Public Places: My Life in the Theater, with Peter O'Toole, and Beyond

""After a roller-coaster life of much happiness and many troubles, a woman of a certain age makes a break for freedom,"" writes noted actor Phillips at the end of this honest, heartfelt and often witty memoir. Indeed, when the author takes a younger lover as an alternative to her marriage, readers will feel great relief. Phillips, a critically praised and popular performer, charts her professional, domestic and familial lives. Even though she has her own theater career, the bulk of the book chronicles her decades-long, volatile--but at times very satisfying--marriage to Peter O'Toole. As O'Toole becomes increasingly famous in the 1960s, his histrionics, caused mostly by excessive alcohol consumption, balloon out of control. By 1975, O'Toole's drinking has brought him close to death (a situation shockingly told in the book's opening chapters) and Phillips has to seriously examine her life. While there's plenty of theater lore and gossip here--much of it quite wonderful, such as Katharine Hepburn calling Liz Taylor and Richard Burton""those fat pigs""--this memoir is really a frightening, potently written""scenes from a marriage"" and a story of how the author finds her own way. B&w photos.