One of the greatest American singers and actresses of her generation looks back on a magical and turbulent life spanning a half century of theatrical history from the golden age of the Broadway musical to the present day.

A legend of the American theater, Barbara Cook burst upon the scene to become Broadway's leading ingenue in roles such as Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein's Candide, Amalia Balash in Jerry Bock's She Loves Me, and her career-defining, Tony-winning role as the original Marian the librarian in Meredith Willson's The Music Man. But in the late...