Broadway Bookshelf — For Actors — Page 6

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For Actors Books

Oh! What a Lovely War

(2001)

This pioneering work is a theatrical chronicle of the First World War, told through the songs and documents of the period, was created in 1963 by Joan Littlewood’s London-based group,Theatre Workshop. It was ground-breaking, not only for its blatant denounciation of the incompetence of political leaders during World War I, but also for its unusual theatrical style and development. Created organically through a process of improvisation which was then scripted, Oh What A Lovely War is a colorful...

Of Thee I Sing

(1931)

The first musical production to win the Pulitzer Prize (1932). Gershwin's songs include: Wintergreen for President * Love Is Sweeping the Country * The Senator from Minnesota and more.

The Wild Party

(2001)

Some 70 years after being written, Joseph Moncure March's 1928 Jazz-Age poem, The Wild Party, proved it still knew how to inspire: a pair of musicals dedicated to the sultry tale of excess were produced virtually concurrently. Too bad good parties, like good jokes, are often hard to recount. While the Tony-nominated, star-studded, and short-lived Wild Party by Michael John LaChiusa embraced the dark side of the Prohibition-era fête, this off-Broadway production by Andrew Lippa tries too hard to...

Napoleon (Musical)

(2011)

Napoleon, The Musical is a musical by Canadians Andrew Sabiston and Timothy Williams (Composer). It premiered at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto on 23 March 1994 with Jérôme Pradon in the title role and Aline Mowat as leading lady Josephine. Directed by John Wood and orchestrated by David Cullen, it was the largest ever Canadian musical, with a budget of five million dollars. It was nominated for a Dora Award for Best Musical. The musical was later produced at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London wi...

Me and Juliet - Musical Play

(1953)

Although not as well known as some of the Rodgers and Hammerstein's classics - such as Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I - this endearing backstage love story still charms with melodic romance and dazzling theatrics. This hardcover edition, published by Random House, has two full page black/white production shots along with the book and lyrics to the show. It also has the Original Cast list (with Isabel Bigley, Bill Hayes in the leads, and Ray Walston ["My Favorite Martian"], Jo...

Martin Guerre

(1999)

Loosely based on the real-life historical figure Martin Guerre and the 1982 film The Return of Martin Guerre he inspired, the story is set in early modern France in the anti-Protestant town of Artigat, where young Martin Guerre is forced into an arranged marriage with Bertrande de Rols in order to produce a Catholic heir. Martin is unsatisfied with the marriage, complicated by the fact that a childhood friend, Guillaume, is secretly in love with Bertrande. Beaten by the priests due to his failur...

Love Never Dies

(2010)

Love Never Dies is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater and later Charles Hart, and book by Lloyd Webber, Slater and Ben Elton. It is a sequel to the Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera. The plot is not based on the story-line in the original book by Gaston Leroux, and Lloyd Webber has stated "I don't regard this as a sequel – it's a stand-alone piece". The musical is set in 1907, which Lloyd Webber states is "ten years roughly after the end of the ori...

Little Fish

(2004)

"I never really knew what I was like until I quit smoking, by which time there was hell to pay." So observes Charlotte, a young writer of short stories as she confronts her past, present and future in post 9/11 Manhattan. With the help of her well-intentioned friends, Marco and Kathy, Charlotte embarks on a modern-day odyssey as she desperately attempts to fill her nicotine-starved days with swimming at the Y and jogging, but to no avail. She's a stranger in her own body, and it's not a pretty t...

The Light in the Piazza

(2007)

Composer Adam Guettel, best known for his Floyd Collins, has teamed with Prelude to a Kiss playwright Craig Lucas to create a passionate and soaring new musical based on Elizabeth Spencer’s 1960 novella, which was first published as an entire issue of The New Yorker. It is the story of an American ingénue abroad, whose chance meeting of a charming young Italian in a Florentine piazza sets off a whirlwind romance—with an unsettling revelation. The Light in the Piazza opens on Broadway at th...

I Can Get It For You Wholesale - a Musical Play

(1962)

I Can Get It for You Wholesale is a musical with music and lyrics by Harold Rome and a book by Jerome Weidman based on his 1937 novel of the same title. It marked the Broadway debut of 19-year-old Barbra Streisand, who was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. The story is set in the New York City garment district in 1937, during the Great Depression, and the songs utilize traditional Jewish harmonies evocative of the setting and the period of the...

I Can Get It For You Wholesale - a Musical Play

Hello, Dolly! - Vocal Selections

(1982)

Songs include: Before The Parade Passes By; Dancing; Elegance (Hello Dolly); Hello, Dolly!; I Put My Hand In; It Only Takes A Moment; It Takes A Woman; Motherhood March (Hello Dolly); Put On Your Sunday Clothes; Ribbons Down My Back; So Long, Dearie.

Half a Sixpence

(1967)

The Musical play based on the novel Kipps by H.G. Wells with music and lyrics by David Heneker. Vocal Score Contents A Proper Gentleman Chittlelow's Return Economy Entr'acte Finale Finale Utlimo Flash, Bang, Wallop Half A Sixpence I Don't Believe A Word Of It I Know What I Am If The Rain's Got To Fall Long Ago Military Canal Underscore Money To Burn Morning Music Overture Party Exit She's Too Far Above Me Shop Ballet Solarium Dance The Old Military Can...

The Great American Trailer Park Musical

(2006)

The Great American Trailer Park Musical is a two-act musical, written by David Nehls and Betsy Kelso. It was performed in the first annual New York Music Theater Festival in 2004. Trailer Park opened off-Broadway at Bows at Dodger Stages on September 27, 2005, and starred Marya Grandy (Lin), Linda Hart (Betty), Shuler Hensley (Norbert), Kaitlin Hopkins (Jeanne), Leslie Kritzer (Pickles), Orfeh (Pippi), and Wayne Wilcox (Duke). The U.S. regional premiere of Trailer Park opened on June 2, 2006 at ...

Grand Hotel The Musical

(1990)

Grand Hotel is a musical with a book by Luther Davis and music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, with additional lyrics and music by Maury Yeston. Based on the 1929 Vicki Baum novel and play, Menschen im Hotel (People in a Hotel), and the subsequent 1932 MGM feature film, the musical focuses on events taking place over the course of a weekend in an elegant hotel in 1928 Berlin and the intersecting stories of the eccentric guests of the hotel, including a fading prima ballerina; a...

The Goodbye Girl: Vocal Selections

(1999)

Songs from this Broadway musical include: No More * A Beat Behind * My Rules Good News, Bad News * Don't Follow in My Footsteps * How Can I Win * Paula (An Improvised Love Song) * I Can Play This Part * What a Guy * No More (Pop Version).

Falsettoland

(1998)

A continuation of the saga of Marvin from March of the Falsettos and In Trousers.

Spring Awakening

(2007)

Spring Awakening is an extraordinary new rock musical with book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Grammy Award-nominated recording artist Duncan Sheik. Inspired by Frank Wedekind’s controversial 1891 play about teenage sexuality and society’s efforts to control it, the piece seamlessly merges past and present, underscoring the timelessness of adolescent angst and the universality of human passion.

[title of show]

(2009)

Nominated for a 2009 Tony Award , [title of show] is a musical that documents its own creation by two Broadway fans who want to enter the New York Musical Theatre Festival - and struggle to complete the show in only three and a half weeks. Our matching folio includes 13 piano/vocal arrangements: Development Medley * I Am Playing Me * Monkeys and Playbills * An Original Musical * September Song * Two Nobodies in New York * Untitled Opening Number * and more.

Chess - Selections From The Musical

(1986)

15 selections from the Broadway musical featuring songs written by Tim Rice and the two "B"s from Scandinavian supergroup ABBA: Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. Includes: Anthem * Chess * Heaven Help My Heart * Merano * One Night in Bangkok * Someone Else's Story * more.

The Boys from Syracuse

(1981)

The complete vocal score to Rodgers and Hart's musical adaptation of Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors Includes 16 songs, including: Boys from Syracruse * Come with Me * Falling in Love with Love * He and She * Ladies of the Evening * The Shortest Day of the Year * This Can't Be Love * You Have Cast Your Shadow on the Sea * and more.

Road Show

(2010)

Road Show, Stephen Sondheim’s first musical since his 1994 Tony Award–winner Passion, is making its highly anticipated New York premiere this season at the Public Theater. The show—with the book by John Weidman, Sondheim’s collaborator from Pacific Overtures and Assassins—has been in development for several years with productions in Chicago and Washington, DC, and grew from an idea that germinated in Sondheim’s mind some fifty years ago. The show dramatizes the real-life Mizner broth...

BAKER STREET: A MUSICAL ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

(1966)

A Musical adapted from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Conan Doyle

BAKER STREET: A MUSICAL ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

Babes in Toyland

(1988)

Play script. By Victor Herbert, updated and adapted by Ken Holamon. All of the glorious music and fabulous fantasy characters of the classic Victor Herbert creation, in a bright contemporary version. Two acts. 1 Village Square and 5 outdoor locales. 12 men, 13 women with multiple casting opportunities; 2 baby lambs, a mongrel dog, a stuffed parrot. Victor Herbert's unforgettable tunes accompany Contrary Mary, Tom-Tom, and their friends, as they journey from Mother Goose Village to Toyland, seek...

One Hundred Ten in the Shade

(1981)

9 vocal selections from Jones' and Schmidt's follow-up to The Fantasticks, including: Everytng Beautiful Happens@night * Gonna Be Another Hot Day * Is It Really Me? * Little Red Hat (110 in Shade) * Love, Don't Turn Away * A Man and a Woman * One Hundred Ten in the Shade * Raunchy * Simple Little Things.

Barnum : A Musical Suggested By the Life of P.T. Barnum

(1980)

The Tony and Outer Critics Circle Arward-winning musical Barnum ran for over 2 years on Broadway. It follows the ups and downs of P.T.'s varied life, from his fraudulent and sensational promotions to his American Museum and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It takes us backstage as well, giving us a glimpse of his love affairs and marriage. Production photographs are included.

Barnum : A Musical Suggested By the Life of P.T. Barnum

A Crash Course on Theatre Arts - Who Are the Mummers?

(2011)

A Crash Course on Theatre Arts - The History and Forms Intro 1: Theater Arts – History Of Opera Intro 2: Origin Of Theater Arts Intro 3: Classification Of Theater Arts Based On Different Themes Intro 4: Theater Arts - Ballet Intro 5: Theater Arts – Classical Ballet Intro 6: Theater Arts – Beijing Opera Intro 7: Greek Theater Arts Intro 8: The Golden Age Of Greek Theater Arts Intro 9: German Theater Arts Intro 10: Chinese Theater Arts Intro 11: Indian Theater Arts Intro 12: Ma...

A Crash Course on Theatre Arts - Who Are the Mummers?

Theatre: Its Art and Craft

(2009)

Theatre: Its Art and Craft is an introductory theatre text focusing on theatre practitioners and their processes. Using an accessible tone and a focused exploration of how theatre artists work, the book covers playwrights; directors, actors; designers of sets, costumes, props, lights, sound, and new technology; as well as the varying roles of scholars, critics, and dramaturgs. Appropriate for beginning theatre majors, minors, or nonmajors, Theatre: Its Art and Craft helps students understand how...

Present at the Creation, Leaping in the Dark, and Going Against the Grain

(2005)

"The best way I know to resuscitate the theatre is to produce dangerous new works." - Stuart Ostrow. Producer Stuart Ostrow's manifesto of how intelligent life might be restored to the theatre is also a unique personal memoir of the producer-creator relationship and an evaluation of the essentials that can make a show fly, or remain earthbound. As a solo producer, Ostrow's many productions include M. Butterfly, which won the Tony Award for Best Play; Pippin; and 1776, which received both the New...

Present at the Creation, Leaping in the Dark, and Going Against the Grain

You've Got to Have a Dream: The Message of the Musical

(2005)

Arguing that the musical is the "most ubiquitous and dominant cultural icon of our day," Ian Bradley unpacks the theological significance of the musical. Bradley believes that musicals provide for many people "an experience which genuinely can be described as religious as well as entertaining." In addition, he offers his thoughts on what the popularity of the musical might mean for the future of the church.

You've Got to Have a Dream: The Message of the Musical

If Love Were All

(1999)

Playbill program booklet for 1999 performance at Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York City. An Entertainment Devised by Sheridan Morley. Directed and Adapted by Leigh Lawson. With words and music of Noel Coward. Starring Twiggy and Harry Groener. Scenic and Costume Design: Tony Walton. Musical Direction and Arrangements: Tom Fay. Choreographer: Niki Harris.

The New Singing Theatre: A Charter for the Music Theatre Movement

(1991)

At last, from an author uniquely qualified and ideally equipped to discuss all the elements (words, movement, music, light, use of space, narrative, vocal technique) that make up the "New Singing Theatre,", here is a book that lucidly recounts both the evolution and the content of this new and still-forming art. The book attempts a first definition that brings under the heading "New Singing Theatre" all the disparate works loosely known as musical theatre, everything from Broadway musicals to co...

The New Singing Theatre: A Charter for the Music Theatre Movement

Three Sisters

(1934)

A Musical Play in Three Acts Programme (Theatre Royale Drury Lane June 4, 1934) Including, Eliot Makeham, Charlotte Greenwood, Adele Dixon, Victoria Hopper, Dick Francis, Albert Burdon, Esmond Knight, Stanley Holloway, Leonard Thorn, Anthony Hankey, Richard Dolman, Lucie Evely, Clare Lindsay, Bruce Seton, Eileen Clifton

Children of Eden: Vocal Selections

(1999)

Musical from the multi Grammy and Oscar winning composer/lyricist of Godspell, Pippin, The Prince of Egypt, The Magic Show, The Baker's Wife, and more. Book includes a biography. Titles are: Ain't It Good * Children of Eden * Close to Home * The Hardest Part of Love * In the Beginning * In Pursuit of Excellence * In Whatever Time We Have * Lost in the Wilderness * Spark of Creation * Stranger to the Rain * Wastland * A World Without You.

My Life: The Musical

(2008)

To best friends and devoted theater fans Emily and Philip, Aurora is no ordinary Broadway musical. Their love for the hit show (whose reclusive author has never been named) is nothing short of an obsession. Thanks to a secret loan from Emily’s grandma Rose, seeing the Saturday matinee has become a weekly ritual that makes real life seem dull and drab by comparison. But when the theater chat rooms start buzzing with crazy rumors that Aurora might close, Emily and Philip find themselves grapp...

My Fair Roxane

(2010)

A piano, a well-worn trunk of theatrical props, and an audience's imagination transform virtually any performance space into a musical evening at the Bakery of Poets. The establishment's proprietor and our narrator, Ragueneau, sets the stage for the tale of the fair Roxane as three very different men attempt to woo her. "Ambition and deceit we'll see, romance and battle too. In short, we'll see the stuff of life...and death before we're through." "My Fair Roxane" combines verse, dialogue and son...

Cumberland Blues

(2006)

A Musical With The Songs Of Jerry Garcia And Robert Hunter. This is the stage actor's version of the new musical CUMBERLAND BLUES.

A Problem like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical

(2002)

Subverting assumptions that American musical theater is steeped in nostalgia, cheap sentiment, misogyny, and homophobia, this book shows how musicals of the 1950s and early 1960s celebrated strong women characters who defied the era's gender expectations. A Problem Like Maria reexamines the roles, careers, and performances of four of musical theater's greatest stars-Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Julie Andrews, and Barbra Streisand-through a lesbian feminist lens. Focusing on both star persona and p...

A Problem like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical

How to Make It in Musicals: The Insider's Guide to a Career As a Singer-Dancer

(1999)

Exploring all aspects of training and preparation, this career manual gives aspiring singer-dancers the specific know-how they need to move from dream to reality. Incorporating advice from numerous performers and other show-business professionals, this friendly guide starts with the basics for beginners: picking the right teachers, identifying the different kinds of dance and voice training needed, and developing an acting style for the musical stage. Behind the scenes information is offered on ...

How to Make It in Musicals: The Insider's Guide to a Career As a Singer-Dancer

Acting in Musical Theatre

(2008)

A Comprehensive Course for Actors.

The Musical Lady. A farce as it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane

(2010)

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them ...

The Musical Lady. A farce as it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane

The 16-Bar Theatre Audition: 100 Songs Excerpted for Successful Auditions

(2004)

Most large audition calls for musical theatre, both professionally and in larger school situations, specify that those auditioning bring in a "16 bar" excerpt. The professionals in musical theatre often complain that singers don't know how to construct an appropriate 16 bar audition, either in choosing a song or in editing an excerpt. With this new series, that problem is solved forever! Editor Michael Dansicker, a composer/producer/music director, is a seasoned musical theatre veteran, with 10...

The 16-Bar Theatre Audition: 100 Songs Excerpted for Successful Auditions

The Singing Actor

(1983)

How to Be a Success in Musical Theatre and Night Clubs

The Color Purple: A New Musical

(2007)

Our piano/vocal folio features 13 songs from the Oprah Winfrey-produced Broadway adaptation of the powerful Alice Walker novel. Includes: The Color Purple * Hell No! * Mysterious Ways * Push Da Button * Too Beautiful for Words * What About Love? * and more. The arrangements are standard piano/vocal format with the melody in the piano part.

Acting for Singers: Creating Believable Singing Characters

(2005)

Written to meet the needs of thousands of students and pre-professional singers participating in production workshops and classes in opera and musical theater, Acting for Singers leads singing performers step by step from the studio or classroom through audition and rehearsals to a successful performance. Using a clear, systematic, positive approach, this practical guide explains how to analyze a script or libretto, shows how to develop a character building on material in the score, and gives th...

Acting for Singers: Creating Believable Singing Characters

Scrooge

(1996)

With words and music by Leslie Bricusse, this movie classic is now a seasonal stage production from London's West End to Tokyo. Songs include: A Christmas Carol * Thank You Very Much * Christmas Children * Happiness * I'll Begin Again * and more, plus full-color section and photos from the stage and screen versions.

New Broadways: Theatre Across America: Approaching a New Millennium

(2000)

Once upon a time in American theater, there was Broadway and there was the road. New shows might try out for Broadway on the road--theaters in cities such as New Haven, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, and Chicago, and Broadway hits might tour on the road for years. But until the 1960s, Broadway was more or less the center of the theatrical universe. As this new book chronicles, however, things have changed. Broadway's output--particularly of non-musical dramas and comedies--has decreased, but the a...

New Broadways: Theatre Across America: Approaching a New Millennium

Beckett in Performance

(1991)

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

Company

(1995)

Here at last is Furth's libretto to the convention-shattering 1970 musical (revived on Broadway in 1995) that launched composer Sondheim's most fertile period--and his cult. Originally a series of one-act plays about marriage, the musical adds a linking character, Robert, who is the only one without a spouse. In visiting each of a half dozen couples who are his friends, Robert seeks to learn "what do you get" from being married. The answer is far from Hallmark, but visceral. The text includes F...

The Cambridge Guide to Asian Theatre

(1997)

This paperback edition, incorporating corrections and updates, contains more distilled information on the theatrical arts of Asia-Oceania than any other single volume yet published. A broad-ranging pan-Asian essay lucidly explores the basic themes of ritual, dance, puppetry, masks, training, performance, while national entries provide the historical development of theater in twenty countries. Major theater forms of each country are accompanied by entries on significant playwrights, actors and di...

Flower Drum Song

(2003)

One of Rodgers and Hammerstein's most compelling love stories is re-made enchantingly in a new adaptation by the renowned Asian-American playwright, David Henry Hwang. This new version was a runaway hit last year in Los Angeles and now is playing on Broadway. Set in San Francisco's Chinatown in the late fifties, this is a funny and moving story which explores what it means to be an American and touches the history of every person whose forebears once arrived as a stranger to these shores. The bo...

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