On the Boardwalk, Martin Sherman, book review: ‘Deliciously droll’

Author and playwright Martin Sherman, pictured in 2024. Photograph: Justin David

Partying at Woodstock, meeting Joan Baez and diving into civil rights movement activism – the early life of playwright Martin Sherman may sound like a dream to many 21st-century progressives.

But for the aspiring artist, the 1960s and 1970s were also a time of intensive anxiety, insecurity and economic peril.

His memoir On the Boardwalk, to be published in September by Hackney-based press Inkandescent, offers a deliciously droll take on a journey that took him from 1930s working-class New Jersey to the floodlights of the West End and Broadway.

The culmination of the book is Sherman’s first major dramatic success with Bent, which brought to public awareness the persecution of gay men by the Nazi regime.

The play marked a radical break with tradition when it was first staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 1979; not only was the attitude of the Third Reich towards homosexuality little understood then, but honest portrayals of gay relationships were a rarity in at the time.

Since Bent first made his name, Sherman has seen his work produced in over 60 countries, but the main focus of the On the Boardwalk is the difficult years of his 20s and 30s before he was catapulted to fame.

We read of the searing pain of watching his mother succumb to Huntington’s disease, an inherited condition that cast a shadow over Sherman’s own early years.

Yet there are also many lighter moments when he mingles with the rich and famous.

Both an intensely personal tale and a historical chronicle of a key period in the cultural development of the UK and the US, On the Boardwalk has something for everyone.

On the Boardwalk by Martin Sherman is published by Inkandescent, ISBN: 978-1-912620-35-7; RRP: £14.99.