GHOST LIGHT -- Frank Rich

Random House -- ©2000 -- hc
New York -- 315pp
ISBN: 0-679-45299-0

A memoir by New York Times theatre critic.

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This was well written (one would expect no less from a New York Times writer) but I constantly asked myself, "Who cares?"

And that would be the one problem with this memoir. Why is anyone interested in the memoir of a theatre critic? Has he made a name for himself in any other way?

I did find the development of his theatre interest quite interesting, but his family life less so. He managed to know many of the important figures of Broadway during his early days, but the book NEVER tells us how he went on to become a theatre critic. Why not a playwright? An actor? A stage manager? A theatre manager? How was it that he became a reviewer? This memoir leaves us wondering, and instead, knowing a little too much about his interest in girls as a teenaged boy (does he think he's different than 90% of male youth?).

An interesting read, but not really worth the trip.