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Sautéed Escarole is a favorite Italian vegetable dish—and particularly among Sicilians. Escarole looks much like lettuce (and is usually found […]
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One of my favorite recipes is Scallops with Caramelized Grapefruit-Lime-Rosemary Sauce. It’s unusual, delicious, not difficult to cook, and makes […]
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Some of your Thanksgiving guests may turn up their noses to pumpkin pie. Well, here’s a tart that reflects the […]
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I had my first taste of a Monte Cristo Sandwich in 1967 when I was touring with the Dorothy Lamour […]
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When I was in high school, our family traveled to San Francisco. My mother’s uncle, who lived there, took us […]
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Cold Swedish Fruit Soup is a wonderful fall or winter dish when you’re beginning to miss those fresh peaches, apricots, […]
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This easy recipe for Smoky Chili is a real crowd pleaser. It will feed a large group of people, and […]
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This Buttermilk Chocolate-Nut Loaf is a rich and elegant cake with a deep double chocolate and almond flavor. The recipe […]
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Shrimp with Crème Fraîche and Tomatoes is a distinctly late summer dish, primarily because it requires ripe, flavorful tomatoes, which […]
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Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best. This Fresh Cream Salad Dressing is the perfect example. It takes just 4 […]
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I adore crab cakes. They are delicious and quite easy to make. Sadly, the price of lump or jumbo crab […]
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Key Lime Pie is the perfect dessert for summer. It’s easy to make, requires only a limited amount of baking, […]
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One of my favorite luncheon dishes is Italian Sausage Salad served in a hot pita. It’s not difficult to make, […]
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My go-to recipe for Mac and Cheese has been James Beard’s from his Beard on Pasta recipe book. As good […]
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When I have a mad craving for homemade cookies but have no desire to spend a lot of time baking, […]
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Tuna Tetrazzini is one of those retro dishes that I believe deserves a new life. It’s inexpensive, easy to make, […]
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Lusciously liquid chocolate-covered cherry cordials are one of my favorite candies. So I thought, why not a cake using the […]
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Crispy Fresh Tuna Cakes are so much better than those made with canned tuna and are just as easy to […]
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These easy-to-make Currant and Pecan Scones make delightful accompaniments to your afternoon tea or to a breakfast. Although the addition […]
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My friend, Tony Lin, found a way to take several screen shots of me behind Barbra Streisand in the Put […]
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One of my favorite and most comforting soups since my childhood is Sicilian Meatball Soup. It’s not at all difficult […]
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Roasted Garlic and Thyme Custards make a lovely appetizer or first course that’s not difficult to prepare. Some of the […]
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If you are searching for a different sort of vegetable dish to serve with your meal, Zucchini Fritters may be […]
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One of my most favorite and most elaborate desserts is a Pear Charlotte with Warm Chocolate Sauce. The recipe is [...]
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The recipe for this unusual Escarole and Smoked Mozzarella Risotto is my enhancement of a recipe that was published in […]
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Cassatedde (pronounced Cah-Sah-Tayd-Day and in some places called Cassatelle) are a fried Sicilian turnover dessert, a close cousin of the […]
Go to Books Tab for Information on My Autobiography
Critical Acclaim for The Wrong Side of the Room
“The book’s second half is fully stocked with accounts of stage shows galore—not to mention impressive name-dropping (Barbra Streisand, Betty Grable, Dorothy Lamour, Gene Kelly). These anecdotes from the theater’s social scene glide alongside vivid imagery from the author’s performances and other successes. The book also has a delightful, chatty sense of humor with moments of wry wit that make it exciting to read.
In the end, it effectively celebrates a life of artistic inspiration alongside the giddiness and glory of live theater.”
—Kirkus Review
Read the entire Kirkus Review here.
Readers’ Favorite Review
by Asher Syed
The Wrong Side of the Room: A Life in Music Theater by Norman Mathews is an autobiography chronicling the author’s life as he transitions from a confusing and often abusive childhood, born in a sleet of uncertainty (literally, as it turns out). Masked by imagination and written with a humor that most would not be able to apply to such situations, Mathews is able to harness this creativity and hitch it to his own ambitions as a rising star. When an injury threatens to derail an ascent that defies all odds, Mathews is forced to reinvent and reignite himself once more, and does so amid a whole host of personal and professional turmoil, scandal, and the kind of stories that are all the more shocking – and inspiring – because they are actually true.
Norman Mathews delivers a riveting memoir with The Wrong Side of the Room that opens with a contentious genesis and powerfully surges through to its finale. This is the ultimate tale of a man who is knocked down seven times and gets up eight, except in this case our tenacious narrator is struck to the ground far more than that. But he does continue to rise and appears to have carved out a genuine niche for himself until, “I woke up one morning with a strange pain in my back and running down my right leg. In a few days, it got much worse, and I began limping.” With the support of his partner Todd, he buys a Steinway, dives into formal education, and…well, at first that all implodes too. But Mathews is the consummate phoenix and, much like he displays in the writing of this book, skillfully maneuvers the trajectory of his life’s own narrative into a story that we are fortunate enough to have shared in The Wrong Side of the Room.
Impressively candid, exceptionally informative, deftly written, organized and presented, “The Wrong Side of the Room: A Life in Music Theater” is an extraordinary memoir that will have special and particular appeal for anyone with an interest in show business. . .very highly recommended for both community and academic library Contemporary American Biography collections.
—Midwest Book Review