Here’s to the Ladies: Conversations with More of the Great Women of Musical Theater

Theater journalist Shapiro follows up Nothing Like a Dame with another collection of intimate interviews spotlighting Broadway’s female stars. Among other topics, the conversations touch on the late Barbara Cook’s deep-seated performance anxiety; Adrienne Warren’s surreal, out-of-body experience playing Tina Turner in the musical Tina while Turner watched from offstage, singing along to “Proud Mary”; and Mary Beth Peil’s “joined at the hip” bond with Yul Brynner, the gracious yet exacting director and actor she played opposite in The King and I. Interview subjects also delve into the complexities of being a woman in show business. Female actors “are expected to show so much passion and confidence, but... accept so much powerlessness in the everyday,” explains Melissa Errico, whose credits include Les Misérables (1988) and Amour (2002). “I’ve been inclined to present myself as a hot mess,” she continues. “I could see that affirming my intellect wasn’t going to get me anywhere.” While the discussions sometimes meander (several lasted for 12 or 13 hours, according to Shapiro, who interviewed some actors more than once), theater fans will relish both the fun backstage detail and the vulnerable, fine-grained introspection that Shapiro draws out of his subjects. It’s a revealing peek behind the curtain. (Aug.)