Review by Booklist Review
ldquo;Why should anyone want to hear about the daddy (and mummy) issues of a second-drawer composer and children's book author?" Frankly, Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Broadway composer Richard Rodgers, has a point. Her only real musical success was the 1959 show, Once upon a Mattress. Freaky Friday, Rodgers' best-selling children's novel, which was spun off into movies and TV shows, came about serendipitously when legendary editor Ursula Nordstrom asked Maurice Sendak if Steven Sondheim would write a children's book; Sondheim said no but directed Nordstrom to Rodgers. These kinds of famous names are strewn throughout this memoir, and that's part of what makes it so fascinating, turning Rodgers into a privileged Broadway Zelig, who knew everyone (and their secrets) and isn't afraid to spill them. Rodgers' voice comes vividly alive here, even though she died in 2014. Apparently, it took coauthor and theater critic Green lots of time to cull years of his interviews with Rodgers and to annotate each page with copious, -often-amusing notes, and the result is a candid, hilarious, and fascinating look at a life lived with honesty and only the occasional regret. Whether Rodgers is recounting her lifelong love for childhood friend Sondheim or describing her perpetually fraught dance with her parents, this will have readers applauding loudly.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this rollicking posthumous memoir, composer and writer Rodgers (1931--2014) revisits the highs and lows of her life and career. Enriched with droll commentary from Green, chief theater critic for the New York Times, Rodgers's narrative takes readers from her affluent yet stifling childhood--as the daughter of American composer Richard Rodgers and a mother whose "idea of a daughter," Rodgers writes, "was a chambermaid crossed with a lapdog"--to her years of wild success in the '50s and '60s on Broadway and beyond. While her challenging relationship with her mother runs as a constant thread throughout, Rodgers looks back, more fondly, on her six pregnancies ("I loved being pregnant.... More than I loved writing music, if I'm honest") and her accomplishments, including her first musical, Once Upon a Mattress (1959), starring Carol Burnett--"If you don't know who Carol Burnett... is," hectors Green, "you're definitely not reading this book"--and her 1972 runaway hit novel, Freaky Friday. Of the decades-long success of Once Upon a Mattress, Rodgers cheekily proclaims, "Some people have a medley of their hits; I have a medley of one." It's this playful, self-deprecating humor that makes Rodgers's stories sing, and fans are sure to delight in every witty detail. This has major star power. (Aug.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
New York Times theater critic Green offers an extensively annotated compilation of the no-holds-barred memoirs of composer and writer Mary Rodgers (1931--2014). As the daughter of Broadway composer Richard Rodgers (of Rodgers & Hammerstein fame), Mary had a front-row seat to the New York theater scene. Rodgers herself is best known for her musical compositions for 1959's Once Upon a Mattress and 1966's The Mad Show, in addition to her 1972 YA novel Freaky Friday. Seen through the lens of her artistic endeavors, her boldly comprehensive memoirs span from her parents' marriage in the early 1900s through the mid-2010s. Rodgers briefly touches on her songwriting experience but focuses heavily on her life's journey, with its complex relationships, two marriages, six children, and career feats and failures. No topic is off-limits, and few are spared her biting critique. Emmy and Tony Award winner Christine Baranski shines as narrator, fully encapsulating Rodgers's brashness and honesty. Opposite her, and equally witty, is author Green, who narrates the footnotes. Their rhythm and fluidity create conversational transitions between the memoirs and the footnotes. VERDICT For musical theater enthusiasts, historians, and those interested in the Rodgers family legacy. Share, too, with fans of Baranski's work.--Kym Goering
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A legendary figure of American musical theater narrates her life and her career in startlingly frank terms. Rodgers moved in theater circles nearly her entire life (1931-2014). Her remembrances are lively, witty, honest, and "dishy" regarding a host of boldfaced names, both those she loved and those she hated. New York Times chief theater critic Green's annotations fill out the history and offer helpful fact-checks. Daughter of composer Richard Rodgers and mother of composer Adam Guettel, Mary, also a composer, surrounded herself with talent. As an adolescent girl, she played word games with lifelong friend Stephen Sondheim; as a teenager, she dated Hal Prince. She served as an assistant for 14 years for the New York Philharmonic's Young People's Concerts program, and always she found Leonard Bernstein "fascinating." Carol Burnett found her breakthrough role in Rodgers' Once Upon a Mattress, while Judy Holliday bombed in Hot Spot. Rodgers was also the author of classic children's books, including Freaky Friday, and became a leading "philanthropeuse" of New York society, including seven years as chairman of the board of the Julliard School. She takes us inside the "romance"-like nature of collaborating on a musical. The "erotic part of songwriting," she writes, is "the way you mate words with music." She also writes movingly and with "knee-jerk transparency" about parental neglect ("I doubt either of my parents really even wanted to have children"), adultery, rampant alcoholism, and other dark sides of her artistic circles. Her first marriage was a mistake, though "everyone should marry a gay man at least once." Rodgers also endured an abortion and the death of a child. Some of her anecdotes seem like more family lore than lived history--e.g., at Mary's birth, her mother told the nurse, "Take her away and bring her back when she looks younger"--but most of her stories are revelatory and often hilarious. "I broke a lot of rules," she admits, "but they weren't mine." A Broadway tell-all that deserves to become a classic of music theater lore. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
