Broadway Bookshelf — Biography — Page 7

Richard Maxwell and New York City Players: The Theater Years

(8/22/2017)

This is the first publication on the plays of New York–based experimental theater director and playwright Richard Maxwell (born 1967) and his company New York City Players. His plays have been commissioned by The Wexner Center, Columbus; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Performance Space 122, The Kitchen and Soho Rep in New York; and The Barbican Centre, London. The book captures the experience of actually watching the plays by way of screen-grabs and captions, and in doing so documents ne...

Anne Bancroft: A Life

(8/11/2017)

"Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" These famous lines from The Graduate (1967) would forever link Anne Bancroft (1931–2005) to the groundbreaking film and confirm her status as a movie icon. Along with her portrayal of Annie Sullivan in the stage and film drama The Miracle Worker, this role was a highlight of a career that spanned a half-century and brought Bancroft an Oscar, two Tonys, and two Emmy awards. In the first biography to cover the entire scope of Bancroft'...

Sense of Occasion: Hal Prince

(8/1/2017)

Memoir by Harold Prince. Includes the content of Prince's 1974 book "Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre," plus his present-day reflections on that text and much more original content, offering insights into the way business is conducted on Broadway, drawing sharp contrasts between past and present.

Sense of Occasion: Hal Prince

(8/1/2017)

Memoir by Harold Prince. Includes the content of Prince's 1974 book "Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre," plus his present-day reflections on that text and much more original content, offering insights into the way business is conducted on Broadway, drawing sharp contrasts between past and present.

The English Teacher's Guide to the Hamilton Musical: Symbols, Allegory, Metafiction, and Clever Language

(7/10/2017)

The high school or college English class offers a long list of technical terms: Symbolism, Irony, Metafiction, Allegory, Metaphor… With such a barrage, it can be tough to sort them all out. Yet here’s the list, from Absurdity to Zeugma, all defined through the clever wordplay of Hamilton. In fact, musicals use all the rhythm and rhyme patterns of history’s top poets, and the literary skill of crafting characters and straddling genre. Further, the rap battles reveal a list of logical falla...

My Big Fat Broadway Debut! Volume 3: Big Breaks, Big Days

(7/5/2017)

My Big Fat Broadway Debut! the ebook miniseries chronicles the remarkable journey of Steven Cutts, who went from being a kid with a dream to being a pro on the Broadway stage. The book is packed with stories, wisecracks, pitfalls, and sage advice from a true industry insider.

Broadway: The History and Legacy of New York City’s Theater Center and Cultural Heart

(6/18/2017)

*Includes pictures *Includes historic descriptions of Broadway theaters and plays *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents Of all the great cities in the world, few personify their country like New York City. As America’s largest city and best known immigration gateway into the country, NYC represents the beauty, diversity and sheer strength of the United States, a global financial center that has enticed people chasing the “Ameri...

Up in the Cheap Seats: A Historical Memoir of Broadway

(1/13/2017)

In this touching and often hilarious theatrical memoir, Ron Fassler tells the stories of how over a four-year span, between the ages of 12-16, he saw 200 Broadway plays and musicals for as little as $1.50 a ticket—and all from UP IN THE CHEAP SEATS. Such landmarks as Company, 1776, The Great White Hope, Hair, Follies and Pippin are but a small sampling of the original productions Fassler saw, funded entirely from the money earned as a Long Island paper boy. His eyewitness account...

Showstoppers!: The Surprising Backstage Stories of Broadway's Most Remarkable Songs

(11/1/2016)

When Robert Preston shouted “Ya got trouble!” in River City, when Carol Channing glided down a gilded staircase while waiters serenaded her with “Hello, Dolly!,” when Barbra Streisand defied us to rain on her parade in Funny Girl, audiences were instantly enchanted. After such indelible moments, musicals were never the same, and neither were we. These were all showstoppers, the numbers you think about that propel you to see the show again, the songs you recall whenever the show is menti...

Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway

(10/6/2016)

Broadway’s most respected (and feared) commentator pulls back the curtain on its stars, its producers, and its mega-hits to reveal all the shocking drama, intrigue, and power plays that happened off stage. Razzle Dazzle is a provocative, no-holds-barred narrative account of the people and the money and the power that re-invented an iconic quarter of New York City, turning its gritty back alleys and sex-shops into the glitzy, dazzling Great White Way—and bringing a crippled New York from ...

Show and Tell: The New Book of Broadway Anecdotes

(10/3/2016)

Did you know that Frank Sinatra was nearly considered for the original production of Fiddler on the Roof? Or that Jerome Robbins never choreographed the famous "Dance at the Gym" in West Side Story? Or that Lin-Manuel Miranda called out an audience member on Twitter for texting during a performance of Hamilton (the perpetrator was Madonna)? In Show and Tell: The New Book of Broadway Anecdotes, Broadway aficionado-in-chief Ken Bloom takes us on a spirited spin through some of the most intriguing...

Agnes de Mille: Telling Stories in Broadway Dance (Broadway Legacies)

(8/4/2016)

This book explores the Broadway legacy of choreographer Agnes de Mille, from the 1940s through the 1960s. Six musicals are discussed in depth - Oklahoma!, One Touch of Venus, Bloomer Girl, Carousel, Brigadoon, and Allegro. Oklahoma!, Carousel, and Brigadoon were de Mille's most influential and lucrative Broadway works. The other three shows exemplify aspects of her legacy that have not been fully examined, including the impact of her ideas on some of the composers with whom she worked; her abil...

Some Enchanted Evenings: The Glittering Life and Times of Mary Martin

(7/12/2016)

Mary Martin was one of the greatest stars of her day. Growing up in Texas, she was married early to Benjamin Hagman and gave birth to her first child, Larry Hagman. She was divorced even more quickly. Martin left little Larry with her parents and took off for Hollywood. She didn't make a dent in the movie industry and was lured to New York where she found herself auditioning for Cole Porter and his new show "Leave It to Me!". After she sang the bawdy "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", she ended up on...

Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War (Broadway Legacies)

(7/1/2016)

When Leonard Bernstein first arrived in New York City, he was an unknown artist working with other brilliant twentysomethings, notably Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. By the end of the 1940s, these artists were world famous. Their collaborations defied artistic boundaries and subtly pushed a progressive political agenda, altering the landscape of musical theater, ballet, and nightclub comedy. In Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War, award-winning author an...

ZIEGFELD GIRLS 1: THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMEN ON BROADWAY

(6/15/2016)

Ziegfeld Girls were the chorus girls from Master Showman Florenz Ziegfeld's theatrical spectaculars known as the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), which were based on the popular Folies Bergère of Paris. SYNCHRONIZED BEAUTY These Broadway beauties, bedecked in Erté designer gowns, gained many male admirers of all ages and they became objects of popular adoration. Most the showgirls looked quite similar, both in appearance and in stature. Dancing in complete synchronization, they were th...

'HAMILTON': THE HISTORY-MAKING MUSICAL

(5/24/2016)

“Why hasn’t anyone done a hip-hop version of Alexander Hamilton’s life?” said the Broadway composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda in a 2012 article in The New York Times. Lucky for us, Mr. Miranda — a history buff who had long been fascinated by the turbulent life and tragic end of our nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury — has done just that. This Tbook, a selection of articles and reviews from The Times, chronicles the evolution of Miranda’s musical “Hamilton,” from ...

The Unofficial Guide to Hamilton: Everything You Need to Know about the Hit Broadway Musical!

(5/3/2016)

Get the inside scoop on Broadway's Biggest Hit! The Unofficial Guide to Hamilton is loaded with information about the show, the cast and the experience of attending the show! Get unbiased information, insider secrets, and tips for making the most of the Hamilton experience!

On Broadway: From Rent to Revolution

(4/26/2016)

A visual and oral history of the past twenty years of theater, On Broadway pulls back the curtain to reveal the creative process involved in bringing a Broadway show to the stage and into the public consciousness through the words of Broadway’s most famous personalities and the art of SpotCo. The art created for a show provides audiences with a tangible, visual, and emotional connection with the theatrical experience. This collection of hundreds of behind-the-scenes photos, concept art, and p...

New York's Yiddish Theater: From the Bowery to Broadway

(3/8/2016)

In the early decades of the twentieth century, a vibrant theatrical culture took shape on New York City's Lower East Side. Original dramas, comedies, musicals, and vaudeville, along with sophisticated productions of Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Chekhov, were innovatively staged for crowds that rivaled the audiences on Broadway. Though these productions were in Yiddish and catered to Eastern European, Jewish audiences (the largest immigrant group in the city at the time), their artistic innovations, ...

The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built

(3/1/2016)

For almost thirty years, Jack Viertel has been a major figure in the Broadway theater world?he’s helped create shows like Hairspray, Angels in America, and Into the Woods; served as dramaturg of the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles; and is currently senior vice president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which host such shows as The Book of Mormon and Jersey Boys. Not long ago, Viertel noticed that while colleges offer intensive classes on Shakespeare's plays, dissecting them line by line to uncover their...

The Complete Book of 1980s Broadway Musicals

(2/18/2016)

For Broadway audiences of the 1980s, the decade was perhaps most notable for the so-called “British invasion.” While concept musicals such as Nine and Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George continued to be produced, several London hits came to New York. In addition to shows like Chess, Me and My Girl, and Les Miserables, the decade’s most successful composer Andrew Lloyd Webber was also well represented by Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Song & Dance, and Starlight Express. The...

Candid Conversations With Broadway Pros: Volume 3

(2/2/2016)

In Candid Conversations with Broadway Pros, Producer Ken Davenport sits down to talk with professionals from the theater industry to get their perspective on the Great White Way.

On Sondheim: An Opinionated Guide

(12/17/2015)

In On Sondheim, renowned author Ethan Mordden takes the reader on a tour of Stephen Sondheim's work, arguing for the importance and appeal of the composer-lyricist in American theater and, even more, in American culture. Over the course of eighteen shows, Mordden demonstrates that Sondheim is a classical composer who happens to write musicals. Sondheim has intellectualized the musical by tackling serious content usually reserved for the spoken stage: nonconformism (in Anyone Can Whistle, 1964),...

The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney

(10/20/2015)

A definitive biography of the iconic actor and Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney (1920-2014) and his extravagant, sometimes tawdry life, drawing on exclusive interviews, and with those who knew him best, including his heretofore unknown mistress of sixty years. “I lived like a rock star,” said Mickey Rooney. “I had all I ever wanted, from Lana Turner and Joan Crawford to every starlet in Hollywood, and then some. They were mine to have. Ava [Gardner] was the best. I screwed up my life. I ...

Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 2

(10/15/2015)

"If Seth Rudetsky didn't exist, we'd have to invent him. He is the friend who points out everything glorious and silly about your favorite shows. He leaves you laughing helplessly and in awe of his gifts and time management skills. Read this book and see how much Seth gets done in a day. It will make you reach for more." Lin-Manuel Miranda A compilation of Seth's hilarious Broadway-centric "Onstage and Backstage" columns for Playbill.com chronicling his unique life on and around the Great Whit...

Razzle Dazzle: The Story of Broadway

(10/1/2015)

Tradition!: The Highly Improbable, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of Fiddler on the Roof, the World's Most Beloved Musical

(8/15/2015)

Since it first opened on Broadway in September, 1964, Fiddler on the Roof has constantly been onstage somewhere, including four Broadway revivals, four productions on London’s West End and thousands of schools, army bases and countries from Argentina to Japan. Barbara Isenberg interviewed the men and women behind the original production, the film and significant revivals-- Harold Prince, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein, Austin Pendleton, Joanna Merlin, Norman Jewison, Topol, Harvey Fierstein an...

Tradition!: The Highly Improbable, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of Fiddler on the Roof, the World's Most Beloved Musical

(8/15/2015)

Since it first opened on Broadway in September, 1964, Fiddler on the Roof has constantly been onstage somewhere, including four Broadway revivals, four productions on London’s West End and thousands of schools, army bases and countries from Argentina to Japan. Barbara Isenberg interviewed the men and women behind the original production, the film and significant revivals-- Harold Prince, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein, Austin Pendleton, Joanna Merlin, Norman Jewison, Topol, Harvey Fierstein an...

Ziegfeld and His Follies: A Biography of Broadway's Greatest Producer

(6/5/2015)

The name Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (1867--1932) is synonymous with the decadent revues that the legendary impresario produced at the turn of the twentieth century. These extravagant performances were filled with catchy tunes, high-kicking chorus girls, striking costumes, and talented stars such as Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Marilyn Miller, W. C. Fields, and Will Rogers. After the success of his Follies, Ziegfeld revolutionized theater performance with the musical Show Boat (1927) and continued makin...

Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theater

(6/1/2015)

Ethan Mordden has been hailed as "a sharp-eared listener and a discerning critic," by Opera News, which compares his books to "dinner with a knowledgeable, garrulous companion." The "preeminent historian of the American musical" (New York Times), he "brings boundless energy and enthusiasm buttressed by an arsenal of smart anecdotes" (Wall Street Journal). Now Mordden offers an entirely fresh and infectiously delightful history of American musical theatre. Anything Goes stages a grand revue o...

Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater

(5/1/2015)

In Nothing Like a Dame, theater journalist Eddie Shapiro opens a jewelry box full of glittering surprises, through in-depth conversations with twenty leading women of Broadway. He carefully selected Tony Award-winning stars who have spent the majority of their careers in theater, leaving aside those who have moved on or occasionally drop back in. The women he interviewed spent endless hours with him, discussing their careers, offering insights into the iconic shows, changes on Broadway over the...

Fortune in My Eyes: A Memoir of Broadway Glamour, Social Justice, and Political Passion

(4/21/2015)

David Rothenberg s multilayered life thrust him into Broadway s brightest lights, prison riots, political campaigns, civil rights sit-ins, and a Central American civil war. In his memoir, Fortune in My Eyes, his journey includes many of the most celebrated names in the theater: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Sir John Gielgud, Peggy Lee, Alvin Ailey, Lauren Bacall, Christine Ebersole, and numerous others. He produced an Off-Broadway prison drama, Fortune and Men s Eyes, which res...

The Broadway Song: A Singer's Guide

(3/12/2015)

Truly powerful vocal performance in musical theater is more than just the sum of good vocal tone and correct notes. As experienced teacher, director, and performer Mark Ross Clark lays out in The Broadway Song, powerful performance communicates the central function of a song within the context of the surrounding narrative, or the "truth" of a song. Because unstaged performances of a song, such as auditions, are key to the success of all aspiring singers, Clark provides here the essential practi...

The Sound of Music FAQ: All Thats Left to Know about Maria, the von Trapps, and Our Favorite Things

(3/10/2015)

The Sound of Music FAQ is a comprehensive, encyclopedia-like reference to the worlds most popular movie musical. Rather than focusing on the often-told stories of this classic movie, this book looks at the 1965 Oscar-winner in relation to its source, including the true von Trapp family story and the Broadway musical from which it was derived. The Sound of Music FAQ explores such facts and trivia as the movies phenomenal original run in cinemas, during which it dominated the box office for a sta...

We'll Have Manhattan: The Early Work of Rodgers & Hart

(2/25/2015)

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are one of the defining duos of musical theater, contributing dozens of classic songs to the Great American Songbook and working together on over 40 shows before Hart's death. With hit after hit on both Broadway and the West End, they produced many of the celebrated songs of the '20s and '30s--such as "Manhattan," "The Lady is a Tramp," and "Bewitched"--that remain popular favorites with great cultural resonance today. Yet the early years of these iconic collabor...

The Captain and "the Cannibal": An Epic Story of Exploration, Kidnapping, and the Broadway Stage

(2/24/2015)

Sailing the uncharted waters of the Pacific in 1830, Captain Benjamin Morrell of Connecticut became the first outsider to encounter the inhabitants of a small island off New Guinea. The contact quickly turned violent, fatal cannons were fired, and Morrell abducted young Dako, a hostage so shocked by the white complexions of his kidnappers that he believed he had been captured by the dead. This gripping book unveils for the first time the strange odyssey the two men shared in ensuing years. The ...

Annie Get Your Gun

(2/16/2015)

(Applause Libretto Library). Broadway's biggest musical comedy hit of the 1940s, this was one for the ages and built by a "dream team" songwriter Irving Berlin, librettists Dorothy and Herbert Fields, producers Rodgers & Hammerstein, and star Ethel Merman telling the improbable but true story of sharpshooter Annie Oakley. A staple of the touring and summer stock circuit for years, Annie Get Your Gun kept hitting bull's-eyes, with a film version, two television productions, and thousands of stag...

The Complete Book of 1940s Broadway Musicals

(2/16/2015)

The debut of Oklahoma! in 1943 ushered in the modern era of Broadway musicals and was followed by a number of successes that have become beloved classics. Shows produced on Broadway during this decade include Annie Get Your Gun, Brigadoon, Carousel, Finian’s Rainbow, Pal Joey, On the Town, and South Pacific. Among the major performers of the decade were Alfred Drake, Gene Kelly, Mary Martin, and Ethel Merman, while other talents who contributed to shows include Irving Berlin, Gower Champion, ...

Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium

(2/2/2015)

Theater music directors must draw on a remarkably broad range of musical skills. Not only do they conduct during rehearsals and performances, but they must also be adept arrangers, choral directors, vocal coaches, and accompanists. Like a record producer, the successful music director must have the flexibility to adjust as needed to a multifaceted job description, one which changes with each production and often with each performer. In Music Direction for the Stage, veteran music director and...

Black Broadway

(2/2/2015)

The African-American actors and actresses whose names have shone brightly on Broadway marquees earned their place in history not only through hard work, perseverance, and talent, but also because of the legacy left by those who came before them. Like the doors of many professions, those of the theater world were shut to minorities for decades. While the Civil War may have freed the slaves, it was not until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s that the playing field began to level. In this rema...

Adventures in Blackface: and other shorts

(12/31/2014)

Adventures in Blackface is a short story and one of a selection of “shorts” retrieved from the cutting room floor. The short story centers on a black college freshman, Ruth, one of six black students in an otherwise white university in the 1960’s. Ruth faces the challenge of the romantic advances of a white male student, and the racism of white faculty.

Tevye's Daughters: No Laughing Matter

(12/31/2014)

The Crawley sisters of Downton Abbey? The Bennet sisters of Pride & Prejudice? The daughters born to Zelophehad? Why mention any of these women in the same breath as the beloved characters in the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof? Conventional wisdom has it that Fiddler on the Roof is about Tevye, a beleaguered patriarch persecuted by his neighbors and “desperately clinging to Tradition.” But in this surprising eBook, Jan Lisa Huttner turns the reader’s focus away from Tevye and onto h...

The Godspell Experience: Inside a Transformative Musical

(12/22/2014)

This book covers all things "Godspell." It includes a colorful behind-the-scenes account of the musical’s creative history, notes about each song, never-before-published photographs, "Godspell" movie development details, complete lyrics, and much more. In his Foreword for "The Godspell Experience," composer Stephen Schwartz shares some of his favorite personal memories from the earliest days of "Godspell." Author Carol de Giere has gathered fresh comments from original cast members, Stephen S...

Hopelessly Hollywood: My Dreamland Diary, from Small Town Extra to Musical Theatre King for a Day

(12/21/2014)

Curtain up on musical theatre, LA! Journey into the shadows of Tinseltown, where on dozens of small stages eager young actors fresh off the bus share the spotlights with forgotten idols and new stars rising. Follow collaborators Mike and David into this dream-drenched world, the two believing they are the next Rodgers and Hammerstein waiting to be discovered. But the City of Angels soon cures them of their heady illusions, sending each down a separate road, one ultimately tragic. Here is another...

STAGE MANAGEMENT from Rural America to Broadway: An Interview with Bryce McDonald

(12/19/2014)

What do Mary-Louise Parker, Kathleen Turner, Frank Langella, Blythe Danner, Judith Ivy, Victoria Clark, Sherie Rene Scott, Danny Burstein, and Doug Hughes have in common? Each of them has worked with Bryce McDonald during his career as a New York Stage Manager. While serving as Production Stage Manager for the 2014 off-Broadway run of "Tales from Red Vienna," Bryce McDonald took some time to answer questions about his career as a professional stage manager: how he got started and what he lo...

W. C. Fields from Burlesque and Vaudeville to Broadway: Becoming a Comedian

(12/17/2014)

A virtuoso comedian, W. C. Fields is often called a comic genius and legendary iconoclast who gave the gift of laughter to multitudes during his epoch and left a legacy of humor for future generations. Using the newly opened W. C. Fields Papers at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library, this groundbreaking book explores how he became a comedian during his lesser known stage career from 1898 to 1930 - years of hardship and exaltation that had a major influence on his comedy...

Charles Walters: The Director Who Made Hollywood Dance

(12/5/2014)

From the trolley scene in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's last dance on the silver screen ( The Barkleys of Broadway, 1949) to Judy Garland's timeless, tuxedo-clad performance of "Get Happy" ( Summer Stock, 1950), Charles Walters staged the iconic musical sequences of Hollywood's golden age. During his career, this Academy Award--nominated director and choreographer showcased the talents of stars such as Gene Kelly, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, and Frank Sinatra. ...

Collected Plays Hoyt Hilsman: Volume 1: The Family Plays

(11/28/2014)

HOYT HILSMAN is an award-winning writer, journalist and critic, and a former candidate for Congress in California. He has written screenplays for a number of studios and television networks, including Disney, Sony, New Line, ABC, NBC and CBS, and his stage plays and musicals have been produced in theaters around the country and abroad, and have won numerous awards. His television script, Foggy Bottom, based on his childhood in Washington, was honored at the Slamdance Festival. Mr. Hilsman has b...

Cold War Theatre

(11/28/2014)

Cold War Theatre, first published in 1992, provides an account of the theatrical history within the context of East/West politics. Its geographical span ranges from beyond the Urals to the Pacific Coast of the US, and asks whether the Cold War confrontation was not in part due to the cultural climate of Europe. Taking the McCarthy era as its starting point, this readable history considers the impact of the Cold War upon the major dramatic movements of our time, East and West. The author pose...

The Voice That Amazed America: The Life, Times, & Singing Career of Tommy Dix

(11/15/2014)

The story of Tommy Dix is the story of a remarkable singer and a remarkable man. Overcoming a chronic illness, and rising above his family's initial poverty, Tommy used his talents to become one of America's most popular entertainers during the 1940s. He amazed a nationwide audience for the first time at the age of thirteen when he appeared on "Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour", the country's most popular radio show in the mid-1930s. Tommy's unusually rich, deep baritone singing voice lit up ...