Arthur Laurents

Arthur Laurents (1917-2011) was the author of musical plays such as West Side Story, Gypsy, Anyone Can Whistle, Do I Hear A Waltz?, Hallelujah Baby! (1967 Tony Award For Best Musical) and Nick & Nora; and the screenplays The Snake Pit, Rope, Caught, Anastasia, Bonjour Tristesse, The Way We Were, and The Turning Point (Golden Globe Award, Screenwriters Guild Award, Writers Guild of America Award, National Board of Review Best Picture Award). The last two screenplays were novels as well. His plays included Claudia Lazlo, Home Of The Brave, The Time Of The Cuckoo, A Clearing In The Woods, Invitation To The March, The Enclave, Scream, Two Lives, The Radical Mystique, My Good Name, and Jolson Sings Again.

Laurents also directed plays and musicals for the theatre, among them I Can Get It For You Wholesale, Invitation To A March, Anyone Can Whistle, The Enclave, The Madwoman Of Central Park West, Birds Of Paradise, three revivals of Gypsy (with Angela Lansbury in 1974, with Tyne Daly in 1989, with Patti LuPone in 2007), La Cage aux Folles (1984 Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical, 1985 Sydney Drama Critics Award for Directing) and the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story.

He wrote three memoirs: Original Story By Arthur Laurents: A Memoir Of Broadway And Hollywood; Mainly On Directing: Gypsy, West Side Story And Other Musicals; and The Rest Of The Story. He also wrote radio episodes for Hollywood Playhouse, Assignment Home (Variety Radio Award, 1945), The Thin Man, Army Service Force Presents, The Man Behind the Gun, and This is Your FBI.

Arthur Laurents has been honored by awards from many organizations, among them the National Institute of Arts and Letters, Writers Guild of America, Antoinette Perry (Tonys), Golden Globe, Drama Desk, National Board of Review and the Sydney Drama Critics. He was a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame, P.E.N., the Screenwriter's Guild, the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council of the Dramatist Guild.