June Thomas of Slate checks out Barbara Cook’s newly published memoir “Then and Now” in NY1’s The Book Reader.
At the end of the 1950s, Barbara Cook was the toast of Broadway. Blessed with a clear lyric soprano voice, she could handle repertoire—like the role of Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide—that was beyond the reach of most performers. She also had the good fortune to be an ingénue during a golden age of American musical theater: She made her Broadway debut in a now-forgotten show called Flahooley, which closed after a month, but soon enough she found herself in classics like “Oklahoma,” “Carousel,” “The Music Man,” “The King and I” and “She Loves Me.”
But in the mid-’60s, things started to go wrong. Unhappy in love, and after a string of flops, she started to drink and didn’t stop for more than a decade.
Cook has been open about her alcoholism for many years, but in her newly published memoir, “Then and Now,” written with Tom Santopietro, she shares even more about those lost years and her gradual return to performing with the help of her dear friend and musical collaborator, Wally Harper.
At 88, Cook seems to be at peace with herself. She talks about her difficult relationship with her troubled mother, her failed marriage and several doomed love affairs, but she never once veers into self-pity. Instead, she seems charming, smart and philosophical. She even manages the rare trick of sharing more than half a century of primo showbiz gossip without ever being mean.
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