As a playwright, screenwriter, and director, Arthur Laurents has a unique place in the history of theater. In this moving, exhilarating, and provocative account, he presents readers with a front-row look at the making of two of the greatest musicals of the American stage, West Side Story and Gypsy . He writes in rich detail about his new bilingual production of West Side Story , along with his most recent production of Gypsy , how it began as an act of love, and how that love spread through the entire company and resulted in a Gypsy unlike any other. Laurents offers behind-the-scenes details about the musicals he directed, including I Can Get It for You Wholesale , its producer David Merrick (the “Abominable Showman”), and its (very young) stars, Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould. He dishes on Stephen Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle , which starred Angela Lansbury and Lee Remick, marking the debut for each in musical theater. And he recounts the challenges and surprises that came with the making of La Cage aux Folles , the first big Broadway musical that was gay and glad to be. Throughout, the book is enriched by Laurents's two loves – his love for the theater and his love for his partner of fifty-two years, Tom Hatcher, who shared and inspired every aspect of his life and his work. Mainly on Directing presents an unforgettable portrait of an artist working with other artists, a unique close-up look at today's American musical theater by a man who's been at its red-hot center for more than five decades.

The music and mayhem behind the seminal sounds of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Models, The Go-Betweens, Hunters & Collectors, Cold Chisel, The Saints, The Cruel Sea and so many more 'The most obsessive, single-minded character I've ever seen, outside of the mirror' -Nick Cave 'I first met Nick Cave ... at Richmond Recorders in January. I appeared shoeless, red-eyed and late. As usual. The grand piano was overflowing with bits of metal, microphone stands, anything that wasn't nailed down. "That should sound interesting," I said. It was the start of a great love affair.' Maverick music producer-engineer Tony Cohen defined Australia's punk and rock sounds in the late '70s, '80s and '90s. His long and celebrated career took him from the studios of Melbourne and Sydney to West Berlin and London's Abbey Road, working with innumerable bands up until his death in 2017. In candid reflections, Tony shares details of his decades-long relationship with Nick Cave (The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and provides behind-the-scenes access to recordings by Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Cat Stevens, Jim Keays, Lobby Loyde, The Ferrets, Split Enz, Laughing Clowns, Models, Magazine, The Reels, The Go-Betweens, Hunters & Collectors, Cold Chisel, Beasts of Bourbon, The Saints, X, Michael Hutchence, The Cruel Sea, TISM, Paul Kelly and so many more. Half Deaf, Completely Mad is a hilarious, tragic and triumphant memoir that reveals a chaotic genius who lived hard and LOUD.

Directors: Barry Levinson (Bugsy), Oliver Stone (JFK), Barbra Streisand (The Prince of Tides), Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven), Neil Jordan (The Crying Game), Rob Reiner (A Few Good Men), Andrew Davis (The Fugitive), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral), Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump), Mel Gibson (Braveheart), Michael Radford (Il Postino), Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire), Scott Hicks (Shine), Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies), Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), Steven Spielberg (Amistad), James L. Brooks (As Good As It Gets), James Cameron (Titanic), Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential), Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful), John Madden (Shakespeare in Love), Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan), Peter Weir (The Truman Show), Frank Darabont (The Green Mile), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), Michael Mann (The Insider), Sam Mendes (American Beauty), M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich and Traffic), Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind), Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge), Christopher Nolan (Memento), Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down), Stephen Daldry (The Hours), Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), Rob Marshall (Chicago), Roman Polanski (The Pianist), Martin Scorsese (Gangs of New York), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation), Clint Eastwood (Mystic River), Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), Gary Ross (Seabiscuit), Peter Weir (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World), Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby), Marc Forster (Finding Neverland), Taylor Hackford (Ray), Alexander Payne (Sideways), Martin Scorsese (The Aviator).

Vicky and Charlie, 20-something, one the son of a vicar, the other daughter of a much loved Radio 4 and Times columnist, friends for years but never boyfriend/girlfriend, decide to make a hardcore porn movie. This is the hilarious story of their journey from a sofa in North London, through the heart of the sex industry in California, to their own film set in Amsterdam. What happens when a nice girl falls in love with a rent-boy, and a vicar's son attempts to film a gang-bang? Vicky and Charlie learned to see the world through new eyes, and the sex-workers learned how to play cribbage. And together they produced perhaps the most baffling skinflick in history.