Kate Winslet's director hubby's work slammed by Broadway legend

Kate Winslet's director husband Sam Mendes' theatre work has been slammed in a new tell-all book by a Broadway legend.

Tony-winning playwright Arthur Laurents has lashed out at the Revolutionary Road director for his 2003 Broadway revival of Gypsy, starring Bernadette Peters, reports Contactmusic.

Laurents writes in his new memoir, Mainly on Directing: "'Surprised' was not the word for my reaction to what Sam Mendes did. 'Surprised' is a happy word."

In the book, Laurents has also criticised Mendes' involvement in the New York Theatre Workshop production of Wiseguys.

"Its second act was unfinished, and its director had come straight from editing his first film - American Beauty - without time to digest the material. Why they went ahead then is a mystery," Laurents states in the book.

The book is slated to release in March (09), reports The New York Post.