It seems as if everything there is to know about choreographer Jerome Robbins is in this hefty biography, “Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins.”
Author Amanda Vaill had access to Robbins’ journals and diaries, as well as to his notes about his projects for Broadway and, later, for the New York City Ballet.
And she interviewed a ton of people who knew him.
His love affairs, which were usually brief, were with both men and women. Either the lover was unfaithful and Robbins felt hurt, or he was the unfaithful one, seemingly to cause his partner to make the break. The reader hopes at the start of each affair that it will prove to be a long one that will make Robbins happy.
Vaill believes that Robbins always felt guilty about changing his name from one that was obviously Jewish, Rabinowitz, and about naming names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. And that he feared his homosexuality would become widely known.
The book delves into Robbins’ work, too. Anyone who has seen a Broadway musical and assumed it was always intended to be exactly the way it’s presented will find the section on “Fiddler on the Roof” especially enlightening.
Robbins, the production’s director and choreographer, threw out the opening scene with Golde and her daughters and substituted a number introducing her husband, Tevye, and his fellow villagers. He cut 40 pages of script and told the composer and lyricist to write a song for Tevye and Golde to sing together.
He auditioned carefully and long. He put a fiddler on the roof, then gradually reduced the part to almost nothing. Songs were dropped as out-of-town tryouts went from Detroit to Washington.
Robbins also created “On the Town,” with Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and worked on “The King and I,” “Peter Pan,” “Bells Are Ringing,” “Gypsy” and “West Side Story.” They’re all in the book, as well as shows that weren’t as successful and his many years of creating classical ballets.
Jerome Robbins was one of the important creative forces in American dance. Too bad he never found his one someone and his peaceful somewhere.
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