And while I enjoyed Arthur Laurents' work, I know of a particularly cruel casting couch episode that never made me fond of the man.
Laurents was on the original board of directors for the New York City Gay Men's Chorus, and he was a total horror. I think the only good thng he did - and I believe he was the source - was to involve Steve Sondheim to the Chorus. He got his nose bent out of joint over a medley of songs from "La Cage aux Folles" that I had arranged, sent the Chorus MD a nasty note condemning the medley and me, and resigned. As Mary Rodgers Guettel said about him a couple of years ago, "Call me when he's dead."
I love his play "Invitation to a March," which is essentially "The Sleeping Beauty" set in the Hamptons.
This has nothing to do with Laurents, but your comment reminded me of a story about
INVITATION TO A MARCH.
Back in Seattle during the early 1960s, there was a young actress whose name was "Pam".
At auditions, she gave the greatest reading you ever heard...and directors who didn't know her would always give her the role. In fact, I gave her the female lead in the first play I ever directed.
The problem was that Pam never grew from that first reading. No matter how much direction you gave her, she was cemented into that initial performance.
I don't know what Pam's father did, but he claimed he was close friends with a "big shot" at MGM, who would be sure to fly up to Seattle to see Pam perform. [
Now, you know why I didn't replace her, as I wanted to.] The guy never came.
A couple years go by, and Daddy somehow gets the financing for a 1-week run of
INVITATION TO A MARCH at Seattle's Moore Theater...where a lot of national companies played. And, they hire Hugh Marlowe and his then wife, K.T. Stevens, to play the leads.
Naturally, Pam is cast as the young girl in the play.
During rehearsal, Marlowe and Stevens are sitting in the audience, watching Pam play a scene, and a disgusted Marlowe leans over to his wife and says in a loud whisper,
"F**k her!" 
A couple of years later, Pam went to Hollywood and a publicity photo appeared in the Seattle paper of her with Paul Newman. She was an extra in
THE PRIZE, which was an MGM picture.
When I saw the movie, I could not spot her.
No idea what happened to her after that.
