I’ve never read one more entertaining (and more revealing) than Mary Rodgers’s Shy. Her voice careens between intimate, sardonic, confessional, comic. The book is pure pleasure — except when it’s jaw-droppingly shocking ... two of the most vividly (if scarily) rendered parents I’ve ever encountered ... 'Daddy' is the first word in the book, and it provokes the first of Green’s many illuminating footnotes, which enrich the pages of “Shy” like butter on a steak ... Dick and Dorothy are at least implicitly present throughout Shy, and Mary’s takes on them are alternately horrific and hilarious ... But it’s the showbiz world they all lived in that lifts the book into the pantheon of Broadway narratives ... Chronology is imperfect when a life like Mary’s is rendered by a mind like Mary’s; one of the book’s alternative titles, Green tells us, was 'Where Was I?' She jumps back and forth between her many decades, digression dangling from an anecdote, in turn hanging from an aside. Sometimes, you’re left in slightly irritating (if amusing) suspense...Would I have preferred a more straightforward narration? Not a chance, for it could have deadened her invigorating candor.

... delectable ... most compellingly, an account of a woman finding her power and her voice ... Mary puts it all out there ... has been expertly assembled by Jesse Green ... Less pleasing are the myriad annotations. While it’s useful to learn the particulars about, say, D. D. Ryan...Green sometimes comes off as the boorish guy who won’t let you finish telling a story because he’s sure he can tell it faster and funnier ... Never mind. Shy is wonderful, and so is the unassuming Rodgers.

Rodgers was known for her sharp wit, and Green seems to have pulled very few of her verbal punches. The account of her relationship with Sondheim is so wincingly intimate in some details that you have to wonder if Green (or the publisher) thought it would be better to wait until Sondheim was no longer around to read it, a suspicion reinforced by the fact that “Shy” is being published eight years after Rodgers’s death and less than nine months after Sondheim’s ... She gleefully skewers frenemies like playwright Arthur Laurents, and she’s equally forthright (if less nasty) about lifelong friends like producer-director Hal Prince ... Shy lives up to its 'alarmingly outspoken' subtitle but rarely seems mean-spirited, thanks to Rodgers’s sense of humor, clever way with words and refusal to indulge in self-pity. A woman whose good work as a composer was overshadowed by the titanic gifts of her father and best friend could easily feel bitter, but Rodgers calmly insists, 'I’m happy with what I achieved.' And she gives a matter-of-fact account of an average theater artist’s life: a few hits, plenty of flops, workaday stints writing for television and movies ... Rodgers’s delightfully gossipy tell-all is also a frank, thoughtful chronicle of one woman’s journey through experience to understanding — and a lot of fun to read.

The final text, in which Mary’s bold, brash voice contrasts with Mr. Green’s more measured comments, reads like a conversation between the two of them, albeit one in which Mary dominates, and rightly so ... the real interest of this book lies not in its colorful tittle-tattle but in its richness as psychodrama ... Mary’s account of her manifold romantic misadventures is disarmingly frank.

The unconventional dual-voices format makes Shy something of a challenge to navigate. It’s difficult to go wrong with a story as compelling as Rodgers’: a smart, opinionated woman forging her way in a world constrained by rigid gender roles while bearing the psychological damage from a childhood in which she felt inferior to her younger sister, and in which her mother told her, 'We love you, but we don’t like you.' Rodgers’ narrative encompasses everything from sadness and tragedy to exultant moments of exhilarating joy. But Green’s and Rodgers’ simultaneous voices sometimes come across as competitive rather than complementary. At times, the reader may feel like they are seated between two brash, outspoken people, both talking loudly at the same time and trying to outdo the other in wit and sharpness ... Nevertheless, the setting for much of Rodgers’ professional life – the mid-century era of American theatre that produced some of the greatest stage musicals ever – will make Shy a must-read for anyone fascinated by that world ... The pace of the narrative only starts to pick up after young Mary makes her first attempts at songwriting. But once it gets going, Shy is a fascinating first-person account of a vital period in American theatre history. If the reader can tolerate the dual-narrator format, Shy is worth reading as an account of an unusual, sometimes difficult, but always intriguing life.

Delightful...delicious ... A cozy reading experience that feels like a step back to the Golden Age of Broadway. It’s also a wonderful source of Broadway gossip ... A long-overdue contribution to the Broadway memoir canon. Though Rodgers might not have considered herself progressive in the day—to her chagrin, the three-and-a-half years between her marriages felt like the longest of her life—her memoir is an illuminating look at Golden Age Broadway from a woman’s perspective.

... brazenly entertaining ... The crackle of these books has everything to do with the zingy forthrightness of their title characters ... much more than a work of filial revenge. It’s the story of a bygone theatrical age when New York was the center of the cultural universe and Broadway could still pretend it was at the crossroads ... Rodgers’ scathing honesty jumps off the page in a way that had me imagining a theatrical adaptation along the lines of Elaine Stritch at Liberty. Shy would also benefit from the structural discipline demanded by the stage. Too many chapters are devoted to musicals that either went nowhere or are largely forgotten today ... Rodgers is aware that her story could come off as poor-little-rich-girl griping. But in her cocktail party recap of Broadway’s heyday, she bears witness to what it was like to be a female composer in a field dominated by men — chiefly her father. In the process, she turns a second-drawer career into a top-drawer performance.

[Rodgers'] whole life is on dazzling display ... her more dispiriting undertakings are just as enthusiastically recollected as her sporadic but stratospheric triumphs ... a treasure chest of goodies for fans of the New York performing arts world at mid-century and just beyond ... Readers besotted with Old Broadway would probably inhale Rodgers's memoir no matter its quality, but Shy has the added bonus of being note-perfect ... Confiding, blunt, cruel, ribald, dishy and blackly humorous, Shy has all the entertainment value of a first-rate Broadway production, the book's 70-odd photos and reproductions the set dressing.

These kinds of famous names are strewn throughout this memoir, and that’s part of what makes it so fascinating, turning Rodgers into a privileged Broadway Zelig, who knew everyone (and their secrets) and isn’t afraid to spill them. Rodgers’ voice comes vividly alive here, even though she died in 2014. Apparently, it took coauthor and theater critic Green lots of time to cull years of his interviews with Rodgers and to annotate each page with copious, ­often-amusing notes, and the result is a candid, hilarious, and fascinating look at a life lived with honesty and only the occasional regret. Whether Rodgers is recounting her lifelong love for childhood friend Sondheim or describing her perpetually fraught dance with her parents, this will have readers applauding loudly.

Green’s extensive footnotes provide background and context, and gently rein in Rodger’s occasionally cloudy recollections or inaccuracies. Along with gossipy stories and acerbic zingers, Rodgers explores being a woman, a single mom and Jewish in a time when those traits signaled outsider and usually held a person back. She shares both successes and low points. She admits her own mistakes and points out the shortcomings of others along the way ... Rodgers tells it the way she saw it, often stripping away the celebrity glamour of growing up in a revered musical theater environment. Green is a welcome and unobtrusive organizing voice and fact checker. Hollywood biography readers and musical theater fans will enjoy.

Rodgers moved in theater circles nearly her entire life (1931-2014). Her remembrances are lively, witty, honest, and 'dishy' regarding a host of boldfaced names, both those she loved and those she hated. New York Times chief theater critic Green's annotations fill out the history and offer helpful fact-checks ... She also writes movingly and with 'knee-jerk transparency' about parental neglect, adultery, rampant alcoholism, and other dark sides of her artistic circles ... A Broadway tell-all that deserves to become a classic of music theater lore.

... rollicking ... Enriched with droll commentary from Green ... It’s this playful, self-deprecating humor that makes Rodgers’s stories sing, and fans are sure to delight in every witty detail. This has major star power.