WSS and Arthur Laurents on CBS

[Bo Derek]

Posted: 3/23/09 at 11:58am

The interview with Arthur Laurents is on YouTube now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z43jBcjfbQs

[Clara Petacci]

Posted: 3/23/09 at 7:47pm

Wow, Arthur's diss on Katharine Hepburn is really bitchy!

[Marquise]

Posted: 3/23/09 at 8:00pm

How is it really bitchy. All he said was that she didn't have sense of humor.

I tend to agree with a lot of what he said including the fact that some people waste too much time being vague or evasive instead of getting to the point.

So what he felt that she didn't have a sense of humor. That's simply his opinion of her based on his experiences with her.

[Clara Petacci]

Posted: 3/23/09 at 8:18pm

Yeah, I guess it's not that bitchy. But it IS really funny.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/23/09 at 8:27pm

While I don't care for the man at all, honestly, he yanks on my heartstrings whenever he brings up his late husband.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/23/09 at 9:24pm

Was he hitting on MO?

I feel his BF was someone he liked having on his arm,
but not much more, from how he talks about him.
And Laurents already has two versions of how he came up with the Spanish thing. In one story Tom tells him about seeing the production in Spanish and in another Tom is a ghost who comes back to relay the message.
One thing I will give him props for is living what seems to be his adult life out of the closet, even when it was not proper.
All three of the other creators had difficulty with their sexuality, but he seems to never had.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/23/09 at 10:10pm

Honestly, having seen the two of them together a few times briefly, I believe their love was real. Arthur stood by Tom's recovery from alcoholism and supported Tom's then-crazy-seeming idea to subdivide their property in Quogue (which Arthur bought with his share of the film sale of West Side Story) and build and sell vacation homes. Arthur was very proud that Tom made "millions" in real estate.

I'm sure Tom DID make a deathbed request that Arthur forgive Patti and direct her in Gypsy on Broadway. And I'm glad he did.

That said, I think Arthur is completely manufacturing the story about Tom and the Bogota production of West Side, because he's found out that he gets sympathetic press whenever he mentions his dead lover.

It's the kind of cheap sentimental trick that an Arthur Laurents character would think of--and get away with.

There, as Arthur lies to say, you have it. Hard as it is to take, it's the truth, so accept it and move on.

Posted: 3/23/09 at 10:49pm

I agree, I have no doubt his love for Tom was genuine (at least as genuine as it can be for Laurents ).

OK to the right of me in the "click to watch Broadwayworld TV" block I see that there's a talk with Arthur Laurnets that says The Man Behind West Side Story. I know he was there from the start but wasn't Robbins much more the instigator of the project...? I guess One of the men behind WSS doesn't have that ring to it...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/23/09 at 11:01pm

History belongs to he who dies last?

[lull89]

Posted: 3/23/09 at 11:10pm

I think the "Man Behind" refers to this current production, which I believe we can all agree he is behind moreso than the other contributors, no matter who had the larger impact in previous productions.

Posted: 3/24/09 at 12:44am

"History belongs to he who dies last?"

So in 5 years we'll get Stephen Sondheim: The Man Behind WSS? (Nah I knwo that wouldn't happen, cuz Sondheim's never pretended to have or wanted to have the credit anyway...)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/24/09 at 8:12am

Although, if he ever let go of what he's been holding down inside of him, there wouldn't be signs big enough...there wouldn't be signs bright enough...