Showstopper is author/journalist Abigail Pogrebin’s fascinating chronicle of her teenage experience in the original cast of Stephen Sondheim’s startling misadventure (and now cult favorite), Merrily We Roll Along. In this Kindle Single, Pogrebin recounts colorful behind-the-scenes details of how the show came together and then hit the skids, and muses with candor about how the experience informed her perspective.

Abigail Pogrebin is the author of Stars of David and One and the Same, both from Doubleday. She was a producer for Mike Wallace at 60 Minutes, and for Charlie Rose and Bill Moyers at PBS. A freelance writer for publications such as New York Magazine and The Daily Beast, she moderates an interview series at The JCC in Manhattan called “What Everyone’s Talking About.”

Twins have always been fascinating, even before the miracle of modern science and fertility drugs made them almost ubiquitous. In this memoir that is also a reported essay, former 60 Minutes producer Pogrebin looks at her own experiences as an identical twin—her sister, Robin, is a New York Times reporter—and those of others; she also interviews what seems like almost every twin expert in the world. How is a twin’s experience of childhood and life different from that of mere singletons? This book about what it means to be a duplicate is smart and revealing and wise—and, well, singular.”  – Sara Nelson, The Daily Beast 9/7/09

Sixty-one of the most accomplished Jews in America speak intimately-most for the first time-about how they feel about being Jewish, the influence of their heritage, the weight and pride of their history, the burdens and pleasures of observance, the moments they’ve felt most Jewish (or not). In unusually candid interviews conducted by former 60 Minutes producer Abigail Pogrebin over the course of eighteen months, celebrities ranging from Sarah Jessica Parker to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, from Larry King to Mike Nichols, reveal how being Jewish fits into their public and most private lives. This book of vivid, personal portraits reveals how the experience of being Jewish is amplified by fame and also how the author’s evolving Jewish identity was changed by what she heard.