An entertaining peek behind the curtain at 60 years in the theater.
Writings by and about one of the 20th century’s most recognizable playwrights.
Anyone who saw 2-year-old Noël Coward (1899-1973) being “forcibly removed from church for spontaneously dancing in the aisle to accompany the hymn being played” would not have been surprised by his eventual success as an actor, a playwright of light comedies such as Private Lives and Blithe Spirit, and a songwriter of innumerable witty classics. He never completed a book about the theater, but Day, who has edited previous works about Coward, has done it for him by compiling his “published writings, interviews, plays, stories, verse, lyrics and other people’s reminiscences.” The result is an illuminating collection of anecdotes, encomiums, and gripes about actors such as Gertrude Lawrence, who, when they were 14, “gave me an orange and told me a few mildly dirty stories, and I loved her from then onwards”; fellow playwrights such as “My colleague Will” Shakespeare, Somerset Maugham, and Arthur Miller, whose Death of a Salesman was “boring and embarrassing”; and more. Coward could be rigid in his beliefs. He proclaimed “intolerance of what I call pretentiousness in the Theatre” and maintained the theatre “is primarily intended for entertainment,” an opinion that might intrigue those who feel entertainment is big enough to include Coward’s frothy comedies as well as grittier fare. Day sometimes forgets to orient readers. He notes that a Mrs. Astley-Cooper “was to prove something of a thread through [Coward’s] early years” but doesn’t say who she was. Theater fans, however, will savor this portrait of a confident artist (“I am probably the best comedian alive”) whose wit wasn’t confined to the stage. When a waiter rushed a fork to him at a cocktail party as Coward struggled to balance his drink and canapés, a fellow guest said, “How come YOU get a fork?” Coward’s droll reply: “Well, I did write Cavalcade, you know.”
An entertaining peek behind the curtain at 60 years in the theater. (Appendix, acknowledgments, index.)Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-525-65795-8
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
