Then and Now

A legend of the American theater, Barbara Cook burst onto the scene in the 1950s to become Broadway’s leading ingénue in roles such as her Tony Award–winning role as the original Marian the librarian in The Music Man . But in the late 1960s, Barbara’s extraordinary talent onstage was threatened by debilitating depression and alcoholism, forcing her to step away from the limelight. Emerging from the shadows in the early 1970s, Barbara reinvented herself as the country’s leading concert and cabaret artist. Taking us deep into her life and career, from her childhood in the Jim Crow South to the Great White Way, Then and Now candidly and poignantly describes both her personal difficulties and her legendary triumphs.