SLINGS AND ARROWS: Theater in My Life

by Robert Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 1984

Casual, frequently amusing, loosely informative, largely uninvolving: the memoirs of protean theater veteran ""Bobby"" Lewis--who has had equally distinguished careers as a stage-director and a teacher/guru of un-faddish acting techniques. Moving quickly away from his post-WW I Brooklyn childhood, the young Lewis--opera-struck, then stage-struck--first worked with a traveling marionette company, then did bit roles for Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Rep, learning from Jacob Ben-Ami that great actors could ""be theatrical without losing their sense of inner truth."" Then came the Group Theatre decade (1931-41), with more acting, full admiration for Harold Clurman, much less for Lee Strasberg, and support for Stella Adler--whose report from Russia ""let some fresh air into the fetid atmosphere in America surrounding the theories of Stanislavsky."" As a fledgling director, then, with Saroyan's My Heart's in the Highlands, Lewis tried--as he would in all his work--to combine the best of the Method approach (truthfulness) with lyricism, theatricality, and style, the ""fusion of the inside and the outside that was the hallmark of Michael Chekhov's acting."" Later jobs didn't have the ""pure"" quality of that Saroyan debut, however: the Theater Guild junked his work; opera actors declined to take direction; Alan Jay Lerner offered Dr. Feelgood shots instead of much-needed rewrites during an On a Clear Day crisis. (Favorite collaborators: Agnes de Mille, Virgil Thomson.) After some Hollywood acting stints (high, eloquent praise for Fred Astaire), Lewis became a founder of the Actors Studio--but quit when Elia Kazan (a hypocrite about their shared distaste for Strasberg) behaved in an underhanded way: ""damn it, the lack of ethics I've continually encountered in the theater world must, in the end, be faced up to. . . ."" And, while continuing his B'way labors (a few hits, many flops), Lewis concentrated more on teaching and lecturing--his ""Method or Madness"" talks, his work at Yale (with mixed reviews for Robert Brustein), his regional-theater activity. This autobiography lacks the shape, polish, and/or personal drama of the best theater memoirs. But, when not going overboard (shrill diatribes against critics), Lewis is a fine raconteur, a solid source of cameo-sketches (from Libby Holman to Bert Lahr), and a lucid spokesman for his eclectic approach to modern acting.

Pub Date: May 21, 1984

ISBN: 1557832447

Page Count: -

Publisher: Stein & Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1984

Categories: NONFICTION