Broadway Bookshelf — History

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

Browse by Category

Biographies Show Books Autobiography For Actors Musical Scores Reference Books History

History Books

Power and Greed: Monopolies, Mergers, and Cartels on the American Stage

(10/15/2026)

Since the second half of the 19th century, live entertainment in the United States has been governed by monopolies and powerful business cartels who together through power and greed controlled who could produce, book, and present live performance and legitimate theatre, affecting audiences in New York City and across North America. Far from being a historical problem, it took the botched rollout of the 2023 Taylor Swift Eras tour via Live Nation/Ticketmaster for people and Congress to questi...

Power and Greed: Monopolies, Mergers, and Cartels on the American Stage

Jazzed: Jack Cole and Twentieth-Century American Dance

(8/11/2026)

Renowned dancer and choreographer Jack Cole (1911–1974), whose birth name was John Ewing Richter, was a one-of-a-kind artist who initiated a gripping style of theatrical jazz dance that forever vanquished the vaudeville kickline. Cole's distinctive four-decade career choreographing for stage, screen, and his iconic nightclub act began during the Great Depression. He transformed early modern dance by injecting angularity, syncopation, and body isolations derived from Indian, Latin American, Af...

Jazzed: Jack Cole and Twentieth-Century American Dance

Too Darn Hot: Kiss Me, Kate & the Making and Remaking of a Broadway Musical

(7/1/2026)

Traces the journey of Kiss Me, Kate, by Cole Porter, Sam and Bella Spewack, charting its development from concept to curtain call, a behind-the-scenes look at the artistic decisions that shaped its legacy. Through several case studies, Robbins examines how it has remained relevant, provocative, and beloved. 240 pages.

Too Darn Hot: Kiss Me, Kate & the Making and Remaking of a Broadway Musical

Making Mary Poppins: The Sherman Brothers, Walt Disney, and the Creation of a Classic Film

(11/11/2025)

Making Mary Poppins reveals the extraordinary true story behind the creation of one of the most beloved films of all time―and the two little-known songwriters who helped make it possible. Long before Mary Poppins danced across the rooftops of Edwardian London and into the hearts of millions, Robert and Richard Sherman were struggling songwriters in Los Angeles, trying to find their voices―and their futures. In this vivid and deeply researched narrative, author and Disney historian Todd Ja...

Making Mary Poppins: The Sherman Brothers, Walt Disney, and the Creation of a Classic

Orchestration in Musical Theatre

(7/25/2025)

An analytic and critical overview of the practice, execution, and effects of orchestration in musical theatre since the time that rock music became significant in the genre. Case studies from shows such as Hair, The Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Wicked, and Hamilton. 128 pages.

Broadway Nation: How Immigrant, Jewish, Queer, and Black Artists invented the Broadway Musical

(7/25/2025)

Weaves these diverse threads into a comprehensive narrative, repositioning Black, Queer, and Women artists at the heart of the story, acknowledging their long-standing contributions often overlooked. 456 pages.

Broadway Nation: How Immigrant, Jewish, Queer, and Black Artists invented the Broadwa

The Middlebrow Musical: Between Broadway and Opera in 1940s America

(7/15/2025)

Uncovers critical networks that originally theorized a middlebrow approach to culture, beginning in the literary circles of Van Wyck Brooks and Archibald MacLeish, and radiating outward to major theater and music critics including Brooks Atkinson and Olin Downes. Follows three shows from their earliest conceptions to their opening-night reviews: Oklahoma!, Beggar's Holiday, and Street Scene. Featuring behind-the-scenes communications, which reveal how these Broadway writers explicitly deployed ...

The Middlebrow Musical: Between Broadway and Opera in 1940s America

Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan’s Girl From the North Country and Broadway's Rebirth

(1/23/2025)

The journey of a musical from potential disaster to success, and the Broadway industry that managed to stay alive during the pandemic shutdown of 2020-22. Told through personal stories, anecdotes from the cast, production shots, behind-the-scenes photos, and insights from the creators. 280 pages.

Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan’s Girl From the North Country and Broadway's Rebirth

Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy That the History Books Left Out

(11/19/2024)

Tells the stories of over 300 inspiring women who wrote Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals that Publishers Weekly calls "an exhaustive tribute to women whose contributions to Broadway musical history have often been overlooked." Covers prolific and celebrated Broadway writers like Betty Comden and Jeanine Tesori, women who have written musicals but gained fame elsewhere like Dolly Parton and Sara Bareilles, and dramatists you’ve never heard of—but definitely should have. 408 pages.

Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy That the History Books Left Out

How Sondheim Can Change Your Life

(11/19/2024)

Author Richard Schloch makes the case that Sondheim's greatness–beyond the clever lyrics and adventurous music–rests in his ability to tell stories that relate to us all. From Louise's desire for freedom to Sweeney Todd's thirst for revenge, we as an audience relate easily to Sondheim's characters. Follows the arc of Sondheim's career and includes stories about productions and iconic performers, deep readings of his music and lyrics, and insights into his creative process. 304 pages.

The Musical: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge Music Bibliographies) 2nd Edition

(10/14/2024)

2nd edition of 2011 book by William Everett. More than 1,400 annotated entries; includes reference works, monographs, articles, anthologies, and websites related to the musical. Separate sections devoted to sub-genres (such as operetta and megamusical), non-English language musical genres in the U.S., traditions outside the U.S., individual shows, creators, performers, and performance. This second edition reflects the notable increase in musical theater scholarship since 2000. Also includes mul...

The Musical: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge Music Bibliographies) 2nd Ed

The Play's the Thing: Fifty Years of Yale Repertory Theatre (1966-2016)

(9/24/2024)

Each of four chapters is dedicated to one of the Yale Rep's artistic directors to date: Robert Brustein, Lloyd Richards, Stan Wojewodski Jr., and James Bundy. Numerous sidebars are dedicated to the spaces used by the theater, the playwrights produced most often, casting, the prop shop, the costume shop, artist housing, and other topics. Illustrated. Based in part on interviews with some of America’s most respected actors about their experiences at the Rep. 400 pages.

The Play's the Thing: Fifty Years of Yale Repertory Theatre (1966-2016)

The Year that Made the Musical: 1924 and the Glamour of Musical Theatre

(8/29/2024)

About the remarkable mid-Roaring Twenties stagecraft to have been truly transnational, with a stellar cast of producers, performers and creators boldly experimenting worldwide. Revues, musical comedies, zarzuelas and operettas formed part of a thriving theatrical ecosystem, with many works - and their leading artists - now unpredictably defying genres. Demonstrates how fresh approaches became highly successful, with established leads like Marie Tempest and Fred Stone appearing in new production...

The Year that Made the Musical: 1924 and the Glamour of Musical Theatre

Watch Your Frazolagy! A Lexicon of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man"

(7/16/2024)

By Cary Ginell, who analyzes over 280 period references to language, slang, commodities, household items, idiomatic expressions, and personages familiar to Iowans in 1912 that Willson incorporated into the libretto and song lyrics. Includes over 125 images to help readers visualize the items and personages mentioned in the show. 155 pages.

Watch Your Frazolagy! A Lexicon of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man"

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

(7/15/2024)

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

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

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

(7/3/2024)

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

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

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

(7/1/2024)

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

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

Closer than Ever: The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire

(6/7/2024)

Chronicles the sixty-six-year (and counting) partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire, with behind-the-scenes accounts of their musicals interspersed with analyses of standout individual numbers. 304 pages.

Closer than Ever: The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby Jr.

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

(5/24/2024)

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

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

The Group Theatre: An Enduring Legacy

(5/15/2024)

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

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

(5/6/2024)

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

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

Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production

(4/29/2024)

"investigates both the history and current realities of life and work in professional theatrical production in the United States and explores labor practices that are equitable, accessible, and sustainable." 352 pages.

Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production

Playhouse Square and the Cleveland Renaissance

(4/23/2024)

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

Playhouse Square and the Cleveland Renaissance

Song of the Season: Outstanding Broadway Songs since 1891

(4/18/2024)

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

Song of the Season: Outstanding Broadway Songs since 1891

Broadway Melody

(4/2/2024)

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

The American Musical: Evolution of an Art Form

(4/1/2024)

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

The American Musical: Evolution of an Art Form

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

(3/12/2024)

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

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

Letters from an Actor: Anniversary Edition

(3/5/2024)

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

Letters from an Actor: Anniversary Edition

Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

(2/13/2024)

The author traces Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? from its origins in Greenwich Village's bohemian enclave, through its tormented production process, to its explosion onto screens across America and a permanent place in the canon of cinematic marriages. 368 pages.

Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who's Afraid of

Tell it to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad

(1/30/2024)

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

Tell it to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad

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

(1/18/2024)

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

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

Mary & Ethel ... and Mikey Who?

(1/16/2024)

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

The Final Curtain: Obituaries of Fifty Great Actors

(12/28/2023)

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

The Final Curtain: Obituaries of Fifty Great Actors

Jesus Christ Superstar: Behind the Scenes of the Worldwide Musical Phenomenon

(12/15/2023)

Detailed account of the life of the musical from 1969–1973. Behind the scenes look at the evolution of Jesus Christ Superstar from an album to a Broadway musical, exploring the breakthroughs, the frustrations, and the pitfalls. Never-before-seen photos and new interviews. 232 pages.

Jesus Christ Superstar: Behind the Scenes of the Worldwide Musical Phenomenon

Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood

(12/5/2023)

By David Mamet, with illustrations by David Mamet. The author " shares scandalous and laugh-out-loud tales from his four decades in Hollywood where he worked with some of the biggest names in movies." Audiobook narrated by Jim Frangione. 256 pages.

Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years

Fifty Key Theatre Designers

(11/25/2023)

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

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

(11/24/2023)

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

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

Conversations in Color: Exploring North American Musical Theatre

(11/16/2023)

By Sean Mayes. Unveils the untold stories and perspectives of artists of color shaping the stage today, through interviews drawn from Broadway and regional productions, including André De Shields, Alex Lacamoire, Baayork Lee, and many more. 168 pages.

Conversations in Color: Exploring North American Musical Theatre

Purple Rising: Celebrating 40 Years of the Magic, Power, and Artistry of The Color Purple

(11/7/2023)

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece "The Color Purple," as well as the acclaimed 1985 film from Steven Spielberg, the Tony-winning Broadway musical, and the all-new film adaptation. An exploration of the novel’s enduring legacy, featuring contributions from Alice Walker, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Colman Domingo, Fantasia Barrino, Danny Glover, and more. Oral histories and fresh anecdotes based on more than fifty original interviews, as well as ...

Purple Rising: Celebrating 40 Years of the Magic, Power, and Artistry of The Color Pu

Beyond Ridiculous: Making Gay Theatre with Charles Busch in 1980s New York

(11/2/2023)

Tells the story of Theatre-in-Limbo, a downtown band of actors formed in 1984 by director Kenneth Elliott and playwright and drag legend Charles Busch. Elliott narrates the company's Cinderella tale of fun, heartbreak, and dishy drama. 226 pages.

Beyond Ridiculous: Making Gay Theatre with Charles Busch in 1980s New York

Poster Child: The Psychedelic Art & Technicolor Life of David Edward Byrd

(10/24/2023)

Graphic artist David Edward Byrd pioneered the iconic visual styles that have come to define rock 'n' roll graphics through his poster, concert, and album art designs. He also created the iconic imagery for many Broadway shows, including Follies, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Little Shop of Horrors, and more. 176 pages.

Poster Child: The Psychedelic Art & Technicolor Life of David Edward Byrd

C'mon, Get Happy: The Making of Summer Stock

(10/16/2023)

A comprehensive study of this 1950 motion picture, from start to finish and after its release. The authors discuss in detail the contributions of the cast (which included Gloria DeHaven, Eddie Bracken, Phil Silvers, and Marjorie Main), the director (Charles Walters), the producer (Joe Pasternak), the script writers (George Wells and Sy Gomberg), the songwriters (which included Harry Warren and Mack Gordon), and top MGM executives (Louis B. Mayer and Dore Schary). Features extensive interviews, ...

C'mon, Get Happy: The Making of Summer Stock

Reviewing the Situation: the British Musical from Noël Coward to Lionel Bart

(10/5/2023)

Traces what made shows like Oliver!, Me and My Girl, The Dancing Years, Bless the Bride and Expresso Bongo successes in the West End and how their qualities define a uniquely British interpretation of the genre. Detailed case studies, such as The Boy Friend and Bitter Sweet. 208 pages. Released 10/5/23.

Reviewing the Situation: the British Musical from Noël Coward to Lionel Bart

Seriously Mad: Mental Distress and the Broadway Musical

(10/5/2023)

An account of stage musicals' engagement with historically significant theories about mental distress, illness, disability, and human variance in the United States. Shows how theater dramatized serious medical conditions and social problems. Among the many Broadway productions discussed are Next to Normal, A Strange Loop, Sweeney Todd, Man of La Mancha, Dear World, Anyone Can Whistle, Gypsy, Oklahoma!, and Lady in the Dark.

Seriously Mad: Mental Distress and the Broadway Musical

Backstage: Portraits of Actors at Work in the Theatre

(9/27/2023)

Series of photographs by Simon Annand behind the scenes in London theaters, capturing actors before they go on stage. Foreword by Cate Blanchett. 256 pages.

Backstage: Portraits of Actors at Work in the Theatre

Right This Way: A History of the Audience

(9/15/2023)

Pop history of audiences through the ages. Walks us through the different types of audiences and the history of their changing behaviors, what science has to say about how our brains respond to what we experience, how technology will continue to shape audiences, and why, during COVID-19, people risked a deadly virus to be part of a crowd. Drawing on perspectives from critics, performers, scholars, and many others. 256 pages.

Right This Way: A History of the Audience

Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra

(9/5/2023)

Interlocking story of the lives and careers American songbook interpreters Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, and Barbra Streisand. 384 pages.

Bing and Billie and Frank and Ella and Judy and Barbra

How to Survive a Killer Musical: Agony and Ecstasy on the Road to Broadway

(9/1/2023)

Chronicles Cohen's decade-long quest to bring No Way to Treat a Lady to the stage–writing, re-writing, and shepherding it across the US and Europe amidst all manner of adversity and plain rotten luck. A portrait of passion, persistence, and resilience. Cast of characters includes an Oscar-winning screenwriter who invites Cohen to his personal screening room for a marathon midnight writing session; a Tony Award-winning director making his comeback after a horrific accident renders him a quadri...

How to Survive a Killer Musical: Agony and Ecstasy on the Road to Broadway

Racing the Great White Way: Black Performance, Eugene O’Neill, and the Transformation of Broadway

(7/27/2023)

The early drama of Eugene O’Neill, with its emphasis on racial themes and conflicts, opened up extraordinary opportunities for Black performers to challenge racist structures in modern theater and cinema. By adapting O’Neill’s dramatic writing—changing scripts to omit offensive epithets, inserting African American music and dance, or including citations of Black internationalism--theater artists of color have used O’Neill’s texts to raze barriers in American and transatlantic theate...

Racing the Great White Way: Black Performance, Eugene O’Neill, and the Transformati

Creating Back to the Future: The Musical

(7/3/2023)

About the creation of the musical that opened at the Manchester Opera House in February 2020, music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard and a book by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale (adapted from their original screenplay). Pairs exclusive, in-depth interviews with previously unpublished photography; excerpts from Bob Gale's personal journal; and a foreword by Gale to reveal and detail the years long process, and the creative ingenuity and technical innovation. 224 pages.

Creating Back to the Future: The Musical

View all Videos

Tickets From $59

Tickets From $70

Tickets From $72

Tickets From $106