Broadway Books: 10 MORE Theatre-Themed Memoirs to Read While in Isolation
By: Stephi Wild Apr. 26, 2020
Looking for something new to read while stuck inside, but still need your Broadway fix? We've rounded up 10 more of our favorite theatre-themed memoirs to fill the void.
With everything from Judi Dench to Tennessee Williams, Michael Crawford, Tim Rice, Anna Kendrick, and many more, this list will have something for everyone.
Check out our list below, and part one here!
"Supporting Player" - Richard Seff
Richard Seff has spent 60 years in the theatrical jungle as actor, playwright, librettist, agent, investor and now memoirist.
Hit the dressing rooms with him and discover what goes on backstage, in the wings, and behind closed doors. Learn about theatre investing in the Golden Age, when one could buy a piece of a show in the intermission on opening night. He's got tales to tell! Join him on this fun filled odyssey through the decades in shows starring Alan Alda, Ethel Merman, Chita Rivera, Dick Van Dyke, William Hurt, Christopher Reeve, Richard Thomas, Judd Hirsch, Jason Robards, in others directed by Hal Prince and written by John Kander and Fred Ebb.
Purchase on Amazon here.
"And Furthermore" - Judi Dench
And Furthermore is more than the story of a great actress's career. It is also the story of Judi Dench's life: her early days as a child in a family that was in love with the theatre; her marriage to actor Michael Williams; the joy she takes in her daughter, the actress Finty Williams, and her grandson, Sammy. Filled with Dench's impish sense of humor, diamond-sharp intelligence and photos from her personal archives, And Furthermore is the book every fan of the great Judi Dench will cherish.
Purchase on Amazon here.
"In Spite of Myself" - Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer's 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 collaborations with famed producers; and his memorable roles alongside fellow young and talented actors, each also destined for stardom: Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Peter O'Toole, Natalie Wood, and countless others.
Purchase on Amazon here.
"I Got The Show Right Here" - Cy Feuer
Guys & Dolls...The Boyfriend...How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying...Can-Can... These are just a few of the many Broadway shows produced by the legendary Cy Feuer, who, in partnership with the late Ernest H. Martin, brought to life many of America's most enduring musicals. Cy Feuer was at the center of these creations, as well as the films based on two of Broadway's most exceptional musicals, Cabaret and A Chorus Line. He was the man in charge, the one responsible for putting everything together, and -- almost more important -- for holding it together. Now, at age ninety-two, as Cy Feuer looks back on the remarkable career he had on Broadway and in Hollywood, the stories he has to tell of the people he worked with are fabulously rich and entertaining.
Purchase on Amazon here.
"Memoirs" - Tennessee Williams
Williams recalls his childhood in Mississippi and St. Louis, his prolonged struggle as a "starving artist," the "overnight" success of The Glass Menagerie in 1945, the death of his long-time companion Frank Merlo in 1962, and his confinement to a psychiatric ward in 1969 and subsequent recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, all with the same directness, compassion, and insight that epitomize his plays.
And, of course, Memoirs is filled with Williams' amazing friends from the worlds of stage, screen, and literature as heoften hilariously, sometimes fondly, sometimes notremembers them: Laurette Taylor, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando, Vivian Leigh, Carson McCullers, Anna Magnani, Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, and Tallulah Bankhead to name a few.
Purchase on Amazon here.
"Dancing Man" - Bob Avian
Tony and Olivier Award-winning Bob Avian's dazzling life story, Dancing Man: A Broadway Choreographer's Journey, is a memoir in three acts. Act I reveals the origins of one of Broadway's legendary choreographers who appeared onstage with stars like Barbra Streisand and Mary Martin all before he was thirty. Act II includes teaching Katharine Hepburn how to sing and dance in Coco and working with Stephen Sondheim and Michael Bennett while helping to choreograph the original productions of Company and Follies. During this time, Avian won a Tony Award as the co-choreographer of A Chorus Line and produced the spectacular Tony Award-winning Dreamgirls. For a triumphant third act, Avian choreographed Julie Andrews's return to the New York stage, devised all of the musical staging for Miss Saigon and Sunset Boulevard, and directed A Chorus Line on Broadway.
Purchase on Amazon here.
"Parcel Arrived Safely: Tied with String" - Michael Crawford
By turns funny, charming, and poignant, here is Michael Crawford's vivid account of his war-torn childhood of a loving mother, violent stepfather, and the painfully revealed truth about his absent father. His early memories include being taught to sing by the great composer Benjamin Britten, and later, when he entered show business, his friendships with David Hemmings, John Lennon, and Oliver Reed. There are also stories of Crawford "making a fool of himself" in front of idols Gene Kelly and Barbra Streisand while filming "Hello Dolly." Starring in "Barnum" and "The Phantom of the Opera," Crawford became a huge international star, but this engaging memoir rarely strays from the honest and self-deprecating qualities that have endeared him to his many fans.
Purchase on Amazon here.
"But He Doesn't Know The Territory" - Meredith Wilson
Composer Meredith Willson once described The Music Man as "an Iowan's attempt to pay tribute to his home state." Never once forgetting his roots, Willson reflects on the ups and downs, surprises and disappointments, and finally successes of the making of one of America's most popular musicals. His whimsical, personable writing style will bring readers back in time with him to the 1950s to experience firsthand the exciting trials and tribulations of creating a Broadway masterpiece. A newfound admiration for The Music Man-and the man behind the music-is sure to follow.
Purchase on Amazon here.
"Oh, What a Circus" - Tim Rice
With wit and candour, Tim Rice describes the gilded path that took him from cricket and comic-obsessed schoolboy to one of the world's best-known lyricists. Along the way he worked as a petrol pump attendant and articled clerk before becoming a management trainee at EMI. But it was his fateful meeting with Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1965 which was to be the turning-point in Tim's career. Immediate fortune didn't follow and it took the album of Jesus Christ Superstar to reach no.1 in the States before they were taken seriously. Covering every aspect of his life until his marriage to Jane McIntosh and the opening of the stage production of Evita, this is an engaging and fascinating autobiography.
Purchase on Amazon here.
"Scrappy Little Nobody" - Anna Kendrick
With her razor-sharp wit, Anna recounts the absurdities she's experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture as only she can-from her unusual path to the performing arts (Vanilla Ice and baggy neon pants may have played a role) to her double life as a middle-school student who also starred on Broadway to her initial "dating experiments" (including only liking boys who didn't like her back) to reviewing a binder full of butt doubles to her struggle to live like an adult woman instead of a perpetual "man-child."
Enter Anna's world and follow her rise from "scrappy little nobody" to somebody who dazzles on the stage, the screen, and now the page-with an electric, singular voice, at once familiar and surprising, sharp and sweet, funny and serious (well, not that serious).
Purchase on Amazon here.
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