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- Everything you always wanted to know and more and more
- Broadway Equals Robbins
- Dance Review
- An Insightful Look at the Legendary Choreographer Soars Highest in Vaill's Professional Portrait
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Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins
Amanda Vaill
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0767904206
Release Date: 2006-11-21 |
Book Description
From the author of the acclaimed Everybody Was So Young, the definitive and major biography of the great choreographer and Broadway legend Jerome Robbins
To some, Jerome Robbins was a demanding perfectionist, a driven taskmaster, a theatrical visionary; to others, he was a loyal friend, a supportive mentor, a generous and entertaining companion and colleague. Born Jerome Rabinowitz in New York City in 1918, Jerome Robbins repudiated his Jewish roots along with his name only to reclaim them with his triumphant staging of Fiddler on the Roof. A self-proclaimed homosexual, he had romances or relationships with both men and women, some famous—like Montgomery Clift and Natalie Wood—some less so. A resolutely unpolitical man, he was forced to testify before Congress at the height of anti-Communist hysteria. A consummate entertainer, he could be paralyzed by shyness; nearly infallible professionally, he was conflicted, vulnerable, and torn by self-doubt. Guarded and adamantly private, he was an inveterate and painfully honest journal writer who confided his innermost thoughts and aspirations to a remarkable series of diaries and memoirs. With ballets like Dances at a Gathering, Afternoon of a Faun, and The Concert, he humanized neoclassical dance; with musicals like On the Town, Gypsy, and West Side Story, he changed the face of theater in America.
In the pages of this definitive biography, Amanda Vaill takes full measure of the complicated, contradictory genius who was Jerome Robbins. She re-creates his childhood as the only son of Russian Jewish immigrants; his apprenticeship as a dancer and Broadway chorus gypsy; his explosion into prominence at the age of twenty-five with the ballet Fancy Free and its Broadway incarnation, On the Town; and his years of creative dominance in both theater and dance. She brings to life his colleagues and friends—from Leonard Bernstein and George Balanchine to Robert Wilson and Robert Graves—and his loves and lovers. And she tells the full story behind some of Robbins’s most difficult episodes, such as his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee and his firing from the film version of West Side Story.
Drawing on thousands of pages of documents from Robbins’s personal and professional papers, to which she was granted unfettered access, as well as on other archives and hundreds of interviews, Somewhere is a riveting narrative of a life lived onstage, offstage, and backstage. It is also an accomplished work of criticism and social history that chronicles one man’s phenomenal career and places it squarely in the cultural ferment of a time when New York City was truly “a helluva town.”
Customer Reviews:
Everything you always wanted to know and more and more.......2007-06-12
I picked this book up out of curiousity. Jerome Robbins was legendary aong those who enjoyed Broadway musical theater. His best known acheivement was probably "West Side Story". In any event, I figured a bit of time spent learning about Robbins' life would be interesting.
Well, yes it was - and it was also a bit of a slog.
Amanda Vail has produced a hagiography of Robbins. Considering that Robbins never did anything really, really, really nasty, that is no sin. However, it is a reflection of Robbins' narcissism that Vail had such massive archives to draw from. 539 pages of biography, followed by just less than 100 pages of notes and bibliography. No one can accuse Vail of inadequate research.
The result is a mind-numbing recitation of what seems to be every day in the life of Jerome Robbins from birth to death. It isn't boring, but it won't be stimulating either unless you really, really are a Robbins fan who just can't get enough.
For me, the reward wasn't in learning far more than I wanted to know about Robbins' sex life, but about his contributions to the development of American dance. Robbins truly was a genius and while perhaps overly detailed, this is the kind of thorough biography Jerome Robbins deserves.
Jerry
Broadway Equals Robbins.......2007-03-14
If Jerome Robbins had only directed "West Side Story" that would have been enough to establish his legend on Broadway...if you read this wonderful biography by the very skillful Amanda Vaill you will discover that almost every production from the Golden Era of Broadway had the Robbins touch. Mr Robbin was also a member of the American Ballet Theatre and created many celebrated dance pieces. A complex individual, at times; a son of a bitch, he always got the best from his performers and his collaborators. West Side Story, High Button Shoes, Peter Pan, Gypsy, Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, The King and I, Fiddler=Robbins
Dance Review.......2007-02-17
My dance teacher raved about this book in class and so I had to buy it. I haven't read it all but it shows valuable insights into Mr. Robbins. Although he was a difficult person, he was a genius, as my dance teacher said, and so he was and he made dance so much bigger and better for us all.
An Insightful Look at the Legendary Choreographer Soars Highest in Vaill's Professional Portrait.......2007-01-03
The mercurial brilliance and personal shortcomings of choreographer extraordinaire Jerome Robbins are captured with equal amounts of compassion and objectivity in Amanda Vaill's comprehensive biography. His impressive resume represents some of the most arresting work in dance and theater - "On the Town", "High Button Shoes", "Call Me Madam", "Gypsy", "Wonderful Town", "Bells Are Ringing", "The King and I", "Peter Pan", "The Pajama Game", "Funny Girl", "Fiddler on the Roof", "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". Robbins' most famous work is the stage and screen versions of "West Side Story", his legendary collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein and then-prodigious lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Yet for all these accomplishments, he was reviled as much as he was revered. Stellar results notwithstanding, his vaunted perfectionism and Method-style approach were taxing to many, and it would often come under the guise of brutality and verbal abuse. Although Vaill's book is the third Robbins biography to be released in the last five years, hers reflects access to the subject's personal diaries before his death at age eighty in 1998, which lends the book a voice that one could easily imagine approximates Robbins' own.
The author dives deeply into Robbins' childhood to seek answers to his personal dichotomy, and she pieces together a vivid if somewhat pat portrait of self-loathing. Robbins' mother comes across as a vindictive woman who used her deep-rooted insecurity as a lightning rod for attention, while his father seems weak-willed and foolish. The combination of their personalities already reinforces Robbins' incurable sense of self-doubt due to his shame over being both Jewish and gay. His resulting bisexuality gave way to a string of lovers of both sexes, though his most intense and enduring relationships were with men including a two-year affair with a young Montgomery Clift. Ironically, he was able to translate these passions into some of the most beautiful male-female duets in musical theater. It is in Robbins' professional triumphs and failures where Vaill's book soars highest. She meticulously documents the process of creating his ballet works, in particular, 1944's "Fancy Free" (the basis for "On the Town") and 1969's "Dances at a Gathering", and how George Balanchine acted as both supportive mentor and demonic taskmaster. Obviously, Robbins applied Balanchine's split-personality approach to his own work when he drove performers, whether chorus dancers or ego-driven divas, to tears with his exacting demands.
In spite of his self-assurance in staging and choreographing specific scenes, he would remain steadfast in experimenting with endless versions of the same moment no matter how long it took to satisfy his vision. Feeding into the already rampant insecurities of his cast, Robbins would often have two or more people learn the same part and urge one to shadow the other as he did his solo. In rehearsing the Broadway version of "West Side Story", he would instigate gossip in order to raise the ire of the dancers playing the gang members. Such alienating, frequently self-serving techniques came at a price, for instance, he was fired from the film version of `West Side Story" in mid-production due to his insensitivity to the resulting budget overruns. The darkest moments of his life are almost a carbon copy of filmmaker Elia Kazan's, as they revolve around his guilt over his 1953 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee and the seven people he named who apparently recruited him for the Communist Party. Vaill is insightful enough not to judge Robbins for this infamous act, especially ironic given the value he placed on loyalty throughout his career. Her extensive portrait of Robbins should satisfy not only those fascinated by his legendary life and career but also those interested in knowing one of the most profound influences on musical theater and ballet in the second half of the 20th century.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Dance Magazine, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2007. The length of the article is 950 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The long way time: a new Jerome Robbins biography explores why happiness eluded him.("Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins")(Book review)
Author: Laura Jacobs
Publication:
Dance Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 81
Issue: 3
Page: 86(2)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Commentary, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2004. The length of the article is 3118 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Jerome Robbins in person.(Dance)(Somewhere: A Life of Jerome Robbins)(Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance)(Book Review)
Author: Terry Teachout
Publication:
Commentary (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 118
Issue: 3
Page: 76(4)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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