The fabulous Lunts: A biography of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne

They were the king and queen of the American theater, embodying all the cliche?s of the successful acting couple--temperamental, professional, argumentative, competitive, rebellious, ingenious, on-stage magic, offstage magical. Until they retired in 1960, the Lunts stood for high style and high professionalism on the American stage. After their first joint performance in Ferenc Molnar's "The Guardsman" in 1924, shortly after their marriage, they adopted a policy of never acting separately. They performed the most varied and difficult of works; they practically brought the Theater Guild to life by themselves; and their long friendship with Noel Coward spawned "Design for Living"--a work that was rather daring at the time. As they grew old, there were few plays with big parts for two septuagenarians, but the notion that one of them might take a minor role was out of the question, particularly once they had become an institution. This book is richly researched, full of theatrical anecdotes, loaded with names from a past much richer than our present; and an understanding of what it truly means to be a Broadway star. Within a 25-block radius in New York City, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were treated as though they owned the world. And in that period, and in that space, during those many nights of drama, comedy and tragedy, they did.… (more)