Broadway Autobiographies

In this follow-up to her critically acclaimed memoir, Home, Julie Andrews shares reflections on her astonishing career, including such classics as Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Victor/Victoria. In Home, the number one New York Times international bestseller, Julie Andrews recounted her difficult childhood and her emergence as an acclaimed singer and performer on the stage. With this second memoir, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years, Julie picks up the story with her arrival...

The titanic choreographer, creator of memorable ballets, master of Broadway musicals, legendary show doctor and director, now revealed in his own words--the closest we will get to a memoir/autobiography--from his voluminous letters, journals, notes, diaries, never before published. Edited, and with commentary by Amanda Vaill, author of Robbins's biography, Somewhere, 2006 ("I can't imagine a better book about Robbins ever being written"--Terry Teachout, chief drama critic, The Wall Street Journ...

“I am over the moon that Albert Poland has written STAGES, a fascinating and revelatory memoir of his life in the world of New York Theater and beyond.” –ALAN MENKEN Albert Poland Legendary Broadway and Off Broadway Producer and General Manager presents STAGES – A THEATER MEMOIR

Richard Wesley was witness to a revolution. As both a celebrated participant and eager student of the Black Theater Movement in the late 1960s, he became part of a seismic force in American culture, breaking down barriers and helping to disrupt the cultural landscape. It?s Always Loud in the Balcony: A Life in Black Theater, from Harlem to Hollywood and Back is both history and memoir, tracing Wesley?s roots from riot-torn Newark, New Jersey, across the rocky terrain of Harlem, and finally to H...

The oldest daughter of revered composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein offers a rare look at her father on the centennial of his birth in a deeply intimate and broadly evocative memoir The composer of On the Town and West Side Story, chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic, television star, humanitarian, friend of the powerful and influential, and the life of every party, Leonard Bernstein was an enormous celebrity during one of the headiest periods of American cultural life, as well as th...

In this fast-moving, candid, conversational, and entertaining memoir, Harold Prince, the most honored director/producer in the history of the American theater looks back over his seventy-year (and counting!) career. In 1974, Prince released his first book, Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre. Although Contradictions has since attained cult status among producers, directors, and actors alike, Prince, in hindsight, believes he wasn't ready to publish such a tome at that po...

Standing in front of a full-length mirror in my dressing room at ITV studios, waiting to go on to the set of Backchat, I had a brief conversation with my reflection. 'Michael, what the f*** do you think you're doing?' Theatrical agent Michael Whitehall spent a career pushing others into the spotlight. He had been involved behind the scenes with the careers of many prominent actors, including Colin Firth, Richard Griffiths, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tom Courtenay, Ian Ogilvy, Judi Dench, Edward Fo...

A legendary beauty, hailed as one of the greatest singing actors of her time, Jarmila Novotná (1907–1994) was an internationally known opera soprano from the former Czechoslovakia. Best known for her performances in Der Rosenkavalier, The Marriage of Figaro, and La Traviata, she was a celebrated performer at the Metropolitan Opera and other theaters across Europe and the United States. A "natural screen actress," Novotná also appeared in Hollywood hits such as The Search (1948) with Montgomery ...

In 2012, Sarah Ruhl was a distinguished author and playwright, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Max Ritvo, a student in her playwriting class at Yale University, was an exuberant, opinionated, and highly gifted poet. He was also in remission from pediatric cancer. Over the next four years?in which Ritvo’s illness returned and his health declined, even as his productivity bloomed?the two exchanged letters that spark with urgency, humor, and the desire for connection. Reincarnation, bo...

The Street Where I Live is at once an intimate biography of three great shows?My Fair Lady, Gigi, and Camelot?and a candid account of the life and times of Alan Jay Lerner, one of America’s most acclaimed and popular lyricists. Large-hearted, humorous, and often poignant in its reverence for a celebrated era in the American theater, it is the story of what Lerner calls “the sundown of wit, eccentricity, and glamour.” Try as he might to keep himself out of these pages, Lerner reveals himself to ...

"You have the luck of Croesus on stilts (as my Auntie Vi would have said) if you’ve had the sort of career, ups and downs, warts and all that I have in that wondrous little corner of show business called musical theatre." One of the most successful and distinguished artists of our time, Andrew Lloyd Webber has reigned over the musical theatre world for nearly five decades. The winner of numerous awards, including multiple Tonys and an Oscar, Lloyd Webber has enchanted millions worldwide with...

Coming soon

One of the greatest American singers and actresses of her generation looks back on a magical and turbulent life spanning a half century of theatrical history from the golden age of the Broadway musical to the present day. A legend of the American theater, Barbara Cook burst upon the scene to become Broadway’s leading ingénue in roles such as Cunégonde in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, Amalia Balash in Jerry Bock’s She Loves Me, and her career-defining, Tony-winning role as the original Marian ...

Falling off Broadway is a witty, entertaining memoir by Tony Award-winning producer David Black of his adventures on Broadway. The book is filled with revealing personal accounts of theatrical luminaries and well-known figures such as Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Julie Harris, Gene Hackman, Joel Grey, Bernadette Peters, Burt Reynolds, Julie Andrews, Groucho Marx, Joshua Logan, Alan King, David Merrick, Donald Trump, and Richard Nixon. This memoir is based on David Black's one-man play, which...

Father takes six-year-old daughter to see summer production of Into the Woods thinking in his ignorance it would be appropriate for children because it’s about fairy tales. Problem is that her mother died when daughter was three weeks old, and seeing the show opens the floodgates to almost seven years of unresolved grief for father and daughter both. Next morning, daughter wakes father and begs him to take her to see it again. And the same the next morning, and the next after that. And so begin...

Following her “extraordinary” (Vanity Fair), “evocative” (The New York Times), “magically beautiful” (The Boston Globe), “gorgeously written” (O, The Oprah Magazine) coming-of-age memoir, Academy Award-winning actress Anjelica Huston writes about her relationship with Jack Nicholson, her rise to stardom, her work with the greatest directors in Hollywood, her love affair with her husband, and much more. Anjelica Huston was twenty-nine years old and trying to create a place for herself as an a...

As a playwright, screenwriter, and director, Arthur Laurents has a unique place in the history of theater. In this moving, exhilarating, and provocative account, he presents readers with a front-row look at the making of two of the greatest musicals of the American stage, West Side Story and Gypsy. He writes in rich detail about his new bilingual production of West Side Story, along with his most recent production of Gypsy, how it began as an act of love, and how that love spread through the en...

A compilation of Seth's hilarious, Broadway-centric "Onstage and Backstage" columns for Playbill.com, chronicling Seth Rudetsky's unique life on and around the Great White Way. Seth's Broadway Diary is full of his personal Broadway experiences, such as going to the final performance and party for Rent, watching in terror as Jeff Bowen was dragged off the stage during [title of show] and the night he saw Spring Awakening and helped Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele break (-ish) the law. Plus, insid...

Beloved stage and screen actor Danny Aiello’s big-hearted memoir reveals a man of passion, integrity, and guts—and lays bare one of the most unlikely success stories ever told. Danny Aiello admits that he backed into his acting career by mistake. That’s easy to see when you begin at the beginning: Raised by his loving and fiercely resilient mother in the tenements of Manhattan and the South Bronx, and forever haunted by the death of his infant brother, Danny struggled early on to define who ...

Caravan to Oz is a memoir of The Harris Family's artistic and personal journey. The story begins on the cusp of America's explosive social, cultural and artistic revolution of the 1960s and culminates with the impact and aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001. Life and art collide in this candid, often flamboyant, family memoir. Between their tiny garage theatre in Florida and thundering acclaim on the stages of New York and Europe, the Harris family reinvented ...

Larry Spellman tells his personal story in a unique memoir of how his show business life met the mafia when he married his wife, a daughter of the New York mob. It's a look behind the glamor in the humorous and touching story of a city kid who made good in a tough business --and won the heart of the girl of his dreams. Top William Morris agent, theatrical and film producer, Mafia insider, father and husband, Larry's rich and colorful story is not to be missed.

The star of the hit show Glee shares her experiences and insider tips on beauty, fashion, inner strength, and more in an illustrated book that’s part memoir, part how-to, and part style guide. Lea Michele is one of the hardest working performers in show business. Whether she’s starring as Rachel Berry on Glee, rocking a glamorous look on the red carpet, recording her solo album, or acting as the spokesperson for L’Oreal, Lea is the ultimate multi-tasker. She knows better than anyone that ...

“You are going to meet the real flesh-and-blood Shirley Jones, not just the movie star or Mrs. Partridge,” says the beloved film, television, and stage actress and singer of her long-awaited memoir, an account as shockingly direct, deliciously juicy, and delightfully frank as the performer herself. Sharing the “candid” (Los Angeles Times) and “revealing” (Associated Press) details of her life in Hollywood’s inner circle and beyond, Shirley Jones blows past the wholesome, squeaky-clean image ...

Lonnie Burr never wanted to be a Mouseketeer. When Disney offered him the ears, he turned them down. He was already an established child star, and he didn't want to take a chance on some oddball project involving "Mouseketeers". The next day Lonnie's mom got a call from Disney: "If you don't accept our offer, your son will never work in this town again." Lonnie took the offer. He became famous, his face on magazine covers, the idol of millions of fans, across the world. And then, in 1959, it wa...

* This e-book contains 10 new illustrations. The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personæ in order to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as mar...

Unsinkable is the definitive memoir by film legend and Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds. Actress, comedienne, singer, and dancer Debbie Reynolds shares the highs and lows of her life as an actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age, anecdotes about her lifelong friendship with Elizabeth Taylor and her experiences as the foremost collector of Hollywood memorabilia, and intimate details of her marriages and family life with her children, Carrie and Todd Fisher. A story of heartbreak, hope, and sur...

In this luminous memoir, Rita Moreno shares her remarkable journey from a young girl with simple beginnings in Puerto Rico to Hollywood legend—and one of the few performers, and the only Hispanic, to win an Oscar, Grammy, Tony and two Emmys. Born Rosita Dolores Alverio in the idyll of Puerto Rico, Moreno, at age five, embarked on a harrowing sea voyage with her mother and wound up in the harsh barrios of the Bronx, where she discovered dancing, singing, and acting as ways to escape a tumult...

From car mechanic to internationally loved opera, musical and recording star: the story of Alfie Boe...Alfie Boe is the first official bad boy of opera: a musical superstar celebrated not only in Britain, but worldwide. This is the story of his life - the ups and the downs, from finding fame to losing his father - and, essentially, of his love affair with music. Raised in Lancashire, the youngest of nine children and with a father who played opera at home, Alfie's story is not typical of most mu...

John Pizzarelli, the son of jazz guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli, is a connoisseur of American song who grew up among the legends of jazz. From teenage explorations of rock music to life on the road with his father, he worked his way from gigs in tiny clubs to opening for Frank Sinatra during his final international tour. Now Pizzarelli performs in festivals and top venues across the United States and the world, and he shares his unique journey in this revealing, charming, and heartwarming memoir...

Laurents passed away early in 2011 but not before writing The Rest of the Story, in which he revealed all that had happened in his life since Original Story By, filled with the wisdom he gained by growing older and a new perspective brought on by Laurents' experience of deep personal loss, including the death of his longtime companion, Tom Hatcher. Laurents' style remains engrossing and brutally honest. His voice is still highly intelligent, loving, generous, and gracious. He remained committed ...

Best known for the hit musicals West Side Story and Gypsy , Arthur Laurents began his career writing socially minded plays such as Home of the Brave and Time of the Cuckoo . He also garnered impressive credits as a screenwriter ( The Way We Were ) and stage director ( La Cage aux Folles ). Such a varied professional life makes for absorbing reading, as unleashed in his lively 2000 autobiography, Original Story By . Laurents passed away early in 2011 but not before writing The Rest of the Story ...

Cyndi Lauper is a singer-songwriter who has released eleven albums and over forty singles. Her hit singles include 'Time After Time,' 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,' and 'True Colors.' She starred as Jenny in THE THREEPENNY OPERA on Broadway. Her most recent project, Kinky Boots, will have its pre-Broadway world premiere in Chicago this fall. Directed and choreographed by Tony® Award-winner Jerry Mitchell, Kinky Boots will play the Bank of America Theatre (18 West Monroe Street, Chicago, IL) i...

Everyone has heard of the Jersey Boys. Thirteen million people have seen the show, totaling more than $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Jersey Boys tells the true-life story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and features such hits as "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like A Man," and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You." The production is currently in its seventh year on Broadway, and is also playing in Las Vegas, London, Auckland, and is on two US National Tours. Since its debut in 200...

Theatre and architecture are seeming opposites: one a time-based art-form experienced in space, the other a spacial art experienced over time.This book will explore and disprovethese assumptions, demonstrating ways in which theatre and architecture are co-constitutive and contextualizing their dynamic and complex inter-relationship historically and culturally

Light contains a range of classic accounts and rare documents that offer not only different approaches to light as a creative force in performance, but also an account ofits rich history as a practice. Considered through its equipment, its dramaturgy, and as an element of design, light is shown to have aprofound effect on an audience.

For more than seven decades the circuses enjoyed tremendous popularity in the Soviet Union. How did the circus—an institution that dethroned figures of authority and refused any orderly narrative structure—become such a cultural mainstay in a state known for blunt and didactic messages? Miriam Neirick argues that the variety, flexibility, and indeterminacy of the modern circus accounted for its appeal not only to diverse viewers but also to the Soviet state. In a society where government-legiti...

Theater Careers is designed to empower aspiring theater professionals to make savvy, informed decisions through a concise overview of how to prepare for and find work in the theater business. Tim Donahue and Jim Patterson offer well-researched information on various professions, salary ranges, educational and experience requirements, and other facets certain to enlighten students contemplating a theater career, as well as inform counselors, teachers, and parents of available opportunities and t...

The Memory of All That is Katharine Weber’s memoir of her extraordinary family. Her maternal grandmother, Kay Swift, was known both for her own music (she was the first woman to compose the score to a hit Broadway show, Fine and Dandy) and for her ten-year romance with George Gershwin. Their love affair began during Swift’s marriage to James Paul Warburg, the multitalented banker and economist who advised (and feuded with) FDR. Weber creates an intriguing and intimate group portrait of the r...

The autobiographical account by one of German theater's great actors of his life in the theater.

This groundbreaking anthology, part of theWomen, Theatre and Performanceseries, brings together an extraordinary mix of one-act and full length plays and solo performance texts written by women. Included in the volume are texts by Beatrice Herford, Ruth Draper, Zora Neale Hurston, and G.B. Stern, originally performed across commercial and amateur theaters in Britain and America. Some of the plays have remained unpublished since their original performance – Georgina Weldon'sNot Alone, Clothilde ...

A vibrant, exuberant self-portrait of one of today’s greatest living actors. Christopher Plummer’s magnificent book recounts the wild adventure that is his life, stretching from a privileged childhood in Canada to the glorious, star-studded New York of the fifties to a sensational career in film appearing in some of our most beloved classics. Here are his late nights out with Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, Paddy Chayefsky, and Arthur Miller; his affairs and marriages; his collaboratio...

HOWARD SHERMAN is an arts administrator, advocate and writer. Howard was executive director of the American Theatre Wing from 2003 to 2011. During that time, his varied responsibilities included serving as executive producer and occasional moderator of the television program “Working in the Theatre”; creating and hosting the audio program “Downstage Center”; incorporating SpringboardNYC, the Theatre Intern Group and The Jonathan Larson Grants into ATW’s programming; leading ATW’s utilization of...

Conducting an orchestra is something that is seen as well as heard, but it is quite misunderstood when it comes to knowing what this person actually does for a living. This most mysterious of jobs is brought to life for the music lover as well as for the aspiring maestro in a new book by Leonard Slatkin. Drawing on his own experiences on and off the podium, Slatkin brings us into the world of the baton. He tells tales of some of the most fascinating people in the musical world, including Frank ...

Rita Hayworth dancing by candlelight in a small Mexican village; Elizabeth Taylor devouring homemade pasta and tenderly wrapping him in her pashmina scarf; streaking for Sir Laurence Olivier in a drafty English castle; terrifying a dozing Jackie Onassis; carrying an unconscious Montgomery Clift to safety on a dark New York City street. Captured forever in a unique memoir, Frank Langella's myriad encounters with some of the past century's most famous human beings are profoundly affecting, funn...

"I've been waiting for someone to write this book for years: a thorough-going analysis and reconsideration of American approaches to Stanislavsky from a feminist perspective ... lively, intelligent, and engaging." Phillip Zarrilli, University of Exeter "Theatre people of any gender will be transformed by Rose Malague’s eye-opening study An Actress Prepares. Women performers have long needed this trenchant analysis of the craft of method acting, one that intervenes in its more sexist tendencie...

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1885. Excerpt: ... CLOSING SCENES. DECEMBER 7th.--Mr. Irving's engagement, which began on November ioth, was ended last night. It has filled a period of four weeks and it has been prosperous to the actor and advantageous to the public. The pieces presented were, with two exceptions, those in which Mr. Irving and Miss Terry had been see...

All the excitement of Broadway during the glory days of the Great White Way comes to life in Tales of a Broadway Flack, David A. Longs engrossing new biography about Sol Jacobson, press agent for some of Broadways most memorable shows and legendary performers, from Desi Arnaz and Eddie Bracken (Too Many Girls, 1939), Boris Karloff (Arsenic and Old Lace, 1941), Tallulah Bankhead (The Skin of Our Teeth, 1942), to Zero Mostel (Fiddler on the Roof, 1964) with a plethora of shows in between. If you ...

One of Hollywood's most talented and memorable actresses ("The Hustler, Carrie") and three-time Oscar nominee presents an intimate memoir covering her life and career.