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Broadway Bookshelf

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.

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Latest Broadway Books

Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words

(11/26/2024)

First full-length biography devoted to the life of Ira Gershwin. Draws on extensive archival sources and often using Ira's own words. 30 illustrations. 400 pages. 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 l...

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The Third Gilmore Girl

(9/17/2024)

Memoir by Kelly Bishop, spanning her six decades in show business from Broadway to Hollywood with A Chorus Line, Dirty Dancing, Gilmore Girls, and much more. Also includes a special collection of personal and professional photographs. 288 pages.

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I Danced on Broadway: Memoir of a Career on Stage

(9/3/2024)

By Lee Wilson, who 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. 241 pages.

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The Hirschfeld Broadway Tarot: Deck and Guidebook

(9/3/2024)

From spiritual practitioner, tarot card reader, and former Broadway publicist Emily McGill. Deluxe, one-of-a kind deck that "casts" Broadway icons in traditional tarot roles, complete with the art of Al Hirschfeld. 78 cards (3 X 5 inches), guidebook (4 3/4 X 6 inches, 120 pages), inner card box, and magnetic closure keepsake outer box. Fully illustrated guidebook which includes images of each card, alongside card descriptions and suggested interpretations, as well as sample card spreads to guid...

The Hirschfeld Broadway Tarot: Deck and Guidebook Cover

Brian Friel: Beginnings

(8/2/2024)

Based on newly discovered documents in the BBC and New Yorker archives, the book reveals Friel's youthful personality and his struggles to get noticed as a young writer. His correspondence with his first mentors - Belfast BBC radio producer Ronald Mason, New Yorker editor Roger Angell, and theatre director Tyrone Guthrie - shows how he shaped his early work, how he chose to write for the theatre, and how the patterns that became so memorable in his later plays were set in motion by his beginnin...

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Say It with a Beautiful Song: The Art and Craft of the Great American Songbook

(7/15/2024)

Looks at the Great American Songbook's craft and its mastery through essential elements of the beloved songs, investigating the qualities that make the songbook a unique staple of American culture. With anecdotes, each chapter looks at a variety of songs thematically and dives into the lives of songwriters. 210 pages.

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Ballplayers on Stage: Baseball, Melodrama, and Theatrical Celebrity in the Deadball Era

(7/3/2024)

Explores the relationship between professional baseball and professional theater in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Examines case studies of five representative players from baseball's pre–Babe Ruth “deadball” era: Cap Anson, Mike “King” Kelly, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, and Rube Waddell, with a concluding study of Babe Ruth himself. A historical study of baseball, theater, and the relationship between the two ... also shares insight into the creation of celebrity ...

Ballplayers on Stage: Baseball, Melodrama, and Theatrical Celebrity in the Deadball E Cover

A Sense of Theatre: The Untold Stories of the Creation of Britain's National Theatre

(7/1/2024)

By Richard Pilbrow (British pioneer of stage lighting; appointed by Sir Laurence Olivier to help create the National Theatre of Great Britain as a member of the building committee). An eye-witness account of the birth and subsequent triumph of one of the world's most famous theatres. The theatre architecture has challenged generations of theatre makers, leading to innovation that has changed theatre worldwide. With insight from leading players in British theatre and the minutes of the deliberat...

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From The Back Of The House: Memoir of a Broadway Theatre Manager

(6/14/2024)

Memoir by Broadway theater manager Dan Landon. Spanning from 1978-2018, the book shares backstage and onstage stories of encounters with theatre luminaries such as Bob Fosse, Ian McKellen, Bernadette Peters, August Wilson, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Madeline Kahn, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Stoppard, David Mamet, and more.

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Mike Bartlett

(6/3/2024)

By William C. Boles. Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists series editors Maggie Gale and Graham Saunders. Includes Barlett's plays Cock, Doctor Foster, King Charles III, and Albion, a biographical introductory chapter, and new interviews with Bartlett and some of his closest and oft relied upon collaborators. 186 pages.

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Yankee Doodle Dandy: George M. Cohan and the Broadway Stage

(5/24/2024)

Part of the Broadway Legacies series. In the first book on Cohan in fifty years, Craft situates Cohan as a central figure of his day. Examining his multifaceted contributions and the various sociocultural identities he came to embody, Craft shows how Cohan and his works indelibly shaped the American cultural landscape. 288 pages.

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How to Find, Choose, and Prepare Successful Audition

(5/16/2024)

Takes the reader step-by-step through the process of building your audition repertoire portfolio ... helps to identify what songs are needed in which categories and explains where to find them, how to source and cut the sheet music, and how to communicate effectively with the accompanist and act the song. 184 pages.

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FREE: Words on Music by a Hi-Def Critic in an MP3 World

(5/15/2024)

By Lawrence Schulman ("Garland: That’s Beyond Entertainment – Reflections on Judy Garland"). Foreword by Tish Oney. Afterword by Manuel Betancourt. Schulman's writings between 2000 and 2024, on a whole host of artists and authors, including Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Mildred Bailey, Patsy Cline, Bernard Herrmann, among others. 540 pages.

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The Group Theatre: An Enduring Legacy

(5/15/2024)

. Examines the history and influence of the Group Theatre, which presented the first plays of Clifford Odets, Sidney Kingsley, and William Saroyan, and launched the careers of Franchot Tone, John Garfield, Elia Kazan, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Martin Ritt, and Luther Adler. 339 pages.

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Peerless: Rouben Mamoulian, Hollywood, and Broadway

(5/7/2024)

Rouben Mamoulian, director of the original stage productions of Porgy and Bess, Carousel, and Oklahoma!, as well as films including Love Me Tonight, Queen Christina, City Streets, and Silk Stockings. Famously fired from the film version of Porgy and Bess in a dispute over publicity and quit Cleopatra after arguments over a single scene. Drawing upon Mamoulian's unfinished memoir and diaries, as well as interviews with surviving collaborators. Also explores Mamoulian's aesthetic principles and s...

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Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit that is Transforming America

(5/7/2024)

Published with Hachette, Relentless will be available in both English and Spanish and shares the story of Luis’ life and career – from his early days as a Puerto Rican activist to the decades of political strategy and Latino community organizing. Readers will experience the thrill of the ascendency of Hamilton, created by his son Lin-Manuel Miranda, the family’s remarkable humanitarian action after the devastation of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria, and all the grit, triumphs, and challeng...

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The Irish Repertory Theatre: Celebrating Thirty-Five Years Off-Broadway

(5/6/2024)

History of the multi-award winning Off-Broadway Irish Repertory Theatre Company, from its beginning in 1988 to its thirty-fifth season in 2023. Considers how the Irish Rep's plays and musicals reflect the Irish diaspora, the relationship between Ireland and America, and what it means to be Irish and Irish American, both historically, and in the twenty-first century. 185 pages.

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Playhouse Square and the Cleveland Renaissance

(4/23/2024)

In-depth account of Cleveland's Playhouse Square (originally the State, Ohio, Hanna, Allen, and Palace theaters) history, beginning with the 1921 opening, through the darkening of four of their marquees by the end of the 1960s, the renovation and renaissance from the 1970s, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Illustrated and featuring interviews with the central figures involved in saving the Square. 240 pages.

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Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

(4/23/2024)

Judi Dench opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career in a series of intimate conversations with actor and director Brendan O'Hea. Interspersed with vignettes on audiences, critics, company spirit and rehearsal room etiquette, she serves up priceless revelations on everything from the craft of speaking in verse to her personal interpretations of some of Shakespeare's most famous scenes.

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Ageless Dancers

(4/18/2024)

Photographs by Betti Franceschi, from her collection of photographs of dancers age 70 and up. Forty iconic dancers from the disciplines of ballet, modern, contemporary, tap, and musical theater. 130 pages.

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Song of the Season: Outstanding Broadway Songs since 1891

(4/18/2024)

Charts the progress of American showtunes alongside popular music forms as songs evolved from the waltz and ragtime to jazz, rock, rap and hip-hop. Factual analysis and historical context combine to offer a rich picture of the American songbook from Irving Berlin to Elton John. 440 pages.

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The Tony Awards: A Celebration of Excellence in Theatre

(4/16/2024)

Coffee table book by Eila Mell and The American Theatre Wing. Foreword by Audra McDonald. Commemorating over 75 years of Broadway greatness with never-before told stories, rare photos from the American Theatre Wing's archives, and more than 100 interviews with past and present Tony winners, including actors, producers, writers, and costume designers. 400+ color and black-and-white photographs. 320 pages.

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On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide

(4/15/2024)

Traces the early development of Midler's performing ethos from New York's downtown experimental theater scene and examines her impact across media, with chapters on the soaring highs (and occasional cringe-worthy lows) of her stage work, movies, recordings, and television appearances, and considers her influence as an environmental activist and social media presence. Features performance analysis and deeply researched background information, all supporting informed - and divinely opinionated - ...

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Affective Memories: How Chance and the Theater Saved My Life

(4/8/2024)

"This is the riveting, brutally honest story of a man’s struggle to make something of himself in the theater. Coming from meager circumstances in the Ozark Mountains, he fights his way up the shaky ladder toward fame. He makes mistakes, goes down blind alleys, fails and succeeds, again and again. But he never quits." 480 pages.

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To Repair the World: Zelda Fichandler and the Transformation of American Theater

(4/5/2024)

Biography in the form of an oral history about Zelda Fichandler, whose founding of Arena Stage in Washington, DC in 1950 shifted live professional theater away from Broadway and inspired the creation of non-profit theaters around the country. Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Stacy Keach, and Jane Alexander, among many others, share their memories of this intrepid pioneering woman during Arena Stage’s early years. Fichandler was Head of New York University’s Graduate Acting Program for 25 yea...

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Broadway Melody

(4/2/2024)

A show business romance crossing 7000 miles and 70 years, Broadway Melody lands securely in the confines of Times Square and the Theater District, as a crackerjack trumpet player and a blue-collar spotlight operator vie for the love of an aspiring ingenue who holds them both in thrall for their entire lifetimes. Filled with theater lore and history, vivid characters both real and imagined, and a great number of songs in its heart, this novel delivers the ultimate valentine to Broadway then and n...

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The American Musical: Evolution of an Art Form

(4/1/2024)

A portrait of the American musical's artistic evolution over the course of seven distinct, newly defined eras, with a perspective gleaned from research at more than twenty different archives across the United States. 416 pages.

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The Great Gatsby: The 1926 Broadway Script

(3/31/2024)

James L. W. West III and Anne Margaret Daniel, editors. Script for Owen Davis' adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. The show played the Ambassador Theatre in 1926. Photographs of the original sets and actors, reviews. 150 pages.

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The Long Revolution: Sixty Years on the Frontlines of a New American Theater

(3/12/2024)

Content from sixty years of essays, speeches, and manifestos by the founding mother of the resident professional theatre movement. Founder and artistic director of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and chair of New York University’s Graduate Acting program. Gathers Fichandler’s most prescient writing about that movement, ranging over such topics as The Institution as Art-Work, the Profit in NonProfit, Race and a Deepening Aesthetic, and Creativity and the Public Mind. Also includes intimate ...

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Letters from an Actor: Anniversary Edition

(3/5/2024)

Foreword by Sam Mendes. Afterword by Adam Redfield. William Redfield's (Guildenstern) series of letters describing the daily happenings and his impressions of them during the three months of preparation for the 1964 Hamlet, from rehearsals through out-of-town tryouts to the gala opening night on Broadway. New edition brings Redfield's classic back into print, as The Motive and the Cue, the Sam Mendes-directed play about the Gielgud production that is based in part on the book, continues its run...

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Tell it to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad

(1/30/2024)

A look at how the Broadway musical travels the world, influencing and even transforming local practices and traditions. Focuses on recent musicals but also looks back through the twentieth century to plot the evolution of musical theatre in South Korea and Germany. 312 pages.

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Clyde's

(1/23/2024)

In CLYDE’S, a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption. Even as the shop’s callous owner tries to keep them down, the staff members learn to reclaim their lives, find purpose, and become inspired to dream by their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich.

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Thrill Maker: The Story of My Musical "Thrill Me"

(1/18/2024)

The author looks back over the last 30 years and writes about how his musical Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story became a Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominee and went on to have over two hundred productions spanning twenty-five countries and seventeen languages. 312 pages.

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Greasepaint Puritan: Boston to 42nd Street in the Queer Backstage Novels of Bradford Ropes

(1/16/2024)

Details the life and work of Bradford Ropes, author of the bawdy 1932 novel "42nd Street," on which the classic film and its stage adaptation are based. Follows Ropes s successful career as both a performer and the author of the backstage novels "42nd Street," "Stage Mother," and "Go Into Your Dance." Ropes rebelled against the "Proper Bostonian" life, in a career that touched upon the Jazz Age, American vaudeville, and theater censorship. 330 pages.

Greasepaint Puritan: Boston to 42nd Street in the Queer Backstage Novels of Bradford Cover

Mary & Ethel ... and Mikey Who?

(1/16/2024)

By Stephen Cole, who has "taken his real-life friendships with Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, the two undisputed queens of Broadway, tossed them into a blender and come up with a fantasy about a nerdy super-fan in the early 1980s who, while visiting his dying idol Ethel Merman, stumbles into a time portal in her closet and exits on the other side in Sophie Tucker's star dressing room at the Imperial Theatre in 1939." 216 pages.

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The Final Curtain: Obituaries of Fifty Great Actors

(12/28/2023)

Fifty articles (from the the Guardian, the Observer, the Financial Times, and the Evening Standard) arranged in chronological order of each actor’s demise, constituting a vivid history of postwar theatre through the lives of the actors. There are happy/sad juxtapositions of shooting stars Robert Stephens and Alan Bates; tragic niece and aunt, Natasha Richardson and Lynn Redgrave; classical queens Diana Rigg and Barbara Jefford; and versatile showtime hoofers Una Stubbs and Lionel Blair. 256 p...

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Fifty Key Theatre Designers

(11/25/2023)

By Arnold Aronson. Looks at the history of theatrical scenography by examining the work and contributions of fifty set, costume, lighting, and projection designers since the Renaissance ... including opera, dance, Broadway and West End commercial theatre, avant-garde performance, and even Olympic spectacles. Each chapter features one designer, with basic biographical information and a discussion of that artist's style, aesthetics, and contributions. 330 pages.

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Failure, Fascism, and Teachers in American Theatre: Pedagogy of the Oppressors

(11/24/2023)

Explores the shifting representations of schoolteachers and professors in plays and performances primarily from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the United States. Examining various historical and recurring types, such as spinsters, schoolmarms, presumed sexual deviants, radicals and communists, fascists, and emasculated men teachers, the author shines the spotlight on both well-known and nearly-forgotten plays. 230 pages.

Failure, Fascism, and Teachers in American Theatre: Pedagogy of the Oppressors Cover

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