Double Life: A Love Story from Broadway to Hollywood, by Alan Shayne and Norman Sunshine
The story of a legendary same-sex marriage between two of New York’s most admired art-world AND Broadway stars.
Shayne was a Broadway actor who went on to produce many hit TV shows (Wonder Woman), and retired as President of Warner Brothers Television in 1986.
Sunshine has been a successful and celebrated artist and sculptor. The two trade off writing every chapter—a dual memoir!
Double Life covers both of their coming-of-age stories: childhood snippets, how they met, and lots of honesty around their relationship’s ups and downs.
The second half is kind of like Ill-Equipped for a Life of Sex—truthful, but not uncomfortable.
Within their careers and relationships, there is a solid history of the entertainment worlds with plenty of gossip; from Marlon Brando on Broadway to the New York art scene in the 1950s and 60s to TV and The Dukes of Hazzard.
Double Life has hit a nerve among longtime gay couples, particularly men, who ask, “Where are we? How come there are no stories about us?” It’s completely delightful and real—I can see why this has been a sleeper hit.
Narrated by Ethan Sawyer, who we loved so much in Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son.
--Aretha Bright and Willow Pennell
