Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins

I'm just finishing this book and wanted to stay home from work just so I could continue to read it. I have loved Robbins' choreography since WSS (movie) came out when I was 8 years old. I was lucky to be living in NYC and got to see some of his ballets/dances. He lived an exciting life and yet lived under a cloud that he wasn't quite good enough, that someone would discover the truth (that he wsa just faking it) and call him out, feared being discovered that he was Jewish and, and at least for half of his life, feared he'd be labeled a homosexual. That's a lot of hiding and self-doubt. And yet, he created dances like no one else has. This book exposes all this, in a gentle, loving manner so you come to love this man, care about who he was behind the celebrity. It makes you wonder if all of his fears was the reason he drove himself (and everyone else) do relentlessly to excel. It makes you wonder if insecurity is what makes for a great dancer (many dancers seem to have a whole lot of self-doubt). It makes you wonder what he may have been like or may have achieved (or not achieved) had he grown up feeling loved and cherished by everyone, confident about his abilities, proud of his heritage, etc. It's sad to think that he went through life feeling that no one really loved and understood him. Many probably did but he couldn't see that. I am glad Robbins inhabited this world and gave us, for whatever reason, his heart and soul in his dances and directing and everything else.

I picked this book up out of curiousity. Jerome Robbins was legendary aong those who enjoyed Broadway musical theater. His best known acheivement was probably "West Side Story". In any event, I figured a bit of time spent learning about Robbins' life would be interesting. Well, yes it was - and it was also a bit of a slog. Amanda Vail has produced a hagiography of Robbins. Considering that Robbins never did anything really, really, really nasty, that is no sin. However, it is a reflection of Robbins' narcissism that Vail had such massive archives to draw from. 539 pages of biography, followed by just less than 100 pages of notes and bibliography. No one can accuse Vail of inadequate research. The result is a mind-numbing recitation of what seems to be every day in the life of Jerome Robbins from birth to death. It isn't boring, but it won't be stimulating either unless you really, really are a Robbins fan who just can't get enough. For me, the reward wasn't in learning far more than I wanted to know about Robbins' sex life, but about his contributions to the development of American dance. Robbins truly was a genius and while perhaps overly detailed, this is the kind of thorough biography Jerome Robbins deserves. Jerry

If Jerome Robbins had only directed "West Side Story" that would have been enough to establish his legend on Broadway...if you read this wonderful biography by the very skillful Amanda Vaill you will discover that almost every production from the Golden Era of Broadway had the Robbins touch. Mr Robbin was also a member of the American Ballet Theatre and created many celebrated dance pieces. A complex individual, at times; a son of a bitch, he always got the best from his performers and his collaborators. West Side Story, High Button Shoes, Peter Pan, Gypsy, Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, The King and I, Fiddler=Robbins

My dance teacher raved about this book in class and so I had to buy it. I haven't read it all but it shows valuable insights into Mr. Robbins. Although he was a difficult person, he was a genius, as my dance teacher said, and so he was and he made dance so much bigger and better for us all.

The mercurial brilliance and personal shortcomings of choreographer extraordinaire Jerome Robbins are captured with equal amounts of compassion and objectivity in Amanda Vaill's comprehensive biography. His impressive resume represents some of the most arresting work in dance and theater - "On the Town", "High Button Shoes", "Call Me Madam", "Gypsy", "Wonderful Town", "Bells Are Ringing", "The King and I", "Peter Pan", "The Pajama Game", "Funny Girl", "Fiddler on the Roof", "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". Robbins' most famous work is the stage and screen versions of "West Side Story", his legendary collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein and then-prodigious lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Yet for all these accomplishments, he was reviled as much as he was revered. Stellar results notwithstanding, his vaunted perfectionism and Method-style approach were taxing to many, and it would often come under the guise of brutality and verbal abuse. Although Vaill's book is the third Robbins biography to be released in the last five years, hers reflects access to the subject's personal diaries before his death at age eighty in 1998, which lends the book a voice that one could easily imagine approximates Robbins' own. The author dives deeply into Robbins' childhood to seek answers to his personal dichotomy, and she pieces together a vivid if somewhat pat portrait of self-loathing. Robbins' mother comes across as a vindictive woman who used her deep-rooted insecurity as a lightning rod for attention, while his father seems weak-willed and foolish. The combination of their personalities already reinforces Robbins' incurable sense of self-doubt due to his shame over being both Jewish and gay. His resulting bisexuality gave way to a string of lovers of both sexes, though his most intense and enduring relationships were with men including a two-year affair with a young Montgomery Clift. Ironically, he was able to translate these passions into some of the most beautiful male-female duets in musical theater. It is in Robbins' professional triumphs and failures where Vaill's book soars highest. She meticulously documents the process of creating his ballet works, in particular, 1944's "Fancy Free" (the basis for "On the Town") and 1969's "Dances at a Gathering", and how George Balanchine acted as both supportive mentor and demonic taskmaster. Obviously, Robbins applied Balanchine's split-personality approach to his own work when he drove performers, whether chorus dancers or ego-driven divas, to tears with his exacting demands. In spite of his self-assurance in staging and choreographing specific scenes, he would remain steadfast in experimenting with endless versions of the same moment no matter how long it took to satisfy his vision. Feeding into the already rampant insecurities of his cast, Robbins would often have two or more people learn the same part and urge one to shadow the other as he did his solo. In rehearsing the Broadway version of "