With access to the letters, journals, essays and unfinished memoir of Jerome Robbins (1918-98), biographer Amanda Vaill creates a compelling autobiography of the director and choreographer. Vaill (Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins; Hotel Florida) is skilled and savvy about arranging eight decades of Robbins's archival writings into a coherent and compelling chronology. She also offers succinct overviews at the beginning of each chapter, and her annotations at the bottom of each page clarify and enrich.
Robbins won five Tony Awards and two Academy Awards over his long career; his musical résumé is astonishing. Thanks to his positions as director, choreographer, producer and show doctor, there are fascinating behind-the-scenes tales about the creation of legendary Broadway musicals including On the Town, The King and I, Bette Davis's revue Two's Company (Robbins worked with ex-fiancé Nora Kaye and current lover Buzz Miller), The Pajama Game, Peter Pan, West Side Story, Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof and Funny Girl (hiring Barbra Streisand over the objections of producer Ray Stark). Of Streisand, Robbins notes, "When she sings she is as honest and frighteningly direct with her feelings as if one time she was, is, or will be in bed with you."
His letters and essays about creating dances and musicals with such greats as Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Ethel Merman, Rodgers and Hammerstein, George Balanchine and the New York City Ballet are breathtaking. The book also includes large chunks of Robbins's autobiographical drama The Papa Piece, which he wrote about testifying in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953--a decision that haunted him. This superbly assembled Jerome Robbins autobiography is nirvana for Broadway fans. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant