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Broadway Bookshelf

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.
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Biographies Show Books Autobiography For Actors Musical Scores Reference Books History
Opera--Dead or Alive: Production, Performance and Enjoyment of Musical Theatre (12/31/1969)

Playwright, director, and critic Ronald E. Mitchell offers general readers a richer understanding of traditions, terms, styles, and staging techniques of musical theater, including an introduction to seventeen examples of operas and musicals, from baroque and romantic operas to Gilbert & Sullivan, from proletarian dramas to Broadway shows like Oklahoma. 		Opera--Dead or Alive: Production, Performance and Enjoyment of Musical Theatre Cover
Ganzl's Book of the Musical Theatre (12/31/1969)

The worldwide proliferation of musical theater makes its documentation in a single volume impossible, but Ganzl's Book of Musical Theatre is a most impressive selection from this wealth of material. Companion to the respected Gustav Kobbe's Complete Opera Book (Putnam, 1954; Amer. Biog. Serv., 1987; reprint of 1963 ed.), whose form it follows, it offers information on some 300 musicals from the current world repertoire and many important works that are no longer performed. Each entry includes a... 		Ganzl's Book of the Musical Theatre Cover
Broadway Babies: The People Who Made the American Musical (12/31/1969)

Vividly recreating the unique pleasure of experiencing a song-and-dance show, Broadway Babies spotlights the men and women who made a difference in the development of American musical comedy. Mordden's account features such show people as Florenz Ziegfeld, Harold Prince, Bert Lahr, Gwen Verdon, Angela Lansbury, Victor Herbert, Liza Minnelli, and Stephen Sondheim, and such musicals as Sally, Oh Kay!, Anything Goes, Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Follies, Chicago, and countless others. While theatrical h... 		Broadway Babies: The People Who Made the American Musical Cover
Black Musical Theatre: From Coontown to Dreamgirls (12/31/1969)

Black Musical Theatre begins its historical survey with Clorindy, the Origin of the Cakewalk and A Trip to Coontown, in 1898, and concludes with the Broadway smash Dreanigirls, in 1981. The section on the ragtime pianist and composer Eubie Blake and his popular 1920s show, Shuffle Along, attests to early black influence in American musical theater. Prior to the 1920s, black musical theater was enriched by Walker and Williams, Cole and Johnson, Miller and Lyles, and Ernest Hogan. White producers ... 		Black Musical Theatre: From Coontown to Dreamgirls Cover
The World Of Musical Comedy (12/31/1969)

Acclaimed through three editions for its uniquely informative and entertaining style, this fourth edition of Stanley Green’s World of Musical Comedy updates and enlarges the theatrical scope to include such recent shows as A Chorus Line, Barnum, They’re Playing Our Song, and Annie. In a format that provides biographies of all the leading figures in the musical’s development, Stanley Green manages to convey the spirit of the Broadway stage, its musical make-believe, and yet remain objective... 		The World Of Musical Comedy Cover
America's Musical Stage: Two Hundred Years of Musical Theatre (12/31/1969)

Mates shows the musical stage in all its guises--from burlesque to musical comedy to grand opera--from its beginnings in pre-Revolutionary America to the present day. He deals sensitively with the recurrent aesthetic question of popular versus highbrow art and also looks at critical reactions to popular theatrical forms of musical entertainment. He introduces the reader to various types of theatrical companies, the changing repertory, and the many kinds of musical performers who have animated th... 		America's Musical Stage: Two Hundred Years of Musical Theatre Cover
Theatre in the Victorian Age (12/31/1969)

This book examines all major aspects of theater practice and dramatic literature of the Victorian period. Michael Booth's comprehensive survey explores the social and cultural context of the theater including theater management, the audience, architecture and production methods, acting and the job of the actor, as well as the drama itself. Within this framework, Booth discusses such topics as the effect on theater of population growth and the spread of the railway system, the typical organizatio... 		Theatre in the Victorian Age Cover
Great Musicals of the American Theatre (12/31/1969)

Originally published in 1973 under the title Ten great musicals of the American theatre. Includes the librettos of Of thee I sing, Porgy and Bess, One touch of Venus, Brigadoon, Kiss me Kate, West Side story, Gypsy, Fiddler on the roof, 1776, and Company. 		Great Musicals of the American Theatre Cover
Encyclopedia Of The Musical Theatre (12/31/1969)

Drawing equally from Viennese operetta, Parisian cabaret, vaudeville, and Tin Pan Alley, the American musical theatre has thrived in an unprecedented variety of forms and styles as our truest hybrid art. From Show Boat and Oklahoma! to West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and A Chorus Line, the musical has attracted our finest actors, composers, writers, directors, and choreographers. The greats and near-greats are finally brought together in this essential reference guide to over 2,000 persona... 		Encyclopedia Of The Musical Theatre Cover
Auditioning for the Musical Theatre (12/31/1969)

Proven tactics and techniques from a leading New York vocal coach on how to "act" a song, choose the right material, handle a callback, what to wear, how to use eye contact, select a voice teacher and vocal coach, and more. Includes 130 excellent yet unusual audition songs for all types of situations and performers, including juveniles and dancers. 		Auditioning for the Musical Theatre Cover
King Henry VI (12/31/1969)

Henry VI, Part 1 or The First Part of Henry the Sixt (often written as 1 Henry VI) is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas 2 Henry VI deals with the King's inability to quell the bickering of his nobles, and the inevitability of armed conflict, and 3 Henry VI deals with the horrors of that conflict, 1 Henry VI deals with the loss of England's French territories and the political machination... 		King Henry VI Cover
Warsaw Visitor, Tales from the Vienna Streets: The Last Two Plays of William Saroyan (12/31/1969)

Late in life Saroyan wrote: “In 1943 I turned my back on Broadway, but I did not stop writing plays… I wrote new plays every year… and they are part of the real American theatre, and of the real world theatre, even though they have not been produced, performed, and witnessed.” In fact, William Saroyan left some 150 unpublished plays, two of which are offered here. Typically Saroyan in their graceful, acrobatic use of language, these plays have a breadth, a universality, and a somber... 		Warsaw Visitor, Tales from the Vienna Streets: The Last Two Plays of William Saroyan Cover
The Seesaw Log: A Chronicle of the Stage Production, with the Text, of Two for the Seesaw (12/31/1969)

A day-by-day candid account of the creativity, conflict and compromise involved in the making of a smash-hit Broadway play. 		The Seesaw Log: A Chronicle of the Stage Production, with the Text, of Two for the Se Cover
The Real Thing (12/31/1969)

A talented ensemble cast brings to life Stoppard's classic play featuring the loves and loves lost of playwright Henry; his wife, Charlotte; an actor named Max; and his activist wife, Annie. Featuring a play within a play, this production is superbly performed if slightly confusing in audiobook format—it's often difficult to keep track of who is speaking and to keep track of the endlessly reconfiguring relationships. Henry searches for meaning both in art and romantic relationships as he atte... 		The Real Thing Cover
Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 4: Sweet Bird of Youth / Period of Adjustment / The Night of the Iguana (12/31/1969)

The Theatre of Tennessee Williams brings together in matching format the plays of one of America's most persistently influential and innovative dramatists. Arranged in chronological order, this ongoing series includes the original cast listings and production notes for all full-length plays. 		Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 4: Sweet Bird of Youth / Period of Adjustment / T Cover
Harold Prince and the American Musical Theater (12/31/1969)

This book follows the career of the producer/director of such shows as "Pyjama Game", "Damn Yankees", "Fiddler of the Roof" and "West Side Story" and who has collaborated in many productions of Stephen Sondheim's works. 		Harold Prince and the American Musical Theater Cover
Plays and Stories: Arthur Schnitzler (12/31/1969)

Arthur Schnitzler, Viennese playwright, novelist, short story writer, and physician, was a sophisticated writer much in vogue in his time. He chose themes of an erotic, romantic, or social nature, expressed with clarity, irony, and subtle wit. Reigen, a series of ten dialogues linking people of various social classes through their physical desire for one another, has been filmed many times as La Ronde. As a Jew, Schnitzler was sensitive to the problems of anti-Semitism, which he explored in the... 		Plays and Stories: Arthur Schnitzler Cover
Chicago And Other Plays (12/31/1969)

Includes: Chicago, Icarus's Mother, Red Cross, Fourteen Hundred Thousand, Melodrama Play. 		Chicago And Other Plays Cover
Persecución (12/31/1969)

Cinco piezas de teatro se unen aqui bajo un mismo tema: la persecucion. Cruel, experimental, desenfadado, ironico y poetico, este libro ademas de ser una obra de arte, es tambien una vision profunda de la eterna dualidad que parece caracterizar al ser humano: su condicion tanto sublime como terrible que lo hace victima o victimario perseguido o perseguidor. Pero la obra ademas de ser una satira del actual regimen cubano, trasciende el mismo a traves de una liberacion que, como en el principio d... 		Persecución Cover
Theaetetus (12/31/1969)

Set immediately prior to the trial and execution of Socrates in 399 BC, Theaetetus shows the great philosopher considering the nature of knowledge itself, in a debate with the geometrician Theodorus and his young follower Theaetetus. Their dialogue covers many questions, such as: is knowledge purely subjective, composed of the ever-changing flow of impressions we receive from the outside world? Is it better thought of as true belief'? Or is it, as many modern philosophers argue, justified true b... 		Theaetetus Cover
Winning Monologs for Young Actors: 65 Honest-To-Life Characterizations to Delight Young Actors and Audiences of All Ages (12/31/1969)

A collection of sixty-five monologues providing young performers with a variety of audition pieces reflecting situations both serious and comic. 		Winning Monologs for Young Actors: 65 Honest-To-Life Characterizations to Delight You Cover
Autobiography: Consisting of Present Indicative, Future Indefinite and The Uncompleted Past Conditional (12/31/1969)

This reissue contains all three instalments of Coward's biography. "Present Indicative", published in 1937, deals with Noel's childhood and early life up to "Cavalcade" in 1931; "Future Indefinite", published in 1954, deals with the War years; also included is the opening to a planned third volume. 		Autobiography: Consisting of Present Indicative, Future Indefinite and The Uncomplete Cover
The Overcoat (12/31/1969)

The Overcoat which is generally acknowledged as the finest of Gogol's memorable Saint Petersburg stories, is a tale of the absurd and misplaced obsessions. 		The Overcoat Cover
Diary of a Madman and Other Stories (12/31/1969)

Illuminates the Russian writer's thoughts on madness, bureaucracy, and illusion in these five tales. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 		Diary of a Madman and Other Stories Cover
La Mandragola (12/31/1969)

A superior treatment of Machiavelli's minor masterpiece! Flaumenhaft's beautifully crafted, literal translation aims to capture the original intent of the playwright. Machiavelli himself distinguished carefully between translations and revisions; thus, Flaumenhaft finds a faithful translation essential to conveying Machiavelli's thought and to allowing direct access to the work. The Prologue explores the relationship between Machiavelli's stage comedies--part of the Comedia Erudita of the Italia... 		La Mandragola Cover
Broadway Bound (12/31/1969)

Based on the original play by Neil Simon, the story traces the attempts of Eugene and Stan Jerome's attempts to break into show business as comedy writers in the 1950s. 		Broadway Bound Cover
Teaching Drama to Young Children (12/31/1969)

Teaching Drama to Young Children has been written for teachers of children aged five to eight who would like to teach drama, but are not sure how to begin. 		Teaching Drama to Young Children Cover
Così è (se vi pare) (12/31/1969)

osì è (se vi pare) (English: Right you are (if you think so)) is an Italian drama by Luigi Pirandello. It premiered 18 June 1917 in Milan. 		Così è (se vi pare) Cover
Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the African-American in the Performing Arts (12/31/1969)

Black Magic Langston Hughes's last book, presents the vast, sweeping story of African-American entertainers--the artists and the musicians, the singers and the dancers, the obscure and the illustrious--from the tragic beginnings in slavery to he triumphant artistic achievements of the late 1960s. Long considered the most comprehensive history of African-Americans in the performing arts, this milestone in black history features hundreds of rare and beautiful illustrations. Covering both the obst... 		Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the African-American in the Performing Arts Cover
Learning Through Drama: Report of the Schools Council Drama, Teaching Project (12/31/1969)

A guide to teaching drama. It stresses the place of drama in the school curriculum and makes detailed recommendations both on the organization and on the content of drama teaching. 		Learning Through Drama: Report of the Schools Council Drama, Teaching Project Cover
Black Theatre and Performance: A Pan-African Bibliography (12/31/1969)

"This important work contains just short of 4,000 citations to monographs, chapters in monographs, journal articles, dissertations, audio tapes, video tapes, and reviews. Drawn American and Western European as well as African imprints. The main body of the work is divided into three sections: `Cultural History and the Arts,' `African Theatre,' and `Black Theatre and Performance in the Diaspora.' . . . Because of its arrangement, it is an easy bibliography to browse. Four separate indexes (artist... 		Black Theatre and Performance: A Pan-African Bibliography Cover
Polly: an opera (12/31/1969)

Trapes. There it is now! Whoever heard a man of fortune in England talk of the necessaries of life? If the necessaries of life would have satisfy'd such a poor body as me, to be sure I had never come to mend my fortune to the Plantations. Whether we can afford it or no, we must have superfluities. We never stint our Expence to our own fortunes, but are miserable, if we do not live up to the profuseness of our neighbours. 		Polly: an opera Cover
All For Love: A Tragedy (12/31/1969)

Although John Dryden the poet is best known for his alexandrine epics, John Dryden the playwright is most honored for this blank verse tragedy. The summit of Dryden's dramatic art, All For Love (1677) is a spectacle of passion as felt, feared, and disputed in the suspicious years following the English Civil War. 		All For Love: A Tragedy Cover
Politics and the Arts (12/31/1969)

This excellent translation makes available a classic work central to one of the most interesting controversies of the eighteenth century: the quarrel between Rousseau and Voltaire. Besides containing some of the most sensitive literary criticism ever written (especially of Molière), the book is an excellent introduction to the principles of classical political thought. It demonstrates the paradoxes of Rousseau's though and clearly displays the temperament that led him to repudiate the hopes of ... 		Politics and the Arts Cover
Ghosts and Other Plays (12/31/1969)

The plays in this volume focus on the family and how it struggles to stay together by telling lies - and exposing them. In "Ghosts", Osvald Alving returns home only to discover the truth about the father he always looked up to, and learns the horrific effect his father's debauchery has had on him. It was Ibsen's most provocative drama, stripping away the surface of a middle-class family to expose layers of hypocrisy and immorality. "A Public Enemy" sets two brothers against each other when one w... 		Ghosts and Other Plays Cover
The Feast At Solhoug (12/31/1969)

Henrik Ibsen's "The Feast at Solhoug" is set at the annual feast to celebrate the wedding anniversary of Margit and Bengt Guateson. Knut Gesling, the King's sheriff, comes prior to the feast to ask for Margit's approval for marrying her sister, Signe. Knowing that Knut can be a brutal and violent man, Margit gives her permission on the condition that Knut can demonstrate he can be peaceful for a period of one year. In typical Ibsen fashion, anything but a peaceful outcome ensues. Written in 1855... 		The Feast At Solhoug Cover
Max: A Play (12/31/1969)

A play that satirizes the political confusions of both youthful activists and middle-aged believers in gradual reform. Translated by A. Leslie Willson and Ralph Manheim. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book. 		Max: A Play Cover
You Never Can Tell (12/31/1969)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ACT III The Clandons' sitting room in the hotel. An expensive apartment on the ground floor, with a French window leading to the gardens. In the centre of the room is a substantial table, surrounded by chairs, and draped with a maroon cloth on which opulently bound hotel and railway guides are displayed. A visitor e... 		You Never Can Tell Cover
Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch (12/31/1969)

"Back to Methuselah" (A Metabiological Pentateuch) is a 1921 series of five plays and a preface by George Bernard Shaw. The five plays are: "In the Beginning: B.C. 4004" (In the Garden of Eden); "The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day"; "The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170"; "Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000"; and, "As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920". The plays were published with a preface titled The Infidel Half Century, and first performed in 1922 by the New York Theatre ... 		Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch Cover
Selected Plays (12/31/1969)

Francis Russell O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet and art critic. He was a member of the New York School of poetry. 		Selected Plays Cover
Four Puppet Plays: Play without a Title, The Divan Poems and Other Poems, Prose Poems, and Dramatic Pieces (12/31/1969)

From Lorca's prologue to a puppet play: 'This is not the first time that I, the drunken puppet who marries Dona Rosita, leaves the hand of Federico Garcia Lorca on the stage, where I live and never die. The first time was in the house of this poet- remember that, Federico? It was spring in Granada, and the drawing rooom of your house was full of children who were saying: ' the puppets are flesh and bone, so how come they remain children and never grow up?' The famous Manuel de Falla was at the ... 		Four Puppet Plays: Play without a Title, The Divan Poems and Other Poems, Prose Poems Cover
Mariana Pineda (12/31/1969)

Una joven granadina es encarcelada en 1831 por haber mandado bordar la bandera que servira de insignia a una insurreccion liberal. Le prometen la libertad si delata a los jefes de esta, pero, al negarse, es condenada a muerte y ejecutada. 		Mariana Pineda Cover
The Zoo Story and the Sandbox (12/31/1969)

The Zoo Story is American playwright Edward Albee's first play; written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks. It was originally titled Peter and Jerry. The play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, miscommunication as anathematization, social disparity and dehumanization in a commercial world. Initially the play was rejected by New York producers. Albee first had it staged in Europe, premiering in West Berlin at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt on September 28, 1959. In its first Ameri... 		The Zoo Story and the Sandbox Cover
Peter Brook: A Theatrical Casebook (12/31/1969)

Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE (born 21 March 1925) is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s. 		Peter Brook: A Theatrical Casebook Cover
Some Freaks (12/31/1969)

A new collection of prose writings from the author of "Writing in Restaurants". Mamet discusses his parallel experience in cinema as screenwriter ("The Untouchables") and writer-director ("House of Games"). There are also pieces on being a Jew, politics, acting and Disneyland. 		Some Freaks Cover
Writing in Restaurants (12/31/1969)

The title of Mamet's first collection of essays and speeches certainly doesn't suggest the themes of commitment and excellence. Nevertheless, if a collection of 28 essays on a variety of topics can be said to have an overarching theme or themes, then surely commitment and excellence sound clearly. These essays, apparently written over a considerable span of years, treat topics ranging from radio drama through middle-class fashion trends to the Academy Awards and the use of amplification in theat... 		Writing in Restaurants Cover
The Tricks of the Trade (12/31/1969)

When Dario Fo won the 1997 Nobel Prize for literature, establishments everywhere erupted in anger. Here was an anticlerical, obscene, communist clown receiving the world's top literary accolade. As this collection of his essays and lectures shows, Fo has such a unique vision that his mission as clown/playwright requires him to be all those other things. What's interesting about The Tricks of the Trade is not his politics, but the incredible amount of research he's done on 2,000 years' worth of ... 		The Tricks of the Trade Cover
My Life in Art (12/31/1969)

Written with the same warmth, liveliness and ability to re-create reality that made Stanislavski a great actor, his autobiography tells of his childhood in the world of Moscow's wealthy merchants, his successes and failures as an amateur actor, how he studied human beings, and developed what has come to be known as the "Stanislavski Method," how his group of dedicated amateurs became "perhaps the greatest acting group the world has ever known (Washington Post)," The Moscow Art Theatre. 		My Life in Art Cover
Creating A Role (12/31/1969)

This volume completes, with An Actor Prepares and Building a Character, the trilogy in which Stanislavski set down his life's accomplishment. Creating a Role describes the elaborate preparation that precedes actual performance. Stanislavski here relates the techniques he describes in his preceding books to analyzing specific plays and their roles. 		Creating A Role Cover
Glued to the Box: Television Criticism from the (12/31/1969)

Collection of the Australian-born writer's TV criticism published in the London 'Observer' during the period 1979-82. It is a paperback edition of a volume first published by Jonathan Cape in 1983. His earlier volumes of TV criticism are 'Visions Before Midnight' (1977 & 1981) and 'The Crystal Bucket' (1983). They were published in a single volume with a new introduction and index as 'Clive James on Television' (1991). 		Glued to the Box: Television Criticism from the Cover

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