Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life [Hardcover]

Donna McKechnie (Author), Greg Lawrence (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 29, 2006

A poignant and revealing memoir from a legendary entertainer.

Donna McKechnie began her love affair with dance as a child in Detroit. At fifteen, she ran away from home to join a touring dance troupe, and in 1961, she was cast in the Broadway smash hit How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. She soon won acclaim as Michael Bennett's show-stopping muse in Promises, Promises and Company. In 1975, with her Tony-winning performance in Michael Bennett's masterpiece, A Chorus Line, McKechnie vaulted to stardom as a unique Broadway "triple threat" who could do it all -- dance, sing, and act.

Moving among the circles of artists, dancers, and musicians who inspired and challenged her in myriad ways, McKechnie writes about the trajectory of her career as it intertwined with and influenced her personal life and the lives of those around her. Recounting her dazzling career, McKechnie also reveals the dark side of fame: from her parents' troubled relationship to a searing account of her own marriage to Michael Bennett and her inspiring triumphs over depression and the rheumatoid arthritis that nearly ended her career. With affectionate reminiscences of Bob Fosse, Gwen Verdon, Stephen Sondheim, Fred Astaire, and many other well-known friends, McKechnie exhibits all the warmth, sensitivity, and verve that have endeared her to legions of fans over the years.

Filled with behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes, Time Steps is a candid, funny, and deeply personal memoir by a vivacious woman with an indomitable spirit and an illustrious, ongoing career.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1975, singer-dancer-choreographer McKechnie was one of the brightest lights on the Great White Way, winning a Tony for her performance in A Chorus Line, and now theatergoers will be elated to see her autobiography shelved in stores only days before A Chorus Line's October Broadway revival. McKechnie's memories of the original musical's creative genesis serve as the centerpiece, and the other chapters are equally compelling. Her story is one of fierce drive and determination. Leaving Detroit at 16, she ran away from home to dance with a touring troupe, arriving in Manhattan at 17. Following a failed audition with American Ballet Theatre, she performed in Massachusetts musicals, filmed commercials and toured in West Side Story, leaping from the long-run Broadway hit How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 1961 to TV (Hullabaloo; Dark Shadows). By the time Stephen Sondheim's Company brought her back to Broadway in 1970, her career was a cakewalk, but the aftermath of a divorce from choreographer Michael Bennett led to a "vicious circle of depression." McKechnie writes honestly, revealing her innermost thoughts, looking back at family, close friends and intimate relationships, while probing her anxieties, low self-esteem and personal pain between the plaudits, raves and theatrical triumphs. 16-page photo insert not seen by PW. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

McKechnie won a 1976 Tony Award for her smart, sensitive portrayal in the innovative, ensemble-written musical A Chorus Line of Cassie, a character based largely on herself. She brings similar sensitivity and openness to her autobiography, written with eminent theatrical biographer Lawrence (Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins, 2001). Not quite a tell-all, McKechnie's memoir reviews with remarkable candor the many highs and lows of a long, varied career: unhappy childhood, entry into show business (she was in a touring production before graduating high school), early Broadway success (in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying; Promises, Promises; and Company), two unhappy marriages, post-Tony career setbacks and comebacks, and myriad battles to overcome arthritis and depression. Her account of the making of Chorus Line, from early group-therapy-like workshops to the final touches for Broadway, is especially fascinating. That that career high was followed by a series of life-disrupting reversals, including a disaster of a marriage to Chorus Line director Michael Bennet, makes her story all the more riveting. Jack Helbig
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition. edition (August 29, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743255208
• ISBN-13: 978-0743255202
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,092,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ALL SHE EVER NEEDED WAS THE MUSIC, September 13, 2006

By 

Alan W. Petrucelli (THE ENTERTAINMENT REPORT (ALAN W. PETRUCELLI)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life (Hardcover)

All she's ever needed was the music and the mirror and the chance to dance for you . . . Musical theatre fans will always recognize the last lines of the 11 o'clock number from A Chorus Line. The show, returning to Broadway this month in it's first revival since it closed there after 6,137 performances in 1990, starred Donna McKechnie. In her autobio, co-authored by Greg Lawrence, who wrote Dancing with Demons, the definitive bio of Jerome Robbins, there is much to like. The book, however, is not without a few jarringly uncomfortable moments.
McKechnie discusses in painful detail her brief marriage to genius director-choreographer wunderkind Michael Bennett. Bennett was gay, and was self-centered in a way mere mortals can only think about. Words like `manipulative,' `duplicitous,' `greedy,' `ambitious,' not to say `cruel,' `evil,' `mean' and `without conscience' litter remembrances of Bennett. McKechnie explains she married him, thinking, in a musical comedy ingénue kind of way, that he would change--she had known him a long time before they married, having done three Broadway hits with him, but then tells the reader entirely too much about this horrible, painful and demeaning relationship.
She recounts her battle with crippling arthritis in vivid and moving terms. Imagine being one of the most celebrated dancers in the world, then being told that not only would you never dance again, but very possibly that you'd not be able to even walk within a year. Her triumph in this battle, using traditional and holistic medicine, faith and unfailing determination, is the high point in the book. The authors try to cram as many names in as few pages as possible, and sections read like a theatre program of professionals from the last 50 years. However, in the end, it becomes a sweet, lovely show-biz bio with a measure of style, wit and grace. The satisfaction and pride McKechnie has achieved in her life and career is evident throughout the book. It's interesting that McKechnie has played, in revivals, all three female leads in Follies; her autobiography keenly illustrates that, like Carlotta, Lord knows she was there, and she's still here.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't put it down., August 24, 2006

By 

Kathleen A. Baxter (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful read. Broadway and musical fans will be thrilled to hear the insider stories, but also saddened that a woman as talented and driven as Donna McKechnie never became a household name. Unflinchingly honest, almost painful at times. I practically inhaled the book and I recommend it highly.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Life of a Professional, November 25, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life (Hardcover)

Broadway stars don't get the recognition that movie stars get, but so far as Broadway stars go, Donna McKechnie is pretty well up there. After all, winning a Tony goes a long way to separate the stars from the wanna be's.

In Broadway acting there's a balance between the capabilities of the star and the play that doesn't seem to be as strong as it is in movies. Every Broadway actor has a series of talents in some combination of singing, dancing and acting. The key to success is for that actor to find a position in a play that exactly matches the mix of these talents. For Ms McKechnie that came together in 'A Chorus Line.'

This book has a lot about 'A Chorus Line.' But it's from a personal side. How do you take the talents you have, get them in front of the people making the decision about who to hire and get the job. Then what do you do afterward. How do you handle the problems that life brings you. And why does it seem that those who rise to great heights offten have problems more severe than the rest of us, try to imagine what rheumatoid arthritis does to a professional dancer. After a lifetime of working to be a dancer, to be told you will will never dance again, indeed may not be able to walk.

As has been said before, actors don't do acting because they want to, they do it because they have to. Ms. McKechnie probably has to do walk this line, but she's also doing exactly what she wants to do.