James Magruder to Release Summer Stock Novel - VAMP UNTIL READY

Librettist/fiction writer/translator James Magruder, who wrote the book for the Broadway musical Triumph of Love late in the last century, and co-wrote the book (in blank verse no less) for the far more recent Head Over Heels, has a fourth book of fiction, titled Vamp Until Ready, coming out on September 28, 2021.

The network of protagonists in Vamp Until Ready, Cary Dunkler, Isa Vas, Kristy Schroyer, Judy Gabelson, and Mark Shinner, have lives that are transformed in surprising ways by working on or backstage at the Hangar Theatre. They make--and remake--their families in this closely observed, ultimately comic valentine to the Socialist-leaning hamlet of Ithaca and to the pleasures of putting on a show at warp speed in hot weather.

Magruder says, "Like so many in the theater world, the Hangar is where I cut my teeth professionally. Over a few seasons, either dancing in the chorus of Damn Yankees and Cabaret, or writing an impossibly arty musical version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I worked with the likes of Jimmy Smits, Lisa Peterson, Michael Krass, Danny Jenkins, Steven Skybell. I met my frequent collaborator and lifetime friend, Michael Mayer, there in the summer of 1989."

Vamp Until Ready is available in print or as an e-book on Amazon from the publisher, Rattling Good Yarns Press, or on Amazon. https://rattlIinggoodyarns.com/product/vamp-until-ready/

About the Author:

James Magruder's stories have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, New England Review, The Idaho Review, Subtropics, StoryQuarterly, Arts & Letters, Third Coast, Prairie Schooner, Bloom, The Normal School, The Hopkins Review, Gargoyle, New Stories from the Midwest, and elsewhere. He has published three books of fiction: Sugarless, a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award; the linked story collection, Let Me See It; and Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall.

His work for the stage includes the books for two Broadway musicals, Triumph of Love and Head Over Heels. His translations of Dickens, Marivaux, Molière, Dancourt, Lesage, Labiche, Gozzi, Giraudoux, and Hofmannsthal have been seen on stages across the country. His Three French Comedies (Yale University Press) was named an "Outstanding Literary Translation" by the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). Current projects include a musical adaptation of Amy Blooms's novel, Lucky Us, and a commissioned chronicle of the first fifty years of Yale Repertory Theatre, titled Serving the Play.

He is a five-time MacDowell Fellow and a six-time recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. He has made Baltimore his home for almost thirty years and currently teaches dramaturgy at Swarthmore College.