As a playwright screenwriter and director Arthur Laurents has a unique place in the history of theater. In this moving exhilarating and provocative account he presents readers with a front-row look at the making of two of the greatest musicals of the American stage EWest Side StoryE and EGypsyE. He writes in rich detail about his new bilingual production of EWest Side StoryE along with his most recent production of EGypsyE how it began as an act of love and how that love spread through the entire company and resulted in a EGypsyE unlike any other.THLaurents offers behind-the-scenes details about the musicals he directed including EI Can Get It for You WholesaleE its producer David Merrick (the Abominable Showman ) and its (very young) stars Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould. He dishes on Stephen Sondheim's EAnyone Can WhistleE which starred Angela Lansbury and Lee Remick marking the debut for each in musical theater. And he recounts the challenges and surprises that came with the making of ELa Cage aux FollesE the first big Broadway musical that was gay and glad to be.THThroughout the book is enriched by Laurents's two loves a his love for the theater and his love for his partner of fifty-two years Tom Hatcher who shared and inspired every aspect of his life and his work. EMainly on DirectingE presents an unforgettable portrait of an artist working with other artists a unique close-up look at today's American musical theater by a man who's been at its red-hot center for more than five decades.