StarLust Book: Advance Praise & Reviews

Ezra Kliger

From day one, as Concertmaster for his United Artists album, I discovered that Jesse Cutler was a man of enormous talent. His deeply emotional and sweeping melodies gave wings to my inner soul. May this book be an inspiration to those seeking to have their careers take careful and successful flight.
Ezra Kliger
Violinist/Conductor
Los Angeles, CA

Joe Renzetti,

In 1976, I was 35; Jesse Cutler was a twenty-something. Jesse was a really good looking Italian boy from New York. The girls loved him. Jesse was a killer singer and wrote great songs, so much so that he landed a nice recording deal with United Artists to make an album. He chose me to arrange and produce it. I had just come off of arranging the strings for Barry Manilow’s hit song “Mandy.” With the great arrangements and Jesse’s voice—and a bunch of really great musicians—we made a wonderful album. The music was all engulfing. It consumed us. We lived ‘the life’ of show businesses, Jesse and I, and although neither of us fell into the usual traps, we had a ball. It was the life of dreams—we knew it, and savored it.

Most young upstarts would sacrifice body parts for that experience, and many did.

Jesse and I also flirted with the film biz. In 1978, I won an Oscar as the music producer/composer for the independent film The Buddy Holly Story. I brought Jesse in as the guitar player, and he peopled the band in the very last scene with many of his musical friends. So, there we were, Jessie and Joe. We spent some wonderful years together in La La Land. We lived it up. It was wonderful, and I hope that anyone reading this will have fun. It was a trip. It was show-business in the ‘70s, and it was a wild ride.
Joe Renzetti
Academy Award-winning Composer/Arranger
Bucks County, PA

Nina DeVanguardia

As a mother of an 8 year old daughter who is interested in becoming a model or an actress, the StarLust™ book was very enlightening and gave me an insider’s perspective of the inner workings of the entertainment industry and the secret world of show business.
Nina DeVanguardia
Mother of two
Winter Park, FL

Stephen Schwartz

I was fascinated to read Jesse Cutler’s description of his experiences with Godspell. While Jesse describes moments where he feels he was arrogant or where he missed opportunities, I always found working with him a terrific experience. To me, his creativity, enthusiasm, and unique style of guitar playing greatly enhanced the arrangements of the score and helped to define a particular kind of “pop Broadway” style. It amazes me to read what was going on in his head and heart at the time of Godspell, but that’s part of what makes this book so interesting.
Stephen Schwartz
Academy Award-winning Composer
New York, NY

Stanley B. Herman

Life is an art, and talent lies in the imagination. And if you’re inspired by a dream, you will have harnessed a great source of energy to make that dream come true. I’ve watched Jesse Cutler build on dreams many times. He represents the indelible dream maker who epitomizes my philosophy to its fullest. To Art. To Artists!
Stanley B. Herman
Actor/Producer/Entrepreneur (Requiem for a Dream)
Los Angeles, CA