spite of her talent and success, didn't meet Lola's expectations and therefore her own. Wendy was also haunted by the fact that she had a brother she didn't know about until adulthood. Her brother Abner (one of the "lost boys" of the title) was institutionalized before she was born and essentially treated as a non-entity by the family. Wasserstein had a string of relationships that never resulted in marriage. Her chosen family were her friends in the theater world but she remained close to her blood family. She gave birth to a daughter, Lucy Jane, at the age of 48 but never revealed the name of the baby's father. Wasserstein's career included writing for the stage, screen, and television (even Sesame Street), as well as novels and books of essays.

Drama

Drama: An Actor's Education by John Lithgow  320 pp.

John Lithgow's acting life began at age two in a production of the theater run by his father, Arthur Lithgow. In this memoir John Lithgow chronicles growing up in the uncertain life of a theater family. The family moved around a lot as his father took on jobs as artistic director at colleges and small theaters around the east and midwest. The junior Lithgow had no intention of a career on the stage, planning instead to be an artist. But acting in plays at Harvard hooked him in and he went on to study in London and work his way up through summer stock and small theater companies before becoming a favorite on the Broadway stage, ultimately winning Tonys, Emmys, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, and other awards along with Oscar nominations.. Lithgow recounts his successes and failures, foibles and strengths without conceit. In fact it seems he writes more of his mistakes than his accomplishments. A large part of the book is an homage to his father and an acknowledgment that he is indebted to the theater education he received often through osmosis. The book mainly focuses on Lithgow's stage acting although there are brief mentions of some of the films he was in as well as the t.v. show "Third Rock from the Sun."  I wish there had been more about his motion picture work and less about his affair with Liv Ullmann and the resulting break-up of his marriage.

Life Is Not a Stage

Life is Not a Stage by Florence Henderson  264 pp.

Okay, I'm going to admit it right off the bat: you can call me un-American, but I am not a fan of "The Brady Bunch." That being said, I do respect Florence Henderson and her talents. This book is her autobiography, beginning in a large, poor farm family and taking the gutsy step of heading to New York to tackle Broadway while just a teen-ager. Her singing talent got her noticed by Rodgers and Hammerstein, which led to an amazing career spanning 60 years. Through it all she raised four children (son Robert is a great guy and a good friend to the library Children's Dept.), suffered from postpartum depression, hearing loss, divorce, heart problems, and a disastrous one night stand with NY Mayor John Lindsay (who gave her crabs). Henderson gives an honest account of her life, warts and all, and waxes philosophical on life, death, and her career. She also sets the record straight on her supposed "affair" with Barry Williams (Greg Brady). I listened to the audiobook version which is read by Henderson and includes a 17 page pdf of photos that were included in the print version.