Broadway Bookshelf — Biography

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

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Hirschfeld's Icons: A Poster Book (4/28/2026) Collection of 25 removable, ready-to-frame prints by Al Hirschfeld featuring some of the most recognizable icons of the 20th century. Accompanied by commentary and biographies by David Leopold, Creative Director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation. Introduction by Dick Cavett. 58 pages.

Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn't Easy (3/17/2026) Shines new light on Sondheim's tormented emotional life, wavering self-confidence, and alcoholism, drawing on the artist's intimate correspondence with such notable figures as Hal Prince, Leonard Bernstein, and Arthur Laurents; exclusive interviews with close friends and collaborators, including James Lapine and John Weidman; and Sondheim's own oral history, which remained closed until his death. 320 pages.

August Wilson's American Century: Life as Art (2/10/2026) Draws on Wilson's early poetry, archival material, and original interviews with family members, neighbors, and friends to show how the city of Pittsburgh and its residents shaped the playwright and his work. Uncovers the story of how the people and places of Pittsburgh remained with Wilson after he left his hometown, shining through in a body of work that brought the struggles and triumphs of the Black experience to a wide audience and changed American theater for the better. 360 pages.

Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner (1/27/2026) Marc Shaiman looks back on five decades of Broadway triumphs, Hollywood hijinks, and unforgettable collaborations. Spending his teenage years in community theater, starting a decades-long collaboration with Bette Midler in the '70s, surviving the AIDS crisis of the '80s, his award-winning film music career in the Hollywood of the '90s, right up to the highs (and lows) of creating Broadway musicals from 2000 on.=

Making Rent: The Story Behind the Music that Changed Broadway (1/13/2026) Rent audition accompanist, music director, and collaborator Tim Weil shares previously untold stories about some of the show's most iconic moments, accompanied by behind-the-scenes photos. 256 pages.

What We Did Before Our Moth Days (12/16/2025) And so yes, well, I’d simply dropped that whole idea of being a good person, I’d dropped it right down into some hole in the street, and down it had gone into the city’s sewers, and no one ever saw it again. And that was sad, if you thought it was sad, or I suppose it was sad, or some people probably would say it was sad. A dark moral fable, telling of an acclaimed writer’s hedonistic lifestyle and its effects on his wife, son and mistress. Wallace Shawn's first new play in ten year...

Eggs I Have Laid (12/15/2025) Back in print; first published in 1955. By Meredith Willson. Foreword by Mark Cabaniss. Willson chronicles the failures that he faced as he made his place in show business during the pivotal early 1950s, when radio was being overtaken by television, bringing to life his encounters with zeitgeist stars, from collaborators Tallulah Bankhead and Fred Allen to Orson Welles and Carmen Miranda. Includes such curiosities as an eight-page "platonic dialogue" about quitting smoking and the lyrics to a l...

Teeth: A Coming-of-Rage Musical Comedy (12/9/2025) Dawn O’Keefe is an Evangelical teen with a bizarre secret: two rows of gleaming white teeth perfectly placed to preserve her chastity. When the supposedly upright Christian men around her prove more interested in taking advantage of her body than in protecting it, they quickly learn to keep their hands (and other appendages) to themselves. From Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) and Anna K. Jacobs (POP!), and based on the controversial cult classic film of the ...

Happy Hour Blues: Lyrics, Notes and Reflections (12/6/2025) Written companion to TJ Armand’s three-volume recording project, conceived in New York City during the isolation and cultural turbulence of the pandemic. More than fifty lyrics, notes, and reflections. . Core themes include: queer life and nightlife culture, immigration and self-reinvention, exile and the search for home, chosen family, New York City as both refuge and pressure cooker. With street photography from Astoria and Manhattan. 82 pages.

History Hiding Around Broadway: Backstage Lore, Secrets & Surprises from New York’s Famed Theater District (11/11/2025) Teale Dvornik has been leading Broadway fans on tours of the theater district since 2017. In her book she takes readers on her one-of-a-kind tour of Broadway, "stopping" at each of the 41 theaters to tell us fun facts, lesser-known history, ghost tales, and interesting stories about actors, performances, stage flukes, blunders, and more, involving the biggest names and productions in theater history. 200 pages.

Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard (11/4/2025) Sam Shepard was a true American original. A theater and film icon who lived life on a mythic scale, Shepard became an embodiment of the fierce independence and wild freedom of the American West. Taking us from the creative explosion of downtown New York City in the 1960s to Bob Dylan’s legendary Rolling Thunder Revue tour, from Hollywood backlots and film shoots in the Mojave Desert to the horse ranches where Shepard went to escape it all, Robert M. Dowling’s biography reveals this playwrig...

Barbra Streisand: The Music: Her Albums & Singles - Revised & Updated (11/4/2025) Full color, oversized book that contains all of Barbra Streisand's albums from her first to her most recent with in depth analysis of every song and cover. A complete discography filled with photos. 350 pages. Updated for 2025.

Hell's Kitchen: Behind the Dream (10/21/2025) The Hell’s Kitchen book shares an intimate look inside the show’s creation, from the first spark of an idea through the musical’s thirteen-year journey to Broadway, where it continues to thrill audiences today. The book includes exclusive interviews with key cast and creative team members; first-person notes from Keys on her original songs; stunning stage photography and behind-the-scenes images; insights into costume creation, set design, choreography, and casting; and much more. This bea...

The Periodic Table of Broadway Musicals: An Illustrated Guide to 118 Essential Shows (10/7/2025) magine the classic periodic table of elements—but instead of Chromium and Rhodium, it's A Chorus Line and RENT! This delightful and informative gift book, based on the bestselling viral poster series is a stunning showcase of art and content sure to thrill lovers of showtunes and everything Broadway and beyond. Includes a full-size pull-out poster.

Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: Behind the Bloody Musical Masterpiece (10/2/2025) Interweaves a wealth of archival materials and insights on the show, its development, and the original production. Members of the team led by director Hal Prince as well as legendary orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, musical director Paul Gemignani, and the original cast, including Len Cariou, Angela Lansbury, Victor Garber, Sarah Rice, Edmund Lyndeck, Ken Jennings, and Merle Louise are profiled. Also covered are subsequent productions by theater and opera companies, as well as the 2007 film, and a...

Jukebox Musicals: Crazy for You to MJ the Musical (9/18/2025) Part of Essential Musicals series. A chronological look at the development of long-running hits, like Mamma Mia! and Jersey Boys, tracing the jukebox musical from when it was an exception on Broadway to when it became the rule. Examining the origins and reception for ten of these shows, this volume offers an exploration of one of the most divisive sub-genres of the musical form. 240 pages.

Carole King: She Made the Earth Move (Jewish Lives) (9/16/2025) Jane Eisner places King’s life in historical and cultural context, revealing details of her humble beginnings in Jewish Brooklyn, the roots of her musical genius, her four marriages, and her anguish about public life. Drawing on numerous interviews as well as historical and contemporary sources, this book brings to life King's professional accomplishments, her personal challenges, and her lasting contributions to the great American songbook.

The Theatre of Kander and Ebb (8/22/2025) Identifying the theatrical approach that renders their musical dramaturgy unique, this book explores their importance within, and contribution to, musical theatre history. Through their biggest hits, Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), Kander and Ebb have been performed on the stage more times both within and outside of the USA than any other American musical theatre writers. Unlike Sondheim, whose work from 1964 increasingly aspired towards the avant-garde, Kander and Ebb located their projects...

Michael John LaChiusa: A Critical Companion (7/25/2025) Study that incorporates a diverse array of theoretical lenses on the work of John Michael LaChiusa and poses the question of how his varied theatrical techniques anticipated the resurgence in popularity in musical theatre in the past ten years. Focuses on seven of LaChiusa's musicals: Marie Christine, First Lady Suite, First Daughter Suite, Giant, Hello Again, See What I Wanna See, and The Wild Party. 208 pages.

Judy Garland: The Voice of MGM (6/18/2025) More than 100 years after her birth, Judy Garland remains the gold standard by which all movie musical leading ladies are judged. She is revered and celebrated by current stars, directors, songwriters, and others in the entertainment industry. She also has a fan base that is as large as that of Marilyn Monroe or James Dean. Her image, especially “Dorothy” in The Wizard of Oz (1939), is an instantly recognized icon.

Judy Garland: The Voice of MGM (6/18/2025) More than 100 years after her birth, Judy Garland remains the gold standard by which all movie musical leading ladies are judged. She is revered and celebrated by current stars, directors, songwriters, and others in the entertainment industry. She also has a fan base that is as large as that of Marilyn Monroe or James Dean. Her image, especially “Dorothy” in The Wizard of Oz (1939), is an instantly recognized icon.

Scenery of the Crime (6/10/2025) By theatre poster designer Frank "Fraver" Verlizzo. First in his Retro Broadway Mystery Series, in which "theatrical ad execs Vic Senso and Bettie Balboa find themselves navigating the far-from-glamorous world of backstage Broadway when several bizarrely executed murders rock the community. Behind the beautiful scenery lurks a myriad of potentially life-threatening hazards, raising the question: has there ever been a stage-related 'accident' that was actually a cover-up for murder?" 282 pages.

Theater after Film (5/23/2025) Argues that after 1945, as cinema became omnipresent in popular culture, theater had to respond to cinema's hegemony. Postwar theatrical experiment, Harries shows, often channeled and represented film's mass cultural force, while knowing that it could never possess that force. Throughout the book, Harries brings critical theory into contact with theories of performance. Although Theater after Film treats the theatrical work of many figures, its central focus falls on Tennessee Williams, Samuel ...

Stereophonic (5/13/2025) The place: Sausalito. The time: the mid-1970s. The carpet: brown shag. Stereophonic brings us inside the cloistered world of a recording studio as a rock band on the brink of superstardom attempts to create their sophomore album. The ensuing pressures open up cracks in the band’s once-easy camaraderie, and spats over issues like tempo and song length begin to reveal deeper problems in the band’s foundation. Running on a diet of booze, sleep deprivation, and a giant bag of cocaine, interpers...

God and the Angel: Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier's Tour De Force of Australia and New Zealand (5/6/2025) First illustrated book on the 1948 Old Vic Tour of Australia and New Zealand led by Olivier and Leigh. Written from an Australian perspective and utilizing never-before published photos from the National Library and author's collection, it diarises a theatrical tour amidst a tense postwar context. 256 pages.

The Musicals of Cole Porter: Broadway, Hollywood, Television (4/15/2025) A critical study of Porter’s Broadway and movie musicals, and his one foray into live television, from his first failure, See America First (1916) to Silk Stockings (1955). Interspersed with chapters on Porter’s “list songs,” his love songs, and his love of figurative language. Discusses the various literary sources and cultural reference points that inspired the lyrics to Porter’s numbers. 240 pages.

The In-Between: Intimate and Candid Moments of Broadway Stars (4/15/2025) Anderson's personal ode to the theatre community, including more than 100 of her photographs taken behind the scenes of the most iconic shows of the last decade: Hamilton, Wicked, The Lion King, Kinky Boots, Sweeney Todd, Waitress, Hadestown, Phantom of the Opera, and many, many more. Rare photography of performers like Glenn Close, Patti LuPone, Hugh Jackman, Chita Rivera, Jonathan Groff, and Gavin Creel. A privileged glance behind the curtains of the world's most prestigious theaters and the ...

Manhattan Mayhem (4/2/2025) MANHATTEN MAYHEM stories capture the mood and heartbeat of the planet's most pulsating plot of land. Rothenberg's checkered life...in theatre, politics and prisons, are reflected in these tales of hope, heartbreak and humor. They are as diverse and unpredictable as Times Square on a Saturday night.

Places, Please, Act One: Poems Around and About Theatre (3/26/2025) A collection of Warren Kliewer's poems about acting and the life of theater professionals. From "introduction" by Warren Kliewer: "These poems have been written perhaps in honor of, but more likely in comradeship with, actors, directors, designers, technicians, and yes even producers. The final product of their labors - that which patrons buy tickets to see and critics get free tickets to grumble about - is not my subject. Rather, it's the work itself leading to the results. My subject is the...

If the Song Doesn't Work, Change the Dress: The Illustrated Memoirs of Broadway Costume Designer Patricia Zipprodt (2/6/2025) Broadway costume designer Patricia Zipprodt (1925-99) tells her own colorful story, with Arnold Wengrow. Foreword by Joel Grey. From plunging into the developing Off-Broadway movement to charting her personal and professional failures and successes collaborating with the biggest artists of the day - Jerome Robbins, Hal Prince, and Bob Fosse, and more. Includes pictures from Zipprodt's own archive including sketches, drawings, and photographs of her work from some of the most significant shows o...

Opening Doors: Reimagining the American Musical (1/22/2025) Director John Doyle is an unlikely revolutionary. Described by critics as 'the saviour of the Broadway musical', the 'amazing Mr Musicals' and 'the man who changed the face of the American musical', his name alone has become synonymous with a style of reinvention that has opened doors to what commercial musical theatre can be in the 21st century. In his first book Doyle reflects on the 50-year theatrical journey taken by a boy who never dreamt it could happen to him. Through simply working at...

In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some (1/14/2025) A heartfelt and hilarious collection of essays from the comedian and entertainer known for voicing Olaf in the phenomenon Disney franchise of Frozen, and for his award-winning turn as Elder Cunningham in the Broadway smash hit The Book of Mormon. For the first and possibly last time, Josh Gad dives into a wide array of personal topics: the lasting impact of his parents’ divorce; how he struggled with weight and self-image; his first big break; how everyone was sure his most successful vent...

King of Broadway (12/10/2024) Novel about Horatio King, an eighty-five-year old curmudgeon who happens to be the greatest musical theater composer and lyricist of his generation. Fifteen years before the story begins, his last musical, Black Hawk Down, was a flop. Now King is approached by twenty-five-year old Ben Willis who sends him a copy of his newly published children's novel, "The Worldwide Dessert Contest." Would King like to get back in the game and collaborate with a new-comer on what could be his last Broadway mus...

Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia (11/30/2024) From the founding of The Walnut Street Theatre and the beginning of the American circus to the world premiere performance of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman, and from censorship and opposition to riots and deadly fires, this engaging collection of short, focused narratives introduces the reader to the often overlooked and frequently underappreciated topic of the history of theater in Philadelphia, and offer a new way of approaching the wider history of this unique and important Ameri...

The Show Goes On: Broadway Hirings, Firings and Replacements (11/27/2024) Conducting more than a hundred interviews, Fassler has drawn from a wide range of the New York theatre community gathering dozens of stories that border on the heroic. How is a suitable replacement chosen to take over on Broadway? What goes into an actor making a role their own in the shadow of another's highly lauded performance? What happens when someone hops on the moving train that is a multi-million dollar production and replaces a flailing actor during an out of town tryout? 462 pages.

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...

Recording Broadway: A Life in Cast Albums (11/19/2024) Producer Thomas Z. Shepard's writes about his childhood as a piano prodigy, and of the making of fifty plus years' worth of show albums, featuring stories of his work with Broadway people including Julie Andrews, Leonard Bernstein, Sheldon Harnick, Barbara Cook, Placido Domingo, Gregory Hines, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim, Barbra Streisand, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many more. 408 pages.

It Happened at the Palace: A History of New York’s Iconic Broadway Theater (10/29/2024) A historical account and love letter to the performing arts, a chronicle of New York's cultural evolution, and a business saga of revival and triumph. More than 175 photographs, untold stories, and intimate portraits of stage legends and the intricate process of preserving a landmark not only of bricks and mortar but of dreams and memories. 200 pages.

Running the Room: Conversations with Women Theatre Directors (9/24/2024) Explores, through a series of conversations with many of the leading talents working on British stages, what it takes to succeed in the field, and how each director approaches the work in their own way. Contributions from Natalie Abrahami, Annabel Arden, Milli Bhatia, Carrie Cracknell, Tinuke Craig, Marianne Elliott, Nadia Fall, Yaël Farber, Vicky Featherstone, Jamie Fletcher, Sarah Frankcom, Emma Frankland, Rebecca Frecknall, Debbie Hannan, Tamara Harvey, Natalie Ibu, Ola Ince, Lynette Linton...

Love Me Tonight (Oxford Guides to Film Musicals) (9/6/2024) About the musical film Love Me Tonight (1932), with individual chapters 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. Informed by extensive archival holdings in several major library collections, as well as from the indispensable resources housed at the Paramount Studio archives. 208 pages.

Helen Morgan: The Original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld's Last Star (9/3/2024) Biography on Broadway, film, and radio star Helen Morgan. 394 pages.

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 Songwriter's Handbook: Power Strategies for Crafting Great Lyrics (8/30/2024) 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.

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 beginni...

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...

A Boy Like That: Hits, Misses, Messes, and Miracles as I Danced Across the Stages of Broadway and Hollywood (7/8/2024) Actor/dancer/choreographer/director Grover Dale (West Side Story, Billy, The Unsinkable Molly Brown) takes us behind the scenes of seven decades of entertainment history, providing intimate insights into industry movers and shakers like Jerome Robbins, Noël Coward, and Gene Kelly, all while sharing his own inspiring life lessons. 336 pages.

My First Book–Part 2 (6/4/2024) Second memoir by veteran motion picture, television and Broadway producer Julian Schlossberg. Je shares stories from his 60 years in show business including new profiles of working with Peter Falk, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, George C. Scott, John Cassavetes and many others. Released 6/4/24.

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.

Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales from Broadway, Television, and the Movies (5/21/2024) The author recounts his career as a theater director, producer and actor that has spanned over 70 years. 240 pages.

Beautiful: The Story of Julian Eltinge, America's Greatest Female Impersonator (5/17/2024) From the late 19th to the early 21st centuries, female impersonation was a hugely popular performance genre. Long before today's popular television shows, men in colleges, business, and even the military formed drag clubs and put on musicals and variety shows of all kinds with little fear of negative judgment. But no female impersonator was as famous, successful, or highly-regarded as Julian Eltinge (1881-1941). Eltinge, born William Dalton just outside Boston, started playing female characters...

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.

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.

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...

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...

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.

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 - ...

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...

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.

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.

My Name Is Barbra (11/7/2023) Barbra Streisand's memoir detailing her life from growing up in Brooklyn to the early days of her career, including her breakout performance in the musical and film versions of Funny Girl, and the years after. Audiobook narrated by the author. 992 pages.

Patrick Stewart - Making It So: A Memoir (10/3/2023) Sir Patrick Stewart memoir. From his humble beginnings in Yorkshire, England, to the heights of Hollywood and worldwide acclaim. Audio version read by the author. 480 pages.

Plays for the Plague Year (9/26/2023) On March 13, 2020, as theaters shut their doors and so many of us went into lockdown, Suzan-Lori Parks picked up her pen and set out to write a play every day. What emerged is a breathtaking chronicle of our collective experience throughout the troubling days and nights that followed. Plays for the Plague Year is at once a personal story of one family's daily lives, as well as a sweeping account of all we faced as a city, a nation, and a global community. Parks' groundbreaking new work is br...

Sondheim: His Life, His Shows, His Legacy (9/19/2023) "Offers a witty multidimensional look at the musical genius ..." Explores the bond between Sondheim and his audiences ... examines the challenging Sondheim works that continue to develop devoted new followings. "... a lavish, highly engrossing documentation of the dynamic force who reshaped twentieth-century American musical history."

Adrienne Kennedy: Collected Plays & Other Writings (9/12/2023) Marc Robinson, editor. Collected edition of Adrienne Kennedy's wide-ranging writings, spanning six decades and including ten unpublished works: the early surrealistic one-acts A Lesson in Dead Language and A Rat's Mass; works like A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White and Film Festival: The Day Jean Seberg Died that reveal Kennedy's longstanding fascination with Hollywood and film culture; Ohio State Murders, one of several plays featuring her protagonist Suzanne Alexander and the first o...

The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia (8/28/2023) Paperback version of 2021 book, with some revisions. Detailed and comprehensive reference devoted to musical theater's most prolific and admired composer and lyricist. Entries cover Sondheim's numerous collaborators; key songs; and major works. Also profiles the actors who originated roles and sang Sondheim's songs for the first time, including Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Mandy Patinkin, and Bernadette Peters. Features a detailed biographical entry for Sondheim, a chronology of his career, a...

August Wilson: A Life (8/15/2023) Biography of August Wilson by Patti Hartigan, who interviewed Wilson many times before his death and traces his life from his childhood in Pittsburgh to Broadway. She also interviewed scores of friends, theater colleagues and family members, and conducted extensive research to tell the story of a writer who left an indelible imprint on American theater and opened the door for future playwrights of color. 592 pages.

Eleanor Powell: Born to Dance (8/8/2023) Follows the American dance legend from her premature birth into a single-parent home in Springfield, Massachusetts, to her first Broadway performance at age fifteen, through her days as a blazing icon in the world of Hollywood, and finally, to her inspiring comeback. From rare documents, letters, and production files; and drawing on the authors' intimate personal relationships with Powell.

20 Seasons: Broadway Musicals of the 21st Century (8/3/2023) Catalogues, categorizes, and analyzes the 269 musicals that opened on Broadway from the 2000-2001 season through the 2019-2020 season. 228 pages.

Small Town Sins: A Novel (8/1/2023) In Locksburg, Pennsylvania, a former coal and steel town whose best days seem long past, five thousand residents have toughed it out, and have reasons for both worry and hope as this neglected place teeters between decay and renewal. For some of them, their biggest troubles have just arrived. After years of just scraping by, three restless souls have their lives upended: Nathan, a volunteer fireman who uncovers a secret stash of money in a burning building and takes it; Callie, a nurse whose...

Rescuing CATS: The Musical That's Better Than You Think (7/30/2023) No matter how you approach it, Cats is so much more than a silly dance revue based on some silly poems, so much more than a punchline. Why has Cats been such a huge, longstanding commercial success around the world? Why do people see it over and over? Cats is literally about life and death. Cats is about us.

Out For Blood: A Cultural History of Carrie the Musical (7/27/2023) Featuring contributions from over eighty original cast members, creatives, crew and audience members, Out For Blood pieces together the surprising, hilarious and often-moving inside story of Carrie The Musical to discover how this 'horror of a Broadway musical' lived, died and was subsequently resurrected as a mainstream success story. In 1988, following the success of its production of Les Misérables and in the wake of the commercial success of mega-musicals such as Cats, Phantom of the Oper...

A Man of Much Importance: The Art and Life of Terrence McNally (7/15/2023) Biography of playwright and musical bookwriter Terrence McNally. Looks at his life and work against the backdrop of a dynamic theatrical culture, tracing the ways in which an artist grows and responds to reality. Based on interviews with McNally and with many of the artists with which he worked. 408 pages.

Garland - That's Beyond Entertainment - Reflections on Judy Garland Volume 1 (7/10/2023) Part of two-volume set. Detailed, illustrated study that covers Schulman's writings on Garland between 1993 and 2023 that concentrate on her recordings. Utilizes published articles, reviews, liner notes, interviews, program notes, talks, and prefaces. Includes all the facts but does not exclude amusing anecdotes and unsettling stories that shed light on this complicated artist. 294 pages. Released 7/10/23.

Garland - That's Beyond Entertainment - Reflections on Judy Garland Volume 2 (7/7/2023) art of two-volume set. Detailed, illustrated study that covers Schulman's writings on Garland between 1993 and 2023 that concentrate on her recordings. Utilizes published articles, reviews, liner notes, interviews, program notes, talks, and prefaces. Includes all the facts but does not exclude amusing anecdotes and unsettling stories that shed light on this complicated artist. 294 pages.

Prima Facie: Special Edition (6/6/2023) Play by Suzie Miller. Special edition features the definitive version of the award-winning script, together with colour photos and exclusive additional content. 144 pages.

The Music for Victory at Sea: Richard Rodgers, Robert Russell Bennett, and the Making of a TV Masterpiece (5/16/2023) By George J. Ferencz. Explores the creation of NBC-TV's landmark 1952-53 WWII documentary series, with particular attention to its evocative Rodgers-Bennett score. Chronicles "Victory"'s gestation and production at NBC, its reception, the series' afterlife in syndication and home video, and the score's "Gold Record" sales success on RCA records; plus examining each episode in turn, focusing on how the Bennett-scored music pairs with screen action. Every transformation of the much-used Rodgers t...

Barbra Streisand: the Music, the Albums, the Singles (4/26/2023) By Matt Howe. Foreword by Jay Landers. Covering the extensive recording career of Barbra Streisand - every album, soundtrack, and single Streisand has released. 304 pages.

Confessions of an Actress: Sunday Letters from Moscow (4/21/2023) In the winter of 2002, Chechen terrorists entered the Dubrovka Theater in what became known as the Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis ... rebels would storm the stage and take the audience captive in an operation that lasted four days and claimed the lives of over 100 civilians. On that same night, at age 26, Broadway actress Meredith Patterson was less than one mile away at the MDM Theater, starring as Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street with Boris Yeltsin in attendance. Second in series of books, followin...

True West: Sam Shepard's Life, Work, and Times (4/11/2023) Delves deeply into Shepard's life as well as the ways in which his work illuminates it. Takes readers through the world of downtown theater in Lower Manhattan in the early sixties; the jazz scene at New York's Village Gate; fringe theater in London in the seventies; Bob Dylan's legendary Rolling Thunder tour; the making of classic films Broadway productions. Greenfield interviewed dozens of people who knew Shepard well, many of whom had never before spoken on the record about him. While explori...

The Great American Songbook: 201 Favorites You Ought to Know (& Love) (4/5/2023) Surveys 201 of the most significant selections from the Great American Songbook, ranging from celebrated masterpieces to forgotten gems. Year by year, Suskin puts songwriters and their contributions in their context, and explains what makes each song such a distinctive treat - whether felicitous melody, colorful harmony, compositional originality, or merely the sheer, irreducible joy of listening to it. 200 black & white and 96 full-color illustrations. 296 pages.

A Fine Romance: Adapting Broadway to Hollywood in the Studio System Era (4/1/2023) Beginning with the stage debut of Show Boat in 1927 and concluding with the release the Cabaret filmed nearly a half century later in 1972. Explores the symbiotic relationship between a dozen Broadway musicals and their Hollywood film adaptations. Engages with aesthetic and critical concerns while also considering the social issues around Broadway and Hollywood film through the lenses of race and ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual identity. 368 pages.

Judy Garland: Splendor and Downfall of a Legend by Bertrand Tessier (3/17/2023) The critically acclaimed biography of Judy Garland that reads like a novel. 200 photos, many published for the first time, from private collections around the world.

The Wanderers (2/23/2023) Anna Ziegler play opening next month at Roundabout Theatre Company. 80 pages.

Master of the House: The Theatres of Cameron Mackintosh (2/23/2023) Charts the histories of Cameron Mackintosh's eight refurbished and rebuilt iconic London buildings: their origins, their stories, the iconic shows and productions, the stars and the glamour. Lavishly illustrated with images from the Delfont Mackintosh archive, also contains original architect plans and drawings, specially commissioned photographs of the refurbishment, show posters and other theatre ephemera, and many sweeping panoramas of the exquisitely finished spaces. 320 pages.

The Routledge Companion to Musical Theatre (Routledge Companions) (12/30/2022) Comprehensive guide expands the study of musical theatre to include the ways we practice and experience musicals, their engagement with technology, and their navigation of international commercial marketplaces. The first collection to include global musical theatre in each chapter, reflecting the musical's status as the world's most popular theatrical form. Brings together practice and scholarship, featuring essays by leading and emerging scholars alongside luminaries such as Chinese musical th...

Streisand: The Mirror of Difference (11/29/2022) The author "notes the gender and ethnic stereotypes that Streisand shattered as the first openly Jewish superstar, while concentrating not just on the cultural difference she made but on the internal differentials of her unholy vocal gift-whose kinetic volatility shapes a kind of cinematic terrain all its own." 252 pages.

One Public: New York's Public Theater in the Era of Oskar Eustis (11/17/2022) Presents the broader organization, its creative methodology, and its enormous growth over the past 20 years. Tells the contemporary story, recorded over many interviews with iconic practitioners and performers ranging from Diane Paulus, Tony Kushner and Lynn Nottage to Kevin Kline, Chelsea Clinton and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Case-study driven, One Public uses oral history accounts and authorial experience to illuminate The Public Theater, Eustis and their cultural influence on the city of New York ...

Fat Ham (11/15/2022) Play by James Ijames. Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Premiere at Public Theater in May 2022. 112 pages.

Arthur Miller: American Witness (Jewish Lives) (11/2/2022) An original interpretation of Miller's work and his personality ... Organized around the fault lines of Miller's life–Miller's family, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Elia Kazan and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Marilyn Monroe, Vietnam, and the rise and fall of Miller's role as a public intellectual. Demonstrates the synergy between Arthur Miller's psychology and his plays. Concentrating largely on Miller's most prolific decades of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Lahr ...

The Vagrant Trilogy: Three Plays by Mona Mansour: The Hour of Feeling; The Vagrant; Urge for Going (10/20/2022) Set of three plays by by Mona Mansour. Michael Malek Najjar and Hala Baki, editors. 176 pages.

Carl Moellenberg's Story: Broadway and Spirituality as a Path to Survival (10/1/2022) The author's "journey of many transformations: from Midwestern boy most interested in music to a fast-paced Wall Street career; from investment banking to a 12 time Tony Award winner on Broadway; from overcoming several death-defying crises by finding healing, inspiration from a higher being, and deeper spirituality."

Stories Dad Told Me: Manny Azenberg's Adventures in Life and the Theatre (9/1/2022) Broadway producer sits down with his daughter to share his life's story. His childhood, service in the Army, teaching career at Duke University, and his long and illustrious career on Broadway ... a chronicle of one of the most legendary Broadway careers of our time, as well as a life well lived. 137 pages. Released September 2022.

Girl from the North Country (2022 edition) (8/25/2022) Musical that started at The Old Vic, London, in July 2017, in a production directed by Conor McPherson, and later transferred to the West End, Broadway, Australia, Ireland and toured the UK.

Go Greased Lightning!: The Amazing Authenticity of Grease (8/17/2022) Explores the world-famous musical's creation, evolution, musical roots, cultural context, its parallels to Hair, its film and TV versions, why it's been so wildly successful, how it's been changed over time, and lots more.

Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers (8/9/2022) The memoirs of Mary Rodgers—writer, composer, Broadway royalty, and "a woman who tried everything." Her story, with copious annotations, contradictions, and interruptions from coauthor Jesse Green.

Transforming Space Over Time: Set Design and Visual Storytelling with Broadway’s Legendary Directors (8/1/2022) Tells the stories of six diverse productions: five on Broadway and one Off-Broadway ... beginning with the moment he was offered each job, and taking readers through the conceptual development of the set, in collaboration with the director, the challenges of its physical creation, and the intense process of readying it for the stage. Extensive conversations with the directors of the productions ... such as James Lapine, Kenny Leon, Hal Prince, Susan Stroman, Jerry Zaks, and Stephen Sondheim.

Grease, Tell Me More, Tell Me More: Stories from the Broadway Phenomenon That Started It All (6/7/2022) How the show that started in a converted trolly barn in Chicago in the Eden Theatre February 14, 1972, short of money, short of audience, short of critical raves ... became a musical classic. Collection of memories and stories from over one hundred actors and musicians, including the creative team and crew who were part of the original Broadway production and in the many touring companies it spawned, including Barry Bostwick, John Travolta, Adrienne Barbeau, Treat Williams, Marilu Henner, Peter...

Paul Gemignani: Life and Lessons from Broadway and Beyond (5/15/2022) Paul Gemignani is one of the titans of the modern musical theater industry. Serving as musical director for more than forty Broadway productions since 1971, his collaborations with Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Hal Prince, Michael Bennett, and Alan Menken have led to countless accolades for his collaborators, but due to the near invisible position of the musical director in the Broadway industry, Gemignani's story is often overlooked. GEMIGNANI seeks to not only ...

The Letters of Oscar Hammerstein II (5/1/2022) Hundreds of previously unpublished letters that show off all facets of Hammerstein's many engagements and his personality: correspondence to and from major Broadway figures like Richard Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Kern, and Josh Logan, as well as those with politicians and activists. Reveals a man who was sharp, opinionated, and funny but also cared deeply about addressing the social ills that his musicals explored beyond the stage. 1000 pages.

For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (4/27/2022) Play by Ryan Calais Cameron. Premiered at the New Diorama Theatre in 2021, now at the Royal Court in London. 80 pages. Kindle Edition previously released.

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