Leonard Bernstein's daughter tells Philly: My dad would love 'Hamilton' and be 'a little jealous'
By Peter Dobrin - Philadelphia Inquirer
June 28, 2018
The reputation of Leonard Bernstein — the starry composer, conductor, pianist, and educator — continues to be made and remade more than two and a half decades after his death. Right now, as the world celebrates the 100th year since his birth, aspects of the Bernstein story are found in more than two dozen biographies, photo books, collections of essays, and memoirs of and by him.
Among the books, you can pick from a generous variety of angles. Bernstein assistant Charlie Harmon recently came out with On the Road & Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the Exasperating Genius. Jonathan Cott’s Dinner with Lennybills itself as the “last long interview” given by the charismatic music man.
It’s safe to say, though, that no one had quite the same access to the subject as the author of Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein. Jamie Bernstein was the oldest of his three children, and she has become his chief interpreter. But if she had an easy way in, she doesn’t take the easy way out.