15th Anniversary Edition of Steven Sorrentino's LUNCHEONETTE: A MEMOIR is Now Available

Gerard West Media announced today that a fifteenth anniversary edition of Steven Sorrentino's Luncheonette: A Memoir-featuring a new author's note, photos and more-is now available in paperback and eBook formats from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, the bestselling novel and basis of the hit Broadway musical, said "Treat yourself...Sorrentino has prepared a repast from the past: sumptuous, funny, cuttingly told, rewarding."

When a rare condition suddenly rendered his father paraplegic on Christmas Eve 1980, twenty-three-year-old Steven Sorrentino stowed away his dreams of a Broadway career-not to mention his budding sexuality-left New York City, went back into the closet, and returned to his small hometown of West Long Branch, New Jersey to take over Clint's Corner, his father's luncheonette. There, he found himself at the grill flipping porkroll and slowly flipping out. With the ribald head waitress, Dolores, and a counter full of eccentrics surrounding him, Steven watched his father refuse to accept defeat, even going on to be elected the town's first mayor in a wheelchair. Somehow, the more his father triumphed, the more Steven became the paralyzed one. Guilty and confused, he made a shocking and desperate decision-not knowing that he was about to stumble upon the secrets of his father's resilience. Luncheonette is an irresistible story about a son's complicated loyalty to his father, and the inspirational life lessons found in the most unexpected places.

When COVID-19 shut down the Broadway theater and the pipeline for my work, like so many people I was feeling defeated and lost," said Sorrentino. "But then I was reminded of my father's extraordinary triumph over his sudden paralysis back in 1980, and I thought what a perfect time to revisit my memoir of those years. After all, music and theater was a special part of our bond." He added, "I went right to work creating this updated edition that I hope will lift readers up and provide some hearty laughs in these social distancing times."

Steven Sorrentino is most recently known as producer and host of "Live at Barnes & Noble", an event series with a theatrical format he created in 2006, featuring performances by Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, Patti LuPone, Kelli O'Hara, Rebecca Luker, Stephen Schwartz, Leslie Uggams, Betty Buckley, Marin Mazzie, Linda Lavin, Donna McKechnie, Marvin Hamlisch, and many other Broadway luminaries-as well as cast performances from Jagged Little Pill, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, Once On This Island, The Band's Visit, An American in Paris, Come From Away and nearly one hundred other Broadway and Off-Broadway shows to promote original cast recordings. He has also conducted onstage interviews with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Joel Grey, Barbara Cook, Cloris Leachman, Ben Vereen, Andy Williams, Burt Bacharach, Sutton Foster, George Hamilton and more.

Sorrentino began his career in public relations in 1987 as a publicist for Harper & Row, eventually becoming Vice President and Executive Director of Publicity for HarperCollins Publishers. While there, he directed campaigns for numerous #1 New York Times bestsellers, working with a wide array of controversial and political figures, film and television stars, and literary authors-including Ginger Rogers, Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Margaret Thatcher, Joan Rivers, Armistead Maupin, Marilu Henner, Wally Lamb, Jay Leno, Fran Drescher and more.