Arthur Laurents, Playwright and Director on Broadway, Dies at 93

[tishaLA]

Source: NY Times

Arthur Laurents, the playwright, screenwriter and director who wrote and ultimately transformed two of Broadway’s landmark shows, “Gypsy” and “West Side Story,” and created one of Hollywood’s most well-known romances, “The Way We Were,” died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, said Scott Rudin, a producer of the most recent Broadway revival of “Gypsy.” <...>

A milestone was “West Side Story,” the 1957 musical for which Mr. Laurents’s book gave a contemporary spin to the tale of Romeo and Juliet. The Montagues and the Capulets, the families of the doomed young lovers, were now represented by the Jets and the Sharks, warring street gangs in Manhattan. <...>

With music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Mr. Sondheim, “Gypsy” is the story of the striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee as seen through the eyes of her domineering mother, Rose. The show, directed by Robbins and starring Ethel Merman as Rose, was a hit. (Mr. Laurents did not write the screenplay for the less-successful 1962 film version with Rosalind Russell.)

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/arts/arthur-laurents-playwright-and-director-dies-at-93.html

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RIP Mr Laurents. In addition to the works listed above, he was also the writer of Hitchcock's Rope and Anastasia, starring Ingrid Bergman. He was also one of the many members of the Hollywood community blacklisted in the early 50s because of his politics.

[niyad]

1. requiescat in pacem

[xchrom]

2. +1

[blm]

3. Mr. Laurents.........THANK YOU!

Bravo.

[Demeter]

4. They Were Giants

what have we got to succeed them? Don't ask.

[Iggo]

5. Nice run, Arthur!

:applause: