32 Theater Books for Your Fall 2024 Reading List
Broadway authors this season include Joel Grey, Alfie Boe, Kelly Bishop and more!
By: Nicole Rosky Oct. 06, 2024
We're falling into fall with a great Broadway read! This season, 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 32 new Broadway books for every theatre lover's Fall 2024 reading list.
Check out recent releases and view upcoming books for later this year!
Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy That the History Books Left Out
by Jennifer Ashley Tepper
Available November 19, 2024
The first-ever book to tell the stories of over 300 inspiring women who wrote Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals that Publishers Weekly calls "an exhaustive tribute to women whose contributions to Broadway musical history have often been overlooked." Library Journal praises the book, saying, "Tepper has fashioned a winning book on the unsung heroines of Broadway musicals that will be appreciated by readers of women’s studies and theater lore." Kirkus Reviews says it's an "encyclopedic reference" and a "long-overdue tribute to female lyricists and composers."
How Sondheim Can Change Your Life
by Richard Schoch
Available November 19, 2024
Stephen Sondheim died on November 26, 2021, but for countless fans around the world, he is “still here,” to quote one of his lyrics. With acclaimed revivals of his landmark shows occurring around the world and introducing new generations to the man who transformed American musical theater, Sondheim’s legacy has only grown. What is it about such classic songs as “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy, “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music, and “Children Will Listen” from Into the Woods that speaks to us so intimately and profoundly?
The Rocky Horror Cookbook: 50 Savory, Sweet, and Seductive Recipes from the Cult Musical
By Kim Laidlaw
Available now
Never worry about the likes of Brad and Janet crashing your party; there will be plenty of food for everyone with this delightful and delectable cookbook beamed directly from the galaxy Transylvania to your kitchen. Give your guests a little tease with appetizers like Magenta Mash(ed) Potato Cakes and Thrill Me Chill Me Spicy Gazpacho. The main courses—which can be served in either the dining room or bedroom—offer scintillating options like Rocky’s Mussels, Riff Raff Ramen, and Slow-Cooked Thigh Ragu that will have you shivering in antici...pation. Wash it all down with a Make You a Man-hattan before biting into Midnight Double Chocolate Feature Brownies for dessert. With a foreword by Rocky Horror creator Richard O'Brien, The Rocky Horror Cookbook will have long-time fans and newly discovered creatures of the night singing in unison, "Don't dream it. Eat it."
The Hirschfeld Broadway Tarot: Deck and Guidebook
By Emily McGill
Available now
There is something innately spiritual and magical about the theater, from its stories and artists to the magic that happens on stage. Emily McGill, a spiritual practitioner, tarot card reader, and former Broadway publicist captures this inexplicable energy and has now cast Broadway characters, icons, and performers in traditional tarot roles, knowing that these characters and their stories will reveal something deeper, beyond traditional interpretations of the tarot. These figures have just been waiting to be cast in this deck, like Maria & Tony from West Side Story as “The Lovers” and Jean Valjean from Les Miserables as the “Justice” card. In the guidebook, McGill offers an interpretation and reading of each card, filled with references to the characters and plays themselves.
Musical Theatre Education and Training in the 21st Century
By Jessica O'Bryan and Scott D. Harrison
Available now
Musical Theatre Education and Training in the 21st Centurypresents a wide range of viewpoints on the musical theatre profession. It brings together research from the UK, US, Australia and beyond, providing an essential resource for educators, students, and all those involved in training for musical theatre. The research draws on best practice from creatives, producers, practising artists and the academy to reveal a multiplicity of approaches and educational pathways for consideration by performers, educators, institutions and the profession.
Actor Training the Laban Way (Second Edition): An Integrated Approach to Voice, Speech, and Movement
By Barbara Adrian
Available now
Actors, teachers, and students of performing arts: sharpen your skills and release your potential with Actor Training the Laban Way, a groundbreaking approach to physical and vocal movement. Utilizing theories of preeminent movement theorist Rudolf Laban, acting teacher and performer Barbara Adrian integrates voice, speech, and movement training with illustrated individual and group exercises.
One Tough Dame: The Life and Career of Diana Rigg
By Herbie J. Pilato
Available now
One Tough Dame: The Life and Career of Diana Rigg offers a sweeping portrait of the revered performer’s life and career. Deemed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1994, Diana Rigg (1938–2020) initially found fame as super sleuth Mrs. Emma Peel in the 1960s BBC/ABC-TV espionage series, The Avengers. A classically trained and multi-award-winning thespian, Rigg is known for her diverse body of work ― from her big-screen debut in 1969 as Countess Teresa di Vincenzo, wife of James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, to her Tony Award–winning, leading role in Medea on Broadway, culminating with her Emmy-nominated portrayal as Lady Olenna Tyrell on the heralded small-screen gem, Game of Thrones.
The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir
By Kelly Bishop
Available now
Kelly Bishop’s long, storied career has been defined by landmark achievements, from winning a Tony Award for her turn in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line to her memorable performance as Jennifer Grey’s mother in Dirty Dancing. But it is probably her iconic role as matriarch Emily in the modern classic Gilmore Girls that cemented her legacy. Now, Bishop reflects on her remarkable life and looks towards the future with The Third Gilmore Girl. She shares some of her greatest stories and the life lessons she’s learned on her journey. From her early transition from dance to drama, to marrying young to a compulsive gambler, to the losses and achievements she experienced—among them marching for women’s rights and losing her second husband to cancer—Bishop offers a rich, genuine celebration of her life.
Musical Theatre Education and Training in the 21st Century
By Jessica O'Bryan and Scott D. Harrison
Available now
Musical Theatre Education and Training in the 21st Century presents a wide range of viewpoints on the musical theatre profession. It brings together research from the UK, US, Australia, and beyond, providing an essential resource for educators, students, and all those involved in training for musical theatre. The research draws on best practice from creatives, producers, practising artists, and the academy to reveal a multiplicity of approaches and educational pathways for consideration by performers, educators, institutions, and the profession.
Helen Morgan: The Original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld's Last Star
By Christopher S. Connelly
Available now
elen Morgan: The Original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld's Last Star is the first biography of the gifted performer since 1974. Author Christopher Connelly utilizes interviews, newspaper articles, and family scrapbooks to present an honest and unflinching look at Morgan's life. Connelly's meticulous research addresses Morgan's troubled childhood, including her mother's six marriages, and the trauma of her stepfather's arrest and conviction for manslaughter in 1913. Also revealed are details regarding her early career in vaudeville and silent film, insights into the speakeasy and supper-club culture that served as a backdrop to Morgan's career, and accounts of her outstanding accomplishments, philanthropic actions, and enduring popularity. This gripping narrative presents the brief but brilliant life of a complex, talented, and iconic entertainer.
The Songwriter's Handbook: Power Strategies for Crafting Great Lyrics
By Mark Winkler
Available now
Platinum award-winning singer, songwriter, and lyricist Mark Winkler provides a handbook on writing great lyrics, chock full of songwriting exercises and engaging personal vignettes. This book crosses a variety of genres andteaches the craft of modern commercial songwriting as practiced by the likes of Taylor Swift, Ed SHeeran, and Bruno Mars.
I Danced on Broadway: Memoir of a Career on Stage
By Lee Wilson
Available now
In this uplifting memoir, Lee Wilson shares stories from her four decades of dancing on Broadway, with anecdotes about theatre legends including Agnes De Mille, Richard Rodgers, Michael Bennett, Donna McKechnie, and Bernadette Peters. She details the economic, political, and social events that led from the Golden Age to the slump of the early 1970s to the rejuvenation of Broadway with the huge success of A Chorus Line. Wilson's feminist viewpoint gives readers new insight into well-known musicals and examines why Golden Age musicals are still relevant to Broadway audiences today.
Love Me Tonight
By Geoffrey Block
Available September 24, 2024
In this Oxford Guide to Film Musicals, renowned author Geoffrey Block introduces scholars, students, and general readers to a remarkable musical film, Love Me Tonight (1932), which has enjoyed considerably high esteem but remains less familiar than other acknowledged classics of its era. Individual chapters are devoted to the work's genesis and development of the screenplay, the songs and instrumental music, the role censorship has played in the history of the film, and the film's reception from its time to the modern day. The topics are informed by extensive archival holdings in several major library collections, as well as from the indispensable resources housed at the Paramount Studio archives. This Guide allows more space for the musical, literary, and dramatic dimensions that have received less emphasis in previous film studies and sheds new light on why Love Me Tonight is worthy of critical attention and respect.
Running the Room: Conversations with Women Theatre Directors
By Rosemary Waugh
Available September 24, 2024
Our most brilliant, fearless and creative women directors open the door on their craft, discussing their work in the theatre in intimate and illuminating detail. Through a series of fascinating conversations with many of the leading talents working on British stages, Running the Room explores what it takes to succeed in the field, and how each director approaches the work in their own way.
The Play's the Thing: Fifty Years of Yale Repertory Theatre
By James Magruder
Available September 24, 2024
In this serious and entertaining chronicle of the first fifty years of Yale Repertory Theatre, award-winning dramaturg James Magruder shows how dozens of theater artists have played their parts in the evolution of a sterling American institution. Each of its four chapters is dedicated to one of the Yale Rep’s artistic directors to date: Robert Brustein, Lloyd Richards, Stan Wojewodski Jr., and James Bundy. Numerous sidebars—dedicated to the spaces used by the theater, the playwrights produced most often, casting, the prop shop, the costume shop, artist housing, and other topics—enliven the lavishly illustrated four-color text. This fascinating insider account, full of indelible descriptions of crucial moments in the Rep’s history, is based in part on interviews with some of America’s most respected actors about their experiences at the Rep, including Paul Giamatti, James Earl Jones, Frances McDormand, Meryl Streep, Courtney B. Vance, Dianne Wiest, and Henry Winkler—among many others.
Feminist Theatre Then and Now: Celebrating 50 Years
By Cheryl Robson
Available September 30, 2024
Feminist Theatre Then & Now – Celebrating 50 Years of women theatre makers in the UK and Ireland and their battle to make their voices heard, have their work produced professionally, and promote social justice. Here, the pioneers and leading lights of the newly energised feminist theatre movement continue to fight for an equitable, diverse and inclusive theatre which speaks for all. In 30+ essays, covering three generations, the interviews and essays in this book give important insight into the lived experience of women working in theatre and what it takes to rise in an industry where race, gender, class and parenthood can be serious obstacles to success.
Please Be My Star: A Graphic Novel
By Victoria Grace Elliott
Available October 1, 2024
Erika knows that people find her weird and off-putting. Instead of making friends, she finds solace in talking to herself and obsessing over handsome actors and pop stars. When she starts attending a new school, her loneliness takes on a life of its own and she develops a new obsession: the cutest boy in her theater class, Christian. For some reason, Christian is kind to her and even agrees to star in the play that she wrote for him, and Erika starts to find a creative voice that might lead to new friendship and romance. But the more time Erika spends with Christian, the more she wonders what he sees in a creep like her. Can Erika somehow write her way into the center of her own heartfelt love story? Or does Christian have an ending of his own in mind?
The Spamalot Diaries
By Eric Idle
Available October 8, 2024
In The Spamalot Diaries, Eric Idle shares original journal entries and raw email exchanges—all featuring his whip-smart wit—that reveal the sometimes bumpy, always entertaining path to the show’s unforgettable run. In the months leading up to that opening night, financial anxieties were high with a low-ceiling budget and expectations that it would take two years to break even. Collaborative disputes put decades-long friendships to the test. And the endless process of rewriting was a task as passionate as it was painstaking. Still, there’s nothing Idle would change about that year. Except for the broken ankle. He could do without the broken ankle.
The Immersive Theatre of GAle GAtes
By Dianiella Mooney
Available October 9, 2024
The Immersive Theatre of GAle GAtes is a case-study of this little-known but visionary company, with a focus on its development and dramaturgy. Through rare archival and primary research, as well as historical context, the text chronicles company narrative and celebrates the artistic impulse. The book employs descriptive-narrative and dramaturgical analysis and is composed of historical research, rare archives, and primary source interviews. Chapters focus on the trajectory of the avant-garde leading up to the climate in which the company formed, company formative years, and major works and a discussion on the interdisciplinary and theoretical frameworks critical to its understanding.
A Show Tune for Today: 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year
By Peter Felicia
Available October 15, 2024
Beloved theatre critic Peter Filichia has created a treasure for the ages with A Show Tune for Today, a whimsical day-by-day calendar—one that can be used again and again, in any year—for musical theatre buffs. Across 366 bite-size entries, Filichia dispenses anecdotes, observations, fun facts, and other confections tied to a single song, perfect for starting each day. Whether tied to a show’s opening date (August 6: “You'll Be Back” / Hamilton), holidays (December 25: “A Christmas Song” / Elf), historic dates (August 21: the actual date of “The Night That Goldman Spoke in Union Square” in 1893 from Ragtime), lyrics (March 2: when Camelot insists winter exits on the dot), or connections more surprising, each entry provides a light delight to put a spring in your step, every day of the year.
Theatre and Social Media: Revised Edition
By Patrick Lonergan
Available October 17, 2024
Used daily by many, social media has become one of the main mediums through which we present and perform our lives. In this concise study of the revealing relationship between theatre and social media, Patrick Lonergan considers social media as a performance space, analyses how theatre-makers' engagement with social media on and off stage affects elements of theatrical composition and reception, and explores the practical and conceptual implications of audiences interacting with professional productions through social media.
Theatre and Therapy: Revised Edition
By Fintan Walsh
Available October 17, 2024
Theatre and Therapy explores the evolution of links between theatre and therapy by considering actor training, theatre in therapeutic contexts, and contemporary theatre and performance practice. The book illuminates some of the connections and frictions between theatre and therapy, drawing on a range of examples that includes theatre performance, documentary theatre, solo performance, comedy, method acting and dramatherapy.
The Wall of Life: Pictures and Stories from This Marvelous Lifetime
By Shirley MacLaine
Available October 22, 2024
Now, at ninety years old, MacLaine has more stories to tell and the pictures to bring them to life. By introducing readers to her extensive photo collection—which she calls her “wall of life”—MacLaine reveals both intimate family memories and images with some of the most significant figures from entertainment and politics. With wit and charm, she reflects on each photo, exploring ambition, love, friendship, motherhood, art, political activism, curiosity, and more.
Broadway Poster Art: 1945–1969
By Nicholas van Hoogstraten
Available October 28, 2024
Fans of the theatre will be thrilled to discover the original posters for hundreds of Broadway’s biggest and most beloved hits, including My Fair Lady, The Fantasticks, Hello, Dolly!, Fiddler on the Roof, Death of a Salesman, A Raisin in the Sun, and A Streetcar Named Desire—plus rare and striking designs that tried in vain to sell some of the era’s epic flops.
Musical Theatre Acting: A Practical Guide
By JV Mercanti
Available November 5, 2024
Musical theatre performers are akin to Olympic athletes. They need finely tuned minds, bodies, and spirits to perform at a high level, in some cases up to eight times a week. JV Mercanti has trained countless emerging performers in Pace University’s acclaimed Musical Theatre program. His teachings take readers through a journey of mind, body, and spirit as a way of engaging the full self when it comes to creating a performance. His extensive knowledge covers everything from script analysis and character research to auditions and rehearsals.
The Book of Joel
By Joel Grey
Available November 11, 2024
The Book of Joel is the visual life story of one of the world’s most beloved entertainers, Joel Grey: actor, singer, dancer, director, and photographer. This sprawling yet intimate scrapbook-style volume uncovers a kaleidoscope of both famous and previously unseen photographs, family snapshots, playbills, posters, and ephemera from Grey’s personal archive, revealing an encyclopedic and all-absorbing visual romp through one of the last living greats of American entertainment. The Book of Joel is a captivating collection of photographs, ephemera, and posters that capture the multifaceted life and career of the 2023 Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Award, Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe Award winner Joel Grey.
Cole Porter: Selected Lyrics
By Cole Porter
Available November 12, 2024
Cole Porter possessed to a singular degree the art of expressing depth through apparent frivolity. The effervescent wit and technical bravura of his songs are matched by their unguarded revelations of feeling. In the words of editor Robert Kimball, “Porter wrote tellingly of the pain and evanescence of emotional relationships. He gently mocked propriety and said that few things were simple or lasting or free from ambiguity.” Of the masters of twentieth-century American songwriting, Porter was one of the few who wrote both music and lyrics, and, even in the absence of his melodies, his words distill an unmistakable mixture of poignancy and wit that marks him as a genius of light verse.
Recording Broadway: A Life in Cast Albums
By Thomas Z. Shepard and Gayden Wren
Available November 19, 2024
Recording Broadway: A life in Cast Albums is veteran producer Thomas Z. Shepard's first-person account of the making of fifty plus years' worth of show albums, featuring up-close-and-personal stories of his work with pretty much everyone who was anyone on Broadway, including Julie Andrews, Leonard Bernstein ("truly awesome but very complicated"), Sheldon Harnick ("as warm and decent as he was talented"), Barbara Cook ("one of my favorites"), Placido Domingo, Gregory Hines, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury ("so gifted and so easy to be with and to work with"), Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim ("a genius, and very easily bruised"), Barbra Streisand ("as professional at 24 as any veteran I've ever worked with"), Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many more.
Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words
By Michael Owen
Available November 26, 2024
The first lyricist to win the Pulitzer Prize, Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) has been hailed as one of the masters of the Great American Songbook, a period which covers songs written largely for Broadway and Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s. Now, in the first full-length biography devoted to his life, Michael Owen brings Ira out at last from the long shadow cast by his younger and more famous brother George. Drawing on extensive archival sources and often using Ira’s own words, Owen has crafted a rich portrait of the modest man who penned the words to many of America’s best-loved songs, like “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”
Suffs
By Shaina Taub
Available November 26, 2024
Written by one of the most exciting new voices in theater, this epic new musical takes an unflinching look at the unsung trailblazers of the American women’s suffrage movement. In the seven years leading up to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, an impassioned group of suffragists—“Suffs” as they called themselves—took to the streets, pioneering protest tactics that transformed the country. They risked their lives as they clashed with the president, the public, and each other. A thrilling story of brilliant, flawed women working against and across generational, racial, and class divides, Suffs boldly explores the victories and failures of a fight for equality that is still far from over.
Face the Music: My Story
By Alfie Bow
Available November 26, 2024
Bringing his characteristic sense of cheeky humor to the page, in this heartfelt book Alfie describes for the first time the highs and lows of over a decade of singing and performing across the world. From personal dinners with Queen Elizabeth II and following in the steps of King of Rock 'n' Roll Elvis in Vegas to mischievous antics with Michael Ball, Alfie's book takes us backstage to witness his brilliant career memories.
It Happened at the Palace: A History of New York’s Iconic Broadway Theater
By Stewart F. Lane
Available December 3, 2024
More than a historical account; it's a love letter to the performing arts, a chronicle of New York's cultural evolution, and a business saga of revival and triumph. With an insider's perspective and more than 175 photographs, the author reveal untold stories, intimate portraits of stage legends, and the intricate process of preserving a landmark not only of bricks and mortar but of dreams and memories. It Happened at The Palace: A History of New York’s Iconic Broadway Theater is an essential read for theatre aficionados, history buffs, and anyone who's ever been captivated by the magic of Broadway.
Singing Utopia: Voice in Musical Theatre
By Ben Macpherson
Available December 3, 2024
Singing Utopia is a unique and ambitious work which asks us to listen differently to voice in musical theatre. Across fifteen case studies from Florodora to Hadestown, Ben Macpherson hears something utopian in the extraordinary, emotional, and situational directness of singing voices as they escape the confines of everyday life. Yet, as this book discovers, the very nature of utopia is paradoxical, fraught with undercurrents of nostalgia, melancholy, and the perpetual threat of the dystopian. Singing Utopia listens across these fault lines in our understanding of utopia and asks what it means for a musical to give voice to an imagined world which is always a contradiction in terms. Who gets to inhabit such a world? Who is excluded? How can we locate utopia in musical theatre voices, and what might be the consequences when its complexities are exposed?
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