Diary of a Mad Playwright : Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin & Carol Channing [Hardcover]

James Kirkwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 1989

Kirkwood, the co-writer of the book of the great musical A Chorus Line, also wrote the stage play Legends, for which Carol Channing and Mary Martin embarked on a nationwide, bound-for-Broadway tour. This book chronicles the slow disintigration of the whole project, thanks to bickering divas, greedy producers, hostile reviewers, and general chaos. Kirkwood's fine eye for detail and general good humor keep this book lighhearted and funny, even as sadness lingers in the wings. A wonderful book for anyone who loves the theatre.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this wild, humorous tale of the theater world, novelist and playwright Kirkwood ( A Chorus Line ) self-indulgently describes his three-year-long roller-coaster attempt to present his play, Legends! Here are vivid accounts of how Kirkwood found, lost and found again financiers, producers, directors, managers, a cast and supporting crew. Although much of the book's zany action centers on the two feuding actresses--Carol Channing and Mary Martin--who played the major roles of two feuding actresses, other gossipy, dialogue-filled sections depict the oddities of opening night and the boffo 32-city tour in 1986-1987 of a play that never got to New York and didn't fully pay back its investors. The book, following Kirkwood's recent untimely death, is replete with the myriad controversies, jealousies and frustrations associated with the theater. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Kirkwood, co-author of A Chorus Line, has written a tour de force in this account of the struggle to get his play Legends on the stage. For the roles of two aging movie star rivals, Kirkwood succeeded in getting two Broadway legends, Mary Martin and Carol Channing. From then on, everything that could go wrong did, beginning with the fact that Martin was no longer able to memorize dialogue. Kirkwood is candid about himself as well as everyone else in this cathartic tale of juggling strong star personalities, an inept director, and a neophyte producer. Despite the problems, Legends had a successful year-long tour in 1986, but did not go to Broadway. This irreverent memoir, showing the inner workings of the theater business, appears almost libelous and is thoroughly entertaining.
- Marcia L. Perry, Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, Mass.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: E. P. Dutton; 1st edition (September 29, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525247610
• ISBN-13: 978-0525247616
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,660,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for theatre buffs, December 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Diary of a Mad Playwright : Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin & Carol Channing (Hardcover)

Hilarious yet often sad true tale of the author's incredibly frustrating run of his stage play Legends, starring two honest-to-goodness stage divas Carol Channing and Mary Martin, who in real life gave their stage characters more than a run for their money. Greedy producers, bickering stars, hostile reviewers, backstage manipulations, it's all here, presented in good humor by Kirkwood, a vastly unsung writer, unfortunately long since deceased. This was his final book. A good read in itself, and sure to provoke laughter and empathy from anyone who has been involved in theatre.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Book On The Theater..., August 17, 2005

By 

Edwin Graf Diemer (Red Bank, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Diary of a Mad Playwright: Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin and Carol Channing (Applause Books) (Paperback)

Suppose you are a playwright who co-authored a little something called "A Chorus Line"? And just suppose you managed to sign theatrical legends Mary Martin and Carol Channing for your latest play, appropriately called "Legends!"? What could possibly go wrong? Grab this book, and boy, will you find out! For example, Mary Martin could no longer remember lines, so she was fitted with a small radio headset so she could be "fed" her lines. But seemingly every taxi driver in the city was on the same frequency... Hilarious, tragic-a true classic, right up there with "Act One" by Moss Hart.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars To Hell and Back with Mary Martin, Carol Channing, & Company, January 24, 2010

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diary of a Mad Playwright: Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin and Carol Channing (Applause Books) (Paperback)

James Kirkwood (1924-1989) was born into a show business family: both parents were noted figures of the silent screen era. Father James Kirkwood Sr. was among D.W. Griffith's leading men, Mary Pickford's favorite directors, and had a long career as a memorable bit and character actor. Mother Lila Lee was a noted actress opposite such legendary players as Valentino and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle; she is perhaps best recalled for the role of Rosie O'Grady opposite Lon Chaney in his only talking film, the 1930 THE UNHOLY THREE. Kirkwood himself would become a performer as well, working primarily on stage but with occasional forays into television with appearances on such series as Valiant Lady, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Perry Mason--but his great claim to fame would be as a writer. His novels include the notable THERE MUST BE A PONY (later adapted as a television vehicle for Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Wagner) and P.S. YOUR CAT IS DEAD (which Kirkwood himself adapted to the stage and which was later filmed with Steve Guttenberg and Lombardo Boyer.) But Kirkwood's great claim to fame would be as co-author of the book for A CHORUS LINE, the innovative Broadway smash that ran over six thousand performances in its original New York production. The play would bring Kirkwood a Tony Award and the Pulitizer Prize for his work.

In the mid-1980s Kirkwood created a play titled LEGENDS!, a serio-comic study of two aging and long-feuding movie divas who find themselves forced to reunite in a film project in order to bolster their sagging careers, not to mention fast-draining bank accounts. Based on the notes he kept during the process of creation, casting, rehearsal, and touring, THE DIARY OF A MAD PLAYWRIGHT gives us the inside scoop from the author's point of view, and while it is often quite funny, the ultimate effect is a theatrical horror story complete with neurotic stars, frustrating featured playes, an incompetent director, an unhelpful producer, and a host of lesser wasps ranging from backstage assistants to hotel booking clerks. Kirkwood is shockingly frank, and perhaps the most amazing thing about the book is that not a single person mentioned in it sued him. This is particularly true of the two stars who signed onto the project, both of them legendary performers of the stage: Mary Martin and Carol Channing.

Mary Martin was at this time semi-retired in the wake of a serious car crash, but according to Kirkwood she was not only the first pick for one of the dueling divas, she was key everything from backing to play dates. Although warned that she was a prize they might do better not to win, Kirkwood and his associates not only got her, they got much more than they bargained for. Although noted for her cheerful stage presence, she proved to be one tough cookie, making--and getting--a host of demands that few companies would tolerate. Her demands also extended to the script, with Martin refusing to use profanities, casually tossing lines she didn't like, and demanding re-writes of others. Martin also had significant difficulty in learning her lines, and throughout the rehearsal and preview process frequently errupted in tears and threats to quit, something that after a time Kirkwood sincerely wished she would do.

While Martin tended to enforce her demands in a passive-aggressive manner by retiring to her dressing room, Channing was quite a different matter: she could and did nag, complain, and bitch to the point of major explosion over everything from the color of her gowns to the style of her wigs, and Martin's inability to learn the lines made her one of Channing's favorite targets. Channing, often backed by her husband, accused Martin of everything from senile dementia to rampant alcoholism, and most horrendously of all had the habit of prompting and correcting Martin's lines not only in rehearsal but in actual performances. Given Martin's difficulties, Channing also felt (and with some justification) that everyone from the writer to the director to the producer was babying Martin to her own expense, a circumstance that led to repeated blow outs.

The play limped through a number of performances in major metro areas with many of the early performances disasters that required Kirkwood to write, re-write, and do endless battle with the director and financial backers; it also endured considerable bad press and, while it usually played extremely well with audiences, received one deadly review after another. Even so, the play began to build a sense of excitement while on tour. Martin, at first required to use an "ear bug" through which a prompter fed her lines, ultimately nailed the script, audiences were enthusiastic, and momentum began to build toward a New York opening--when one of the backer's minons began to demand a series of re-writes that had the effect of outraging both actresses, Mary Martin in particular. Deeply offended, Martin informed the company that she would play out her contract but nothing more, something that would take her out of the production before any possible New York opening. Although she had battled with Martin, Channing also bonded with her; she refused to continue without Martin playing opposite her, rejecting the possible replacement of Anne Miller as co-star. And so the play, after endless sturm and drang, closed flat and that, as they say, was that.

It would be nice to say that Kirkwood tells tells this story with a light touch, but he does not: he is clearly furious with virtually everyone who had anything to do with the ill-fated production, and compares its failure to a remarkably successful version performed in South America to rave reviews and packed houses. All the same, Kirkwood does not actually damn his leading ladies, implying that they were all after major stage divas and that difficulties were part of the territory; he saves his purest vitriol for the director and most particularly for the backer and his minons, none of whom were experienced in the theatre but who nonetheless felt they knew better than all concerned. The book concludes on a chilling note: several men connected with the production died of AIDS either before or not long after the play closed. Kirkwood himself would die of AIDS in 1989.

Although this does not fall within the scope of Kirkwood's book, LEGENDS! has since become something of a legend in itself, not only as a by-word for the nightmares than can befall a playwright and his play, but as a vehicle that has attracted much interest from famous leading ladies without ever actually managing to break the Broadway stage. As recently as 2006 the play toured with Linda Evans and Joan Collins, playing a thirty-week tour--but again falling short of New York. Ironically, LEGENDS! did in fact reach New York in 2009, but only in a roundabout way, adapted by John Epperson (professionally known as Lypsinka) as a piece for female impersonators and receiving a single reading in New York as a charity fundraiser. So there may be life in LEGENDS! yet.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer