Broadway Bookshelf - Must Read Theater Books

Pop history of audiences through the ages. Walks us through the different types of audiences and the history of their changing behaviors, what science has to say about how our brains respond to what we experience, how technology will continue to shape audiences, and why, during COVID-19, people risked a deadly virus to be part of a crowd. Drawing on perspectives from critics, performers, scholars, and many others. 256 pages.

Libretto for 2022 musical version of David Lindsay-Abaire's Kimberly Akimbo, with score by Jeanine Tesori. 120 pages.

Biography of August Wilson by Patti Hartigan, who interviewed Wilson many times before his death and traces his life from his childhood in Pittsburgh to Broadway. She also interviewed scores of friends, theater colleagues and family members, and conducted extensive research to tell the story of a writer who left an indelible imprint on American theater and opened the door for future playwrights of color. 592 pages.

Follows the American dance legend from her premature birth into a single-parent home in Springfield, Massachusetts, to her first Broadway performance at age fifteen, through her days as a blazing icon in the world of Hollywood, and finally, to her inspiring comeback. From rare documents, letters, and production files; and drawing on the authors' intimate personal relationships with Powell.

Catalogues, categorizes, and analyzes the 269 musicals that opened on Broadway from the 2000-2001 season through the 2019-2020 season. 228 pages.

Featuring contributions from over eighty original cast members, creatives, crew and audience members, Out For Blood pieces together the surprising, hilarious and often-moving inside story of Carrie The Musical to discover how this 'horror of a Broadway musical' lived, died and was subsequently resurrected as a mainstream success story. In 1988, following the success of its production of Les Misérables and in the wake of the commercial success of mega-musicals such as Cats, Phantom of the Ope...

Play by Lauren Yee. 96 pages.

Play by Suzie Miller. Special edition features the definitive version of the award-winning script, together with colour photos and exclusive additional content. 144 pages.

Gives his account of how Evita, Cats, Starlight Express, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Chess, and Miss Saigon changed the business of musical theater in the 1980s. With insightful, personal stories from cast members, set designers, musical supervisors, dancers, lighting designers, production managers, singers, and choreographers ... and the backstage drama, production nightmares, and financial woes that threatened to derail the shows at multiple points. 268 pages.

Chronological review of the long journey to bring the culture of gay men and women onto the American stage. From the genteel female impersonators of the 1910s to the raucous drag queens of La Cage aux Folles, from the men of The Normal Heart to the women of Fun Home, and from Eva Le Gallienne and Tallulah Bankhead to Tennessee Williams and Nathan Lane .. chronicles the plays and people that brought gay culture to Broadway. 240 pages.

Photographs by Joan Marcus. Mixes clever cocktails that pay homage to unforgettable Broadway shows–such as the Rainbow High from Evita and the Sidecar Named Desire–with authentic recipes for drinks that played supporting roles in beloved shows–like the legendary Vodka Stinger from Company–and shakes it up with a history of the cocktail on Broadway. 30 drink recipes. Featured throughout are images from intoxicating images of classic shows to portraits of effervescent stage celebrities to vintage...

Chronicles the development of dance, with an emphasis on musicals and the Broadway stage, in the United States from its colonial beginnings to performances of the present day. 304 pages.

2012 Broadway musical with a score by Tom Kitt (music), Amanda Green (lyrics), Lin-Manuel Miranda (music and lyrics). A dozen songs from the musical in vocal line with piano accompaniment arrangements: "Cross the Line," "Enjoy the Trip," "I Got You," "It Ain't No Thing," "It's All Happening," "Killer Instinct," "Legendary," "One Perfect Moment," "Something Isn't Right Here," "Tryouts," "We Ain't No Cheerleaders," "We're Not Done."

Insight into the role of the casting director. Explains the jobs of all the other people involved in the casting process and how they influence casting decisions. 176 pages. Kindle Edition released earlier.

Memoir by Chita Rivera, with Patrick Pacheco. "Chita invites us into workrooms and rehearsal studies, on stage and on set as she works with some of the greatest talents of the age, including Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Hal Prince, Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis Jr, Gwen Verdon, Shirley MacLaine, and many others. We also learn deeply moving, revelatory details about her upbringing and her heritage, and how they indelibly shaped her work and career...

By Matt Howe. Foreword by Jay Landers. Covering the extensive recording career of Barbra Streisand - every album, soundtrack, and single Streisand has released. 304 pages.

Score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. 17 songs from the show arranged with vocal line and piano accompaniment. Titles include: "At the Old Majestic Nickel Matinee," "Baby, Let's Get Good," "A Darker Shade of Blue," "Fly, Mariposa, Fly," "He Lied When He Said Hello," "I'm California Bound," "Let's Be Bad," "Let's Dance the World Away," "Poor Little Millionaire," "Ride Out the Storm," "Some like It Hot," "Take It up a Step," "Vamp!," "What Are You Thirsty For?," "You Can't Have Me (If You Don'...

In the winter of 2002, Chechen terrorists entered the Dubrovka Theater in what became known as the Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis ... rebels would storm the stage and take the audience captive in an operation that lasted four days and claimed the lives of over 100 civilians. On that same night, at age 26, Broadway actress Meredith Patterson was less than one mile away at the MDM Theater, starring as Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street with Boris Yeltsin in attendance. Second in series of books, followin...

Second in a series. Includes a brief history of musicals, a brief survey of acting methods, myths about musicals and about acting, useful musical theatre terms, good books and documentaries, plus a wide array of other related topics, like using silence and stillness, the Fourth Wall, realism and naturalism, playing funny, playing sexy, acting traps, audition tips, the nature of “reality” onstage, and lots more. 80 pages.

Delves deeply into Shepard's life as well as the ways in which his work illuminates it. Takes readers through the world of downtown theater in Lower Manhattan in the early sixties; the jazz scene at New York's Village Gate; fringe theater in London in the seventies; Bob Dylan's legendary Rolling Thunder tour; the making of classic films Broadway productions. Greenfield interviewed dozens of people who knew Shepard well, many of whom had never before spoken on the record about him. While explori...

Play by Emma Donoghue. This updated and revised edition was published to coincide with the Broadway premiere in Spring 2023, which has been cancelled, so publishing may change. 96 pages. [A 2017 version is available on Amazon in Kindle format.]

Lavishly illustrated hands-on account of the creation of new theatre spaces spanning a century. A compelling history that is part memoir, part impassioned call to rethink the design of our theatre spaces and the future of live theatre. 256 pages.

Surveys 201 of the most significant selections from the Great American Songbook, ranging from celebrated masterpieces to forgotten gems. Year by year, Suskin puts songwriters and their contributions in their context, and explains what makes each song such a distinctive treat - whether felicitous melody, colorful harmony, compositional originality, or merely the sheer, irreducible joy of listening to it. 200 black & white and 96 full-color illustrations. 296 pages.

An exploration of the cultural impact of Blanche DuBois, examining Tennessee Williams's most enduring creation through the performances of seven brilliant actresses who have taken on the role: Jessica Tandy, Vivien Leigh, Ann-Margret, Jessica Lange, Patricia Clarkson, Cate Blanchett, and Jemier Jackson. Exploring themes of womanhood, sexuality, mental illness, and the idealized South, Blanche is an engrossing cultural history of a rich and complex character that sheds light on who we are. Photo...

Beginning with the stage debut of Show Boat in 1927 and concluding with the release the Cabaret filmed nearly a half century later in 1972. Explores the symbiotic relationship between a dozen Broadway musicals and their Hollywood film adaptations. Engages with aesthetic and critical concerns while also considering the social issues around Broadway and Hollywood film through the lenses of race and ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual identity. 368 pages.

A unique view of the theater's backstage life, props, wardrobe collections and rehearsal spaces through unprecedented access to life behind the scenes. All captured by Angela Moore's photographs. 200 pages.

The author uses her life story to empower and encourage anyone seeking to find and live their best life with beauty, dignity and a grace that radiates from within. 172 pages.

Collection of play by Anna Ziegler. The Wanderers (opening February 2022 for Roundabout Theatre Company), The Great Moment, Another Way Home, Actually. 224 pages.

. "... argues that Sondheim firmly belongs to the Broadway aspirational tradition, in that many of his characters are defined by their dreams: to abandon one's dream (as Ben does in Follies, Frank does in Merrily We Roll Along, and Addison does in Road Show) is to lose one's soul. 192 pages.

Story of Denton's nytheatre.com website, which began in 1997. A journey of one man remaking himself, following his heart and his passion, and along the way helping to forge a new and stronger identity for the indie theater community that he loved.

Anna Ziegler play opening next month at Roundabout Theatre Company. 80 pages.

Examines the careers of seven award-winning playwrights: David Adjmi, Julia Cho, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Will Eno, Martyna Majok, Dominique Morisseau and Anna Ziegler. Covering all their plays, including several as yet unpublished, nothing their critical reception while drawing on their own commentary on their approach to writing and the business of developing a career. 256 pages.

Charts the histories of Cameron Mackintosh's eight refurbished and rebuilt iconic London buildings: their origins, their stories, the iconic shows and productions, the stars and the glamour. Lavishly illustrated with images from the Delfont Mackintosh archive, also contains original architect plans and drawings, specially commissioned photographs of the refurbishment, show posters and other theatre ephemera, and many sweeping panoramas of the exquisitely finished spaces. 320 pages.

Explores how ability, sexuality, and size intersect with gender, race, and ethnicity in casting and performance. Asks/answers "Why did A Chorus Line, a show that sought to individuate dancers, inevitably make them indistinguishable? How does the use of fat suits in musicals like Dreamgirls and Hairspray stigmatize fatness? What were the political implications of casting two straight actors as the gay couple in La Cage aux Folles in 1983? How did deaf actors change the sound of musicals in Deaf...

In-depth look into the rise of the 1921 Broadway hit, Shuffle Along, the first all-Black musical to succeed on Broadway, with a score by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. Book by F. E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles. The story of how Sissle and Blake, along with comedians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, overcame poverty, racism, and violence to harness the energy of the Harlem Renaissance. 512 pages.

By Priscilla Gilman, daughter of writer, theater critic, and Yale School of Drama professor Richard Gilman. 304 pages.

Memoir by motion picture, television, and Broadway producer Julian Schlossberg. Foreword by Elaine May. 374 pages.

"Diving deep into Hammerstein’s life, examining his papers and his lyrics, critic Laurie Winer shows how he orchestrated a collective reimagining of America, urging it forward with a subtly progressive vision of the relationship between country and city, rich and poor, America and the rest of the world. His rejection of bitterness, his openness to strangers, and his optimistic humor shaped not only the musical but the American dream itself. His vision can continue to be a touchstone to this day...

" ... philosophical-ish musings on connection, creativity, loss, love, faith, and closure." In each chapter: behind-the-scenes stories from Kristin's personal life; high-design, colorful pages of inspirational quotes; engaging prompts, prayers, and inspiring quotes. Bible verses and f-bombs. 224 pages.

Comprehensive guide expands the study of musical theatre to include the ways we practice and experience musicals, their engagement with technology, and their navigation of international commercial marketplaces. The first collection to include global musical theatre in each chapter, reflecting the musical's status as the world's most popular theatrical form. Brings together practice and scholarship, featuring essays by leading and emerging scholars alongside luminaries such as Chinese musical th...

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1900) by Frank L. Baum has served as the basis for some of the most popular musicals on stage and screen. Show by show, Bunch highlights the forms and conventions of musical work as practiced in its time and context–such as the turn-of-the-century extravaganza, the classical Hollywood film musical, the Black Broadway musical of the 1970s, and the twenty-first-century mega-musical. He then shows how the journey of each show teaches participants and audiences somethi...

For those new to musical theatre. History of musical theater and shows born on Broadway or the West End that became cultural phenomena; development of productions, from the idea stage all the way through opening night and beyond; insights into how theater is made; insider advice on the skills you need to perform in professional or amateur musical theater productions; anecdotes and show recommendations. 384 pages.

Play by Stephen Adly Guirgis. 120 pages.

The author "notes the gender and ethnic stereotypes that Streisand shattered as the first openly Jewish superstar, while concentrating not just on the cultural difference she made but on the internal differentials of her unholy vocal gift-whose kinetic volatility shapes a kind of cinematic terrain all its own." 252 pages.

Personal collection of interviews with the late Stephen Sondheim, conducted in the last years of the artist's life (unedited from the February 22 New Yorker article). Audio versions narrated by Christopher Grove and Keith Sellon-Wright. 240 pages.

Presents the broader organization, its creative methodology, and its enormous growth over the past 20 years. Tells the contemporary story, recorded over many interviews with iconic practitioners and performers ranging from Diane Paulus, Tony Kushner and Lynn Nottage to Kevin Kline, Chelsea Clinton and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Case-study driven, One Public uses oral history accounts and authorial experience to illuminate The Public Theater, Eustis and their cultural influence on the city of New York ...

Play by James Ijames. Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Premiere at Public Theater in May 2022. 112 pages.

In a follow-up to his memoir, Jack Be Nimble, the director collects stories from the many productions he has worked on; the great talents he encountered and collaborated with; and the choices that he made, on the stage and off, that have come to define his career. He tells his readers how to become a director–or, at the very least, relates an unfailingly honest story of how he did.

Vocal selections songbook for Broadway musical by Michael R. Jackson. Arranged for vocal line with piano accompaniment. "Boundaries," "Didn't Want Nothin'," "Exile in Gayville," "Inner White Girl," "Intermission Song," "Inwood Daddy," "Memory Song," "Periodically," "Precious Little Dream / AIDS Is God's Punishment," "Second Wave," "A Strange Loop," "A Sympathetic Ear," "Today," "Tyler Perry Writes Real Life," "We Wanna Know." 136 pages

Detailed history of one of the most beloved American murder-mysteries and comedies, Joseph Kesselring's Arsenic and Old Lace. Follows the actors, both on the stage and on the screen, as they handle the demands of the roles and behind-the-scenes relationships. 168 pages.