Norman Mathews

My article, “When News Drives Creativity,” which discusses Trump’s executive order not to report civilian death’s by drone, is featured in Theater Art Life Magazine. Click here.

“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

The Wrong Side of the Room is the Bronze-Medal Winner in the Non-Fiction —Music/Entertainment Category of the Readers’ Favorite Book Competition.

To see my coming-out video on YouTube, click here.

BOOK CORRECTION: In my autobiography on page 152, I state that Carolyn Morris died in a motorcycle accident. I learned from her daughter-in-law that though she was severely injured she did not die. She is still living in Rutland, Vermont.

Get a free copy of Chapter 1 of my autobiography just by commenting on whether you think Sondheim or I am right about setting Dorothy Parker’s verses to music. Click here.

Read my new article, Sicilian Classics from Nonni’s Kitchen in the Times of Sicily. The article gives 4  of my grandparents’ interesting recipes.

Read my interview about my autobiography, The Wrong Side of the Room, with Norm Goldman, editor of BookPleasures.com here

The Wrong Side of the Room has been listed on Vincent Lowry’s site eAuthorSource. Click here.