When the producer of The Painted Veil replaced Gardner with Eleanor Parker and asked Laurents to revise his script with her in mind, he backed out of the film, freeing him to devote all his time to the stage musical.

Laurents was asked to return and did so only after demanding and receiving an exorbitant amount of money.

The following year, Stark asked Laurents if he was interested in adapting the original film for a stage musical starring Kathie Lee Gifford.

By the time the project began to jell, however, Hammerstein had died, and Stephen Sondheim was asked by Laurents and Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers ' daughter, to write the lyrics.

Anyone Can Whistle is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Sondheim discovered that Laurents hated doing backers ' auditions and he took over that responsibility, playing and singing more than 30.

Eager to work with both Laurents and Sondheim, Angela Lansbury accepted the lead role as Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper, despite her strong misgivings about the script and her ability to handle the score.

Sondheim worked closely with book writer Arthur Laurents to create the show.

* Invitation to a March ( 1960 ) ( incidental music by Sondheim ; play by Arthur Laurents )

West Side Story is an American musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and conception and choreography by Jerome Robbins.

Laurents, however, was committed to Gabel, who introduced him to the young composer / lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

Sondheim did not care for Laurents ' opinion.

In New York, Laurents went to the opening night party for a new play by Ugo Betti, and there he met Sondheim, who had heard that East Side Story, now retitled West Side Story, was back on track.

With the help of Oscar Hammerstein, Laurents convinced Bernstein and Sondheim to move " One Hand, One Heart ", which he considered too pristine for the balcony scene, to the scene set in the bridal shop, and as a result " Tonight " was written to replace it.

Remick appeared in the 1964 Broadway musical Anyone Can Whistle, written by Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents, which ran for only a week.

Gypsy's memoir, titled Gypsy, was published in 1957 and was taken as inspirational material for the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents Broadway musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable.

** West Side Story – Book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Richard Rodgers, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Franco Zeffirelli was the first choice for director, and he met with Laurents, Sondheim, and Rodgers, who fell asleep during their discussion.

Laurents rued the casting-he felt Allen was too young and colorless and Franchi couldn't act-and ignored all the ongoing problems in favor of making his dream a reality, but most of all he regretted the break in his friendship with Sondheim after the show.

The show, with music by Leonard Bernstein, marked the first collaboration between Robbins and Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics, as well as Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book.

Robbins re-teamed with Sondheim and Laurents, and the music was by Jule Styne.

* West Side Story ( 6 October 1998-9 January 1999 ) by Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents

Howard Taubman in his New York Times review wrote that Laurents ' " book lacks the fantasy that would make the idea work, and his staging has not improved matters.

It later was reported she was negotiating with Daniel Mann instead, and Laurents would be adapting his play for the screen.

Laurents was not a fan of drag or camp entertainment and thought Holt and Brown never would find enough investors to finance a gay-themed project at a time when, during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, homophobia was more intense than ever.

Finally, just before opening night, Laurents directed him always to look into Hearn's eyes, whenever the two men were on stage, so the audience would sense the depth of the couple's feelings for each other.

Laurents felt that the building tension needed to be alleviated in order to increase the impact of the play's tragic outcome, so comic relief in the form of Officer Krupke was added to the second act.

Because of his own background, Laurents felt it was important for his heroine to be Jewish and share his outrage at injustice.

The director demanded the role of Hubbell be made equal to that of Katie, and throughout filming, for unexplained reasons, he kept Laurents away from Redford.

What was intended to be the final draft of the screenplay was written by Laurents and Pollack at Stark's condominium in Sun Valley, Idaho, and Laurents, dismayed to discover very little of his work remained when it was completed, left the project.

Both stars appeared to be playing themselves more often than their characters, and Streisand often used a grand accent that Laurents felt hurt her performance.

He enthusiastically contacted Laurents and the two discussed changes that could be made to improve the show.

The two characters and their former professor, played by Jimmy Stewart, were supposed to be homosexual, and Granger and Dall discussed the subtext of their scenes, but because The Hays Office was keeping close tabs on the project, the final script was so discreet that Laurents remained uncertain of whether Stewart ever realized that his own character was gay.

She was faced with an arduous task, given Rodgers open dismissal of Sondheim's lyrics as " shit " and eventually banned Laurents from rehearsals completely.

The show was first announced in The New York Times on October 5, 1961: " For the winter of 1962, Laurents is nurturing another musical project, The Natives Are Restless.

A meager description was furnished by Mr. Laurents, who refused to elaborate.

In a letter to Bloomgarden from Laurents, he wrote, " I beg you not to mention the money problems or any difficulties to Steve anymore.

" This behavior is considered unusual for Laurents, which runs contrary to his current reputation.

Laurents had wanted Barbra Streisand for the role of Fay, but she turned it down to star in Funny Girl.

Laurents, ignoring criticism about the show's message being trite and its absurdist style difficult to comprehend, poured his energies into restaging rather than dealing with the crux of the problem.

In 1949, Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents about collaborating on a contemporary musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

Eager to write his first musical, Laurents immediately agreed.

Bernstein wanted to present the material in operatic form, but Robbins and Laurents resisted the suggestion.

They described the project as " lyric theatre ", and Laurents wrote a first draft he called East Side Story.

In 1955, theatrical producer Martin Gabel was working on a stage adaptation of the James M. Cain novel Serenade, about an opera singer who comes to the realization he is homosexual, and he invited Laurents to write the book.

Laurents accepted and suggested Bernstein and Robbins join the creative team.

Laurents liked the lyrics but was not impressed with the music.

Laurents was soon hired to write the screenplay for a remake of the 1934 Greta Garbo film The Painted Veil for Ava Gardner.

Bernstein suggested they rework East Side Story and set it in Los Angeles, but Laurents felt he was more familiar with Puerto Ricans and Harlem than he was with Mexican Americans and Olvera Street.