Barbara Cook Memoir to Hit Shelves at Last in 2016?

Back in 2011, it was announenced that Broadway living legend Barbara Cook would collaborate with New York Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood on a memoir. The book never made it to the shelves for its previously announced fall 2012 release, but now it seems that fans might still have reason to rejoice. According to Amazon, the still untitled memoir will be released by HarperCollins on May 3, 2016.

In the book, Cook will discuss her almost seventy years spent in the theater, beginning with her early iconic roles such as Cunégonde in Leonard Bernstein's Candide, Amalia Balash in Jerry Bock's She Loves Me, and her career-defining and Tony-winning role as the original Marian Paroo in Meredith Willson's The Music Man. She will also discuss her struggles with depression and alcoholism in the 1970s, after which she recovered and started a concert career as one of the greatest and most acclaimed interpreters of the American songbook, with the songs of Stephen Sondheim, in particular, being her forte. Indeed, in 2010, at the age of 82, she was Tony-nominated as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her work in Sondheim on Sondheim.

Cook said in 2011, "For a very long time, I've wanted to write about my life and experiences both on stage and off. And now, thanks to HarperCollins, I finally get my wish. And the added bonus is that I have as a collaborator one of the most knowledgeable and insightful theater writers I know, Charles Isherwood. I feel very fortunate to have been a performer during the golden age of Broadway and am looking forward to sharing stories from that time in my memoir."

Barbara Cook received rave reviews and a Tony Award nomination for her performance in Sondheim on Sondheim, which marked her return to the Broadway stage after an absence of 23 years. Her many Broadway credits include the creation of three classic roles in the American musical theatre: Cunégonde in Leonard Bernstein's Candide, Marian the Librarian in Meredith Willson's The Music Man (Tony Award), and Amalia in Bock and Harnick's She Loves Me (Drama Desk Award).

In 1975 she made her Carnegie Hall debut and embarked on a second career as a concert and recording artist performing to critical acclaim in most of the country's major concert halls and cabarets throughout the United States and abroad.

A Grammy Award winner, her many recordings for DRG Records include Barbara Cook: Live From London, Oscar Winners: The Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein, All I Ask Of You, The Champion Season: A Salute to Gower Champion, Mostly Sondheim, Barbara Cook's Broadway, the Grammy nominated Count Your Blessings, Tribute, the live performance cd, Barbara Cook at the Met, No One Is Alone and Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder and the boxed set The Essential Barbara Cook.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos