Barbra Streisand: "The Way We Were"

Each week, I try to cover a book about adults, for adults, so today I'll look at "The Way They Were." This is a new history of the early career of Barbra Streisand; it's by a gay man, and it's about gay men (Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, Tom Hatcher).

Here's what I didn't know:

*Arthur Laurents directed "I Can Get It for You Wholesale," the show that first publicized Barbra's name. Laurents had stumbled in his career, after "Gypsy" and "West Side Story," but he wasn't finished.

*One problem Laurents had is that he'd written a script that was widely regarded as the greatest book for a musical--full-stop. (That's "Gypsy"; the distinction survives, to this day.) Once you win this title, where do you go, if you're still in the world of Broadway?

*Laurents did have a remaining trick up his sleeve: He turned his gay romance into a screenplay, "The Way We Were." He didn't acknowledge that he was really writing about himself. (I think this acknowledgment finally arrived when he was on his deathbed--or in the vicinity of that deathbed.) In "The Way We Were," the heroine believes that her looks aren't enough, and the hero believes that his looks are all he has. This was the story of Arthur Laurents and Tom Hatcher; the two were together for something like fifty years.

*Sondheim was of course professionally entangled with Arthur Laurents, again and again. What I hadn't known was that Sondheim once tried to write "Funny Girl." He dropped out--but, first, he had advice for the creative team. "You must find an actress who is Jewish." This would seem to be common sense--but certain power brokers had doubts about Barbra Streisand. Some people wanted to give the Fanny role to Mary Martin!

The author is Robert Hofler; I think I'll have more to say about him. Happy weekend!

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