Then and Now: A Memoir

A legend of the American theater, Barbara Cook burst upon the scene to become Broadway's leading ingénue in roles such as Cunégonde in Leonard Bernstein's Candide, Amalia Balash in Jerry Bock's She Loves Me, and her career-defining, Tony-winning role as the original Marian the librarian in Meredith Willson's The Music Man. But in the late 1960s, Barbara's extraordinary talent onstage was threatened by debilitating depression and alcoholism that forced her to step away from the limelight and out of public life. Emerging from the shadows in the early 1970s, Barbara reinvented herself as the country's leading concert and cabaret artist, performing the songs of Stephen Sondheim and other masters, while establishing a reputation as one of the greatest and most acclaimed interpreters of the American songbook.