Peggy Finds the Theater

Peggy Finds the Theater by Virginia Hughes (1962) Technically, the title of this book should be considered a spoiler—or maybe only if I point that out—sorry! The first book of an 8 book series: Peggy Lane Theater Stories, from the early-Sixties—about a young woman from Wisconsin whose thespian desires burn hot enough to convince her parents to help her move to New York City and enroll in a theater program. She even leaves behind her best friend, but soon meets a new bestie, and then starts dating a possibly shady (based on his name and profession) playwright named Randy, who is trying to find a venue to put on his “experimental” play and possibly invent “Off Off Broadway” (internet says it was invented in 1958—so this is contemporary). The author of this book (under the pen name Hughes) sounds like she has a lot of knowledge of both the theater and New York, as far as I can tell, and the story is detailed—though there’s no hint of anything but hetero sexual orientation, and a minor character being French is the extent of diversity. One funny thing is that a lot of characters are introduced, never to be returned to—this feels like the first third or fifth of a longer book—but then, it is a series—so maybe this book is more like the first of eight chapters, or “books,” of the whole. It makes me want to check out the next one—and they’re hard to find—but it might be worth it—there’s some good stuff in this book—in particular, NYC details, as Peggy and her friend explore, searching for an empty performance space, and essentially discover SoHo. My favorite part, though, is when Randy and Mal take Peggy and Amy to the famous, 80-year-old restaurant, Luchow’s, (gone now)—a place I’ve read a lot about (and even written about)—and there’s a whole chapter just describing that crazy establishment.

8.15.23