16 Theater Books for Your Spring 2026 Reading List
Broadway authors this season include Liza Minnelli, Billy Porter, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, and more.
Need a great book to spring into the new season? This spring, Broadway's best have put pen to paper to turn out theatre page-turners of every kind. From theatre biographies to theatre fiction; theatre books for kids to theatre history; check out our collection of 16 new Broadway books for every theatre lover's Spring 2026 reading list.
Check out recent releases and view upcoming books for later this year!
How to Succeed in Musical Theatre Without Really Dying: The Actor's Guide to Booking Work and Building a Career That Lasts
By Lindsay Mendez and Ryan Scott Oliver
Available Now
When it comes to a career in musical theatre, forget the myth of an “it factor”—your success is in your hands. The path to excellence requires daily determination and savvy strategy to help you stand out from the rest. Acclaimed master teachers Lindsay Mendez and Ryan Scott Oliver are here to show you the way. Many musical theatre actors confuse competence with excellence. We mistake arriving in NYC with a well-trained voice, a pricy headshot, and general show biz acumen for being ready to work where Broadway happens. Then, when too many auditions end up no-gos, we assume it’s not meant to be and book a one-way ticket back home. If only a fairy godmother had told them the truth: Show business has more to do with business than show. Building a lucrative and lifelong career in musical theatre is far more in an actor’s control than not.
Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!
By Liza Minnelli
Available Now
Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! is the autobiography of EGOT icon Liza Minnelli. This fascinating, untold story reveals the intimate truth of the only child born to Hollywood legends Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland. For the first time, here is Liza up close: Raw, strong, sexy, hilarious and heartbreaking. Liza decided at the age of 16 that “sympathy is my mother’s business. I give people joy.” That veil of joy, however, masks a lifelong struggle with Substance Use Disorder ("SUD," which Liza inherited from her mother's branch of her family), boundless love to give and an equal need to receive it, broken marriages, multiple miscarriages, and hospitalizations—the highs and lows of unparalleled artistic success and lifelong friendships, as well as chronic anxiety and the threat of financial ruin.
Adaptation in Musical Theatre
By Adam Rush
Available Now
Adaptation in Musical Theatre positions musical theatre as part of a broader cultural trend of recycling, referencing, remixing and alluding to existing creative works and texts. Despite critics often dismissing stage adaptations as lazy and safe bet options for producers, this book argues that crafting an adaptation enables creative teams to take fresh and imaginative approaches to a source text, given the multitude of ways in which the structures and styles of two (or more) different media can be combined. From Les Misérables to Wicked, by way of Legally Blonde and Fun Home, this lively book addresses several modern musicals, each adapted from a different type of source – including fiction, film and graphic novels – and each offering a different approach to adapting existing work.
Songbird in the Light: A Picture Book
By Billy Porter
Available Now
From beloved Broadway icon Billy Porter, rising-star author Chris Clarkson, and award-winning illustrator Charly Palmer comes a beautiful picture book about the power of finding your voice. Mama says her little boy is a songbird with a voice bigger than his whole body. But at school, his classmates make fun of the way he walks and the way he talks―which makes him feel like a songbird too shy to sing. With the encouragement of his choir teacher, he embraces his talent, realizing that his voice is unique and distinct. When it’s time for the school showcase, he’s finally ready to embrace his joyful talent and share it with the world.
Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy
By Daniel Okrent
Available Now
Okrent shines new light on Sondheim’s complicated emotional life, wavering self-confidence, and alcoholism, drawing on the artist’s intimate correspondence with such notable figures as Hal Prince, Leonard Bernstein, and Arthur Laurents; exclusive interviews with his close friends and collaborators, including James Lapine and John Weidman; and Sondheim’s own oral history, which remained closed until his death. He also reveals a previously unknown (and crucial) aspect of the infamous letter from Sondheim’s mother that made him believe she regretted his birth. As Okrent explores the ways Sondheim’s music and lyrics express the inner man, he shows us a life that was defined by two parallel arcs: the movement from alienation to connection, and from ambivalence to resolution.
Limelight
By Andrew Keenan-Bolger
Available Now
The only thing standing between Danny and his dreams is…everything. For fifteen years, Danny Victorio has kept his head down, kept his mouth shut, and kept everyone out. But an audition for Manhattan’s most prestigious arts school offers him a chance to escape Staten Island—and his crumbling family—for good. If he doesn’t screw everything up. At LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, Danny is thrust into a world of fierce talent and even fiercer ambition. As he navigates overwhelming expectations, the ghosts of his past, and, for the first time, real friendship, Danny can’t shake the question: Where do I belong…if I belong at all?
Making Rent: The Story Behind the Music that Changed Broadway
By Tim Weil
Avialable Now
From the musical director of Rent comes a thirtieth-anniversary account of how Broadway’s iconic grunge rock show and its music were made and how they would forever reshape musical theater. Thirty years after Rent, Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking rock opera, opened on Broadway, you would be hard-pressed to find a musical theater fan who doesn’t know at least some of the show’s iconic tunes by heart. “Take Me or Leave Me,” “Light My Candle,” “La Vie Boheme,” and the ubiquitous “Seasons of Love” revolutionized the kind of music heard on the Broadway stage. Much of the impact comes from the show’s musical style, a singular blend of grunge rock, power pop, gospel, and R & B that was brought to life by the show’s onstage band, headed by the legendary musical director Tim Weil.
Theater Acting: Mastering the Art of Live Performance on the Modern Stage
By Erin Floyd-Smith
Available Now
Have you ever walked into a theater just before curtain time and felt that electricity in the air — that unmistakable mix of anticipation and aliveness that you simply cannot get anywhere else? That magic doesn't just happen. It's built, night after night, by actors who have learned to master one of the most demanding and deeply rewarding art forms in human history. Theater Acting: Mastering the Art of Live Performance on the Modern Stage is the complete guide to thriving under the lights. Whether you're a screen actor making the leap to the stage, a student stepping into your first serious production, or an experienced performer ready to go deeper into your craft, this book gives you the tools, insights, and techniques to command any stage with confidence and authenticity.
Drama Scripts for Kids: 35 Original Acting Scripts for Kids Ages 10-14
By Anne Taylor
Available Now
Drama Scripts for Kids is a fun, classroom-ready collection of acting scripts for kids ages 10-14. Written by a drama teacher with over 25 years of experience in mainstream schools, this book is created for real mixed-ability classrooms. Inside you’ll find: 15 engaging plays, 20 performance-ready monologues, Scripts perfect for drama lessons, workshops, auditions, clubs, and school performances, and more.
Cowboys at the Ballet: The Story of Choreographer Agnes de Mille
By Claire Wrenn Bobrow
Available March 31, 2026
In a dusty California town, Agnes de Mille dreams of becoming a dancer. She gallops to New York, then London, performing a show here, a dance there, combining old steps with new. But no one knows what to make of Agnes. She’s not a ballet dancer or a modern dancer or a folk dancer. So what is she? Then one summer she attends a rodeo, where the cowboys’ powerful and unbridled movements transform her life—and the history of dance—forever.
Stage Page: Memories of (mostly) Marvelous St. Louis Theater
By Dennis Brown
Available April 21, 2026
Seventy-seven theater reviews, written by Dennis Brown between 2001 and 2013 for the St. Louis weekly, The Riverfront Times, once again see the light of day with the publication of "Stage Page: Memories of (mostly) Marvelous St. Louis Theater." The anthology is enlivened with 47 all-new illustrations by gifted artist Marjorie Williamson. The 77 reviews (mostly) celebrate productions from 30 different producing venues. Some of these venues (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the Muny) continue to thrive, while others (Act Inc., Orange Girls) are relegated to fond memory. But during that first decade after America was rocked by 9-11, these venues provided St. Louis with often vital, challenging theater. In addition to the reviews, "Stage Page" also includes conversations with composers Stephen Schwartz ("Wicked") and Hugh Martin ("Meet Me in St. Louis"), as well as actors Ken Page, Estelle Parsons, and Lee Roy Reams. The delightful illustrations by Marjorie Williamson add zest and humor
to the pieces.
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Hirschfeld's Icons: A Poster Book
By David Leopold
Available April 28, 2026
When it comes to icons, Al Hirschfeld captured just about all from his era: Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Elvis Presley, Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, Sammy Davis Jr., Chita Rivera, Richard Pryor, Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers. Hirschfeld’s drawings over an unprecedented 80-year career have often become the definitive representations of these performers. Hirschfeld’s Icons contains the master's portraits of these icons, some of the greatest actors, actresses, musicians, movie, and TV stars of the past century. No other artist has had a front-row seat to pop culture the way Hirschfeld did.
David Auburn Collected Plays
By David Auburn
Available May 14, 2026
Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning author David Auburn is an American dramatist who never fails to write astute and compelling dramas that grapple with large questions. In this collection of his work spanning 23 years his celebrated plays are anthologised together for the first time, showing him to be one of the most important contemporary dramatists of his generation. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof (2000) to his latest Broadway smash-hit Summer 1976, published for the first time, this collected works offers a comprehensive overview to Auburn's work for Broadway and beyond.
Setting the Stage (Cast vs. Crew)
By Lindsay Champion
Available June 2, 2026
Eighth grader Ella Amani has been waiting her whole life to be the stage manager of the middle school musical, and this is her year! Somehow she'll have to find jobs for Willow, who's doing stage crew instead of detention, and Sebastian, a shy sixth grader whose sister is the star of the show. She'll have to wrangle Kevin, the clumsy new kid who was homeschooled on a boat, and Levi, her best friend, who used to tell her everything. Still, Ella's pretty sure she can handle the crew. The cast? That's a different story. They're ungrateful, they treat the crew like servants, and when Ella finally pushes back, they start playing pranks!
Technical Theater for Nontechnical People
By Drew Campbell and Joel Brandwine
Available June 9, 2026
Not everyone who wants to make theater is a natural engineer, visual artist, or technician. For more than two decades, Technical Theater for Nontechnical People has been the go-to resource for theater artists who need to understand the technical aspects of their craft without becoming lost in them. In this thoroughly revised fourth edition, the popular guide adds a new chapter on video production and enhances its coverage of digital audio, LED lighting, and show control systems, all explained in the same approachable style that has kept this book in the pockets of industry professionals and amateurs alike for many years.
David Friedman, The Stories of My Life
By David Friedman
Available June 2, 2026
For decades, David Friedman has made people laugh, cry, and believe in kindness-through his songs of hope, healing and humor; from Broadway stages and beloved Disney films; in recording studios with artists like Diana Ross, Barry Manilow, and Nancy LaMott; and through the metaphysical teachings he shares with audiences across the nation. Now, in this irresistible collection, he reveals the stories behind nearly a thousand moments that shaped his remarkable life: tales of family, friends and fame; joy and heartbreak; absurdity and grace... with a generous amount of gossip and laughter along the way.
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