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Broadway Bookshelf

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.
Biographies Show Books Autobiography For Actors Musical Scores Reference Books History

Encyclopedia of theatre music (1961)

A comprehensive listing of more than 4000 songs from Broadway and Hollywood, 1900-1960
Encyclopedia of theatre music Cover
American Musical Theatre: Shows, Songs, and Stars (1989)

An anthology of this distinctly national art form includes 110 selected archival recordings of classic popular songs and textual annotations.
American Musical Theatre: Shows, Songs, and Stars Cover
The Singing Actor (1983)

How to Be a Success in Musical Theatre and Night Clubs
The Singing Actor Cover
Beckett in Performance (1991)

This book takes a critical look at the work of one of the twentieth century's most influential playwrights from the viewpoint of those whose job it is to give the work life on stage. From personal experience of over seventy productions, from interviews with numerous Beckett actors and directors, and in rare conversations with the playwright himself, Kalb addresses such fundamental questions as: Is the task of performing Beckett categorically different from that of performing other forms of theat...
Beckett in Performance Cover
Ring Bells! Sing Songs! Broadway Musicals of the 1930's (1971)

Broadway Musicals of the 1930's
Ring Bells! Sing Songs! Broadway Musicals of the 1930's Cover
How to succeed in business without really trying (Vocal Selections) (1983)

7 songs from the Broadway standard, including: Brotherhood of Man * Grand Old Ivy * Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm * How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying * I Believe in You * Love from a Heart of Gold * Paris Original.
How to succeed in business without really trying (Vocal Selections) Cover
Man of LA Mancha (Vocal Score) (1965)

Includes 21 songs: Abduction Aldonza La Mancha Barber's Song The Combat Dubbing Dulcinea Golden Helmet of Mambrino I Really Like Him I, Don Quixote I'm Only Thinking of Him The Impossible Dream (The Quest) It's All the Same Knight of Mirrors Knight of Woeful Count Little Bird Little Bird A Little Gossip Moorish Dance Overture To Each His Dulcinea We're Only Thinking of Him What Does He Want of Me.
Man of LA Mancha (Vocal Score) Cover
Carousel: Vocal Score (1987)

This exciting revised edition was created to convey in complete and correct form the musical score and lyrics of this beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical as performed in the original Broadway production. Includes: Ballet * Blow High, Blow Low * Geraniums in the Winder/Stonecutters Cut It on Stone * The Highest Judge of All * Hornpipe * If I Loved You * June Is Bustin' Out All Over * Mister Snow * Prologue (The Carousel Waltz) * A Real Nice Clambake * Soliloquy * What's the Use of Wond'rin' *...
Carousel: Vocal Score Cover
American Song: The Complete Musical Theater Companion, 1900-1984. Two volumes (1985)

These companion volumes to Bloom's important American Song: The Complete Musical Theatre Companion (LJ 7/96) and Hollywood Song: The Complete Film and Musical Companion (LJ 3/15/95) focus on popular songs from the early 1890s to 2000, defining "Tin Pan Alley" broadly to incorporate tunes ranging from George M. Cohan's patriotic gems to "easy listening" (e.g., Henry Mancini, Burt Bacharach). Rock, country, folk, and other genres are not treated here. Although these works are presented as Volumes ...
American Song: The Complete Musical Theater Companion, 1900-1984. Two volumes Cover
A Connecticut Yankee: The Musical (1984)

A Musical based on the novel by Mark Twain. Includes: * Can't You Do a Friend a Favor * I Blush * I Feel at Home with You * Thou Swell * You Always Love the Same Girl and others.
A Connecticut Yankee: The Musical Cover
Performing in Musicals (1988)

Here is a basic acting textbook written especially for singers, actors, and dancers who want to work in musical theater but have little or no experience in the area. 'Performing in Musicals' provides novice performers with the information they need to audition, prepare a role, rehearse, and play the part. Taking a practical, systematic approach, Elaine Novak discusses virtually every aspect of musical theater: its history and development, basic elements (book, lyrics, score, and dances), pr...
Performing in Musicals Cover
Ten Great Musicals of the American Theatre (1973)

Includes - Of Thee I Sing - Porgy and Bess - One Touch of Venus - Brigadoon - Kiss Me, Kate - West Side Story - Gypsy - Fiddler on the Roof - 1776 - Company
Ten Great Musicals of the American Theatre Cover
British Musical Theatre: 2 Volumes Volume 1: 1865-1914 Volume 2: 1915-1984 (1987)

From the pre-Gilbert and Sullivan 1860s to the 1980s, this important reference surveys more than a century of British light musical theatre, including its writers and composers. Gänzl provides a wealth of information on the book, lyrics, and music of over 800 London musicals, including contemporary reviews, cast lists, performances, plus pertinent notes gleaned from a study of surviving scores and libretti. Volume 1 traces the development of the genre between 1865 and 1914, describing its roots...
British Musical Theatre: 2 Volumes Volume 1: 1865-1914 Volume 2: 1915-1984 Cover
Better Foot Forward (1976)

The History of American Musical Theatre
Better Foot Forward Cover
Musical Openings: Using Music in the Language Classroom (1992)

This book explores the ways in which instrumental music can be introduced in the language classroom and the effects of using music to inspire student enthusiasm and creativity. It is aimed at teachers who love music, whatever their knowledge of experience of it, and demonstrates with step-by-step activities how the power of music can be exploited in a learning environment. The book draws on diverse musical sources and cultures and is accompanied by a cassette of musical excerpts linked to variou...
Musical Openings: Using Music in the Language Classroom Cover
Musical Notes: A Practical Guide to Staffing and Staging Standards of the American Musical Theater (1986)

“The entries in this `Guide' are arranged alphabetically, providing information on authorship and original production, a substantial synopsis of the story-line, notes on the production of the show (which include Tony Awards, ideas on technical and costume requirements, possible pitfalls, and budget suggestions), a list of songs of special interest, and details of instrumentation. A supplementary section on `Concept, Rock, Nostalgia and Others' differs from the main body of entries in providin...
Musical Notes: A Practical Guide to Staffing and Staging Standards of the American Mu Cover
More Broadway Musicals: Since 1980 (1991)

In the decade since Abrams published the bestsellingBroadway Musicals, some of Broadway's biggest all-time hits have appeared--Cats, 42nd Street, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables--and set new standards, begun new trends, and entranced new audiences. More Broadway Musicals presents the stories behind the major productions in this fascinating volume sure to delight those who have seen the shows, as well we those who know them only through recordings. 200 illustrations, 75 in full color.
More Broadway Musicals: Since 1980 Cover
Broadway Musicals (1986)

A colorful tribute to the great Broadway shows of our time. 395 illustrations, 112 in full color.
Broadway Musicals Cover
With an air debonair: Musical theatre in American 1785-1815 (1991)

Even before reading this record, one is struck by the beautiful layout and clarity of reproductions found within. This most comprehensive piece of research fills a scholarly gap on the early history of musical theater in the United States. Not just a chronicler of musical theater, Porter (music history, Ohio State Univ.) provides fascinating information on all aspects of 18th-and 19th-century musical production: personnel, technical effects, musical composition, and orchestra. In addition to the...
With an air debonair: Musical theatre in American 1785-1815 Cover
Broadway!: 125 Years of Musical Theatre (1991)

Offers an illustrated survey of American musicals from "The Black Crook" in 1886 to 1991's "Miss Saigon," detailing the stars, sets, and designs.
Broadway!: 125 Years of Musical Theatre Cover
Opera--Dead or Alive: Production, Performance and Enjoyment of Musical Theatre (1972)

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 (1989)

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 (1988)

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 (1989)

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 Broadway Musical: Collaboration in Commerce and Art (1992)

Three out of four Broadway-bound musicals fail to get there, and many of those that do, ultimately fail. The Broadway Musical takes an engrossing look at the industry's successes and failures in an effort to understand the phenomenon of mass collaboration that is Broadway. The authors investigate the complicated machinery of show business from its birth around the turn of the century through its survival of the cost explosions of the 1980s. Through interviews with many of Broadway's top produce...
The Broadway Musical: Collaboration in Commerce and Art  Cover
The World Of Musical Comedy (1984)

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 (1985)

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 (1991)

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 (1976)

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 (1980)

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 (1988)

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 (1891)

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 (1990)

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 (1984)

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 Rez Sisters (1992)

Winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play Nominated for the Governor General's Award This award-winning play by Native playwright Tomson Highway is a powerful and moving portrayal of seven women from a reserve attempting to beat the odds by winning at bingo. And not just any bingo. It is THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD and a chance to win a way out of a tortured life. The Rez Sisters is hilarious, shocking, mystical and powerful, and clearly establishes the creative voice of ...
The Rez Sisters Cover
The Real Thing (1984)

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 (1972)

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 (1989)

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 (1982)

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 (1981)

Includes: Chicago, Icarus's Mother, Red Cross, Fourteen Hundred Thousand, Melodrama Play.
Chicago And Other Plays Cover
On Racine (1992)

On Racine is a brilliant, personal view of theatre in which Barthes discusses all the major tragedies of Racine as well as the range of critical views of his work.
On Racine Cover
Persecución (1986)

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 (1987)

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 (1986)

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 (1986)

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 (1991)

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 (1983)

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 (1981)

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 (1988)

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 (1987)

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

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