Leonard Bernstein’s daughter shares his music, story in Fort Myers
Charles Runnells, The News-Press Feb. 14, 2017
The show gets its title from Leonard Bernstein’s famous insomnia. He often stayed up until 4 or 5 a.m. writing music, and then he’d sleep until the following afternoon. “He just didn’t sleep,” says Jamie Bernstein, of New York City. “It’s amazing how much you can get done if you don’t sleep! “He was the kind of person who had an engine that couldn’t be shut off. He was just going all the time and his mind was just clicking away.”
Now Jamie Bernstein does what she can to keep her dad’s legacy alive and make sure people don’t forget about “Candide,” “Mass” and “West Side Story” (which director Steven Spielberg has announced plans to remake).
Younger people don’t know Bernstein as well as their parents and grandparents do, she says. So she hopes her traveling show inspires a few people to dig deeper and give his work a listen.
Still, she says, it’s inspiring that so many fans turn out to see “Late Night with Leonard Bernstein.” It shows that he won’t likely be forgotten anytime soon. “I love sharing stories about my dad,” she says. “And I love that people still remember him and his contributions.”