On the Boardwalk

A memoir from the writer of BENT with a foreword by Ian McKellen

Sherman takes us on a journey through America in the mid twentieth century, starting in New Jersey – where he was born in the 1930s to a Jewish immigrant family – ending on Broadway with the premier of his seminal play Bent starring Richard Gere. On route, we encounter other famous performers including Meryl Streep, Bee Gees, Joan Baez, but the scene-stealing character is always his father – a charismatic narcissist who might have given Trump a run for his money. We stop off in Woodstock, Los Angeles and London – a city Martin would eventually make home; he relays his story with self-depreciating humour as he struggles to make it in theatre, with his sexuality, and under the shadow of the inheritable disease that killed his mother tragically early – a disease from which he finds himself finally free, as he turns forty in the book's closing pages.

"As in his plays, Martin Sherman writes here of complexity with simplicity, of the hidden with utter candour. A fascinating and brilliant example of what a memoir ought to be."—ALAN CUMMING

"Most shove childhood memories into the recesses of forgetfulness, while others gather each detail like colours in a paint box and use them to create. We call those folks artists. Martin Sherman is such a creature. Within these pages you will find his painterly application of memories, fashioning a masterwork of experiences for us to enjoy."—HARVEY FIERSTEIN

"Absolutely mesmerising and so fantastically well written that I wish Martin Sherman had written novels as well as plays and screenplays"—STEPHEN FRY

"Completely absorbing and funny and sad and beautifully told—a real treat and an extraordinary story—what a life."—IAN HISLOP

"One Hell of a ride. Profound, witty, beautifully written and difficult to forget."—HUGH JACKMAN

"This memoir is astounding. I'm reading it a second time."—VANESSA REDGRAVE

"A volume filled with moving, entertaining and fascinating memories, by one of our great stage and screen writers."—PETER TATCHELL

"On the Boardwalk is full of audacity and joyfulness, jokes and tears, it blew my mind, as it will blow yours." – PETE TOWNSHEND

"He writes like Philip Roth—but even funnier."—RUBY WAX