Ghost light, in theater parlance, is that single light left burning at center stage after the audience, actors, and musicians have gone home. Superstition says that without it, a ghost will take up residence in the dark theater. Frank Rich"s compelling chronicle of his youth tells how theater itself became his ghost light, a beacon of security for a child finding his way through a tumultuous world. Struggling with his parents" divorce and the universal trials of childhood, Rich took refuge in the spectacle and emotional power of the great musicals - South Pacific, Carousel, The Music Man - and eventually found a second home at Washington"s National Theatre, where he worked as a ticket-taker. The author writes lovingly of how his favorite songs, shows, and actors became a lifeline, leading him from the terrors of daily life to the tinsel dreams of Broadway, whose denizens welcomed him into its last golden era.