Alan Jay Lerner: A Biography

In this bloodless biography, Jablonski chronicles the life and career of the noted lyricist and screenwriter Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986) from his earliest project, the 1938 Harvard Hasty Pudding Club production of So Proudly We Hail, to his last show, Dance A Little Closer, a dismal failure that closed after opening night in 1983. In between, there were numerous successes, including Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady and the movie Gigi, and many disappointments on Broadway as well as in life. Lerner, the son of the founder of the Lerner stores, was difficult to work with, partly because he was addicted to amphetamines and an incorrigible procrastinator, and also because he was constantly involved in divorce proceedings (he married eight times). Eventually, his most important collaborator, the composer Frederick Loewe, got fed up and retired. Lerner was then allied with a number of other composers, including Burton Lane, Andre Previn and Leonard Bernstein. Jablonski (George Gershwin) dutifully recounts the progress of each of Lerner's theatrical ventures but fails to shed much light on the talent behind some of America's greatest lyrics and screenplays. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)