Arthur Laurents Biography

is the author of the plays Home of the Brave, The Time of The Cuckoo, A Clearing in the Woods, Invitation to the March, The Enclave, Scream, and Jolson Sings Again; the musical plays West Side Story, Gypsy, Anyone Can Whistle, Do I Hear a Waltz?, Hallelujah, Baby! (1967 Tony Award for Best Musical), and Nick and Nora; and the screenplays The Snake Pit, Rope, Caught, Anastasia, Bonjour Tristesse, The Way We Were, and The Turning Point (Golden Globe Award, Screen Writers Guild Award, Writers Guild of America Award). He has directed for the theatre, including ICan Get It For You Wholesale, Invitation to a March, Anyone Can Whistle, The Enclave, The Madwoman of Central Park West, Birds of Paradise, two revivals of Gypsy, La Cage Aux Folles (1984 Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical, 1985 Sydney Drama Critics Award for Directing), and Nick and Nora. He has been honored by the National Institute of Arts and Letters, Writers Guild of America, Antoinette Perry (Tony) Awards, Golden Globe, Drama Desk, National Board of Review, and the Sydney Drama Critics. He is a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame, P.E.N., the Screenwriter’s Guild, the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is an emeritus member of the Council of the Dramatist Guild. His most recent plays include The Radical Mystique (1995) and My Good Name (1997).