About the Book
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."
Review :
Praise for Somewhere
"Jerome Robbins is the great subject of American theatrical biography--self-contradictory, self-hating, arrogant and terrified and gifted almost beyond compare--and Amanda Vaill has done him justice. I can't think of a better full-length portrait of an American choreographer or director, and I can't imagine a better book about Robbins ever being written."
--Terry Teachout, drama critic, "The Wall Street Journal" "Amanda Vaill has written an epic biography-remarkable in scope and meticulous in detail. She explores the energizing worlds of Broadway, the ballet and Hollywood from the 1940s through 2OOO and she paints a vivid picture of the mercurial Jerome Robbins, master choreographer and director of such legendary musicals as "West Side Story" and "Fiddler On the Roof," Vaill is especially insightful about Robbins's frenetic private life--he loved both men and women with equal passion; how he juggled his dozens of relationships while creating masterpiece after masterpiece in theatre and ballet is just part of this amazing story."
--Patricia Bosworth, author of "Montgomery Clift "and" Diane Arbus: A Biography,"
"Exactly ten degrees north of terrific' was the verdict on Jerome Robbins's first ballet, and the description holds as well for this masterful, culturally astute biography. Amanda Vaill brings Robbins and the dance equally and irresistibly to life on the page. A sheer delight."
--Stacy Schiff, author of "Vera: Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov" and "A Great Improvisation"
"As she did in her biography of Gerald and Sara Murphy ("Everybody Was So Young," 1998), the author takes what seems like a shopworn subject and refreshes it with her discerningeye... All the Robbins biographies have their merits, but this empathetic and accessible take is the one most likely to appeal to general readers."
--"Kirkus Reviews" (starred)
"A critically sophisticated biography that's as compulsively readable as a novel."
--"Publishers Weekly" (starred)
Praise for Somewhere
" Jerome Robbins is the great subject of American theatrical biography-- self-contradictory, self-hating, arrogant and terrified and gifted almost beyond compare-- and Amanda Vaill has done him justice. I can't think of a better full-length portrait of an American choreographer or director, and I can't imagine a better book about Robbins ever being written."
-- Terry Teachout, drama critic, "The Wall Street Journal" " Amanda Vaill has written an epic biography-remarkable in scope and meticulous in detail. She explores the energizing worlds of Broadway, the ballet and Hollywood from the 1940s through 2OOO and she paints a vivid picture of the mercurial Jerome Robbins, master choreographer and director of such legendary musicals as "West Side Story" and "Fiddler On the Roof," Vaill is especially insightful about Robbins's frenetic private life-- he loved both men and women with equal passion; how he juggled his dozens of relationships while creating masterpiece after masterpiece in theatre and ballet is just part of this amazing story."
-- Patricia Bosworth, author of "Montgomery Clift "and" Diane Arbus: A Biography,"
" Exactly ten degrees north of terrific' was the verdict on Jerome Robbins's first ballet, and the description holds as well for this masterful, culturally astute biography. Amanda Vaill brings Robbins and the dance equally and irresistibly to life on the page. A sheer delight."
-- Stacy Schiff, author of "Ve ra: Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov" and "A Great Improvisation"
" As she did in her biography of Gerald and Sara Murphy ("Everybody Was So Young," 1998), theauthor takes what seems like a shopworn subject and refreshes it with her discerning eye... All the Robbins biographies have their merits, but this empathetic and accessible take is the one most likely to appeal to general readers."
-- "Kirkus Reviews" (starred)
" A critically sophisticated biography that's as compulsively readable as a novel."
-- "Publishers Weekly" (starred)
Praise for "Somewhere"
"Jerome Robbins is "the" great subject of American theatrical biography--self-contradictory, self-hating, arrogant and terrified and gifted almost beyond compare--and Amanda Vaill has done him justice. I can't think of a better full-length portrait of an American choreographer or director, and I can't imagine a better book about Robbins ever being written."
--Terry Teachout, drama critic, "The Wall Street Journal"
