Broadway Bookshelf — History — Page 4

The Complete Book of 1920s Broadway Musicals

(4/10/2019)

During the Twenties, the Great White Way roared with nearly 300 book musicals. Luminaries who wrote for Broadway during this decade included Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Rudolf Friml, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Sigmund Romberg, and Vincent Youmans, and the era’s stars included Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, and Marilyn Miller. Light-hearted Cinderella musicals dominated these years with such hits as Kern’s long-ru...

Disney Theatrical Productions: Producing Broadway Musicals the Disney Way

(3/17/2019)

Disney Theatrical Productions: Producing Broadway Musicals the Disney Way is the first work of scholarship to comprehensively examine the history and production practices of Disney Theatrical Productions (DTP), the theatrical producing arm of the studio branch of the Walt Disney Corporation. This book uncovers how DTP has forged a new model for producing large-scale musicals on Broadway by functioning as an independent theatrical producer under the umbrella of a large entertainment corporatio...

America in the Round: Capital, Race, and Nation at Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage (Studies Theatre Hist & Culture)

(3/15/2019)

More than a chronicle, America in the Round is a critical history that reveals how far Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage could go with its budget and racially liberal politics, and how Arena both disputed and duplicated systems of power. With an innovative “in the round” approach, the narrative simulates sitting in different parts of the arena space to see the theatre through different lenses—economics, racial dynamics, and American identity.

Broadway and the Blacklist

(1/21/2019)

During the era often commonly known as McCarthyism, many motion picture and television creators were blacklisted for supposed communist ties. There remained, however, a creative outlet that still welcomed these artists--theatre. This book explores the role theatre played during this turbulent period, covering the formation of the Theatre Guild (which birthed the Group Theatre), the short-lived Federal Theatre Project, and the investigations of the motion picture and television industries, and ...

Theater of the Ridiculous: A Critical History

(12/18/2018)

Theater of the Ridiculous is a significant movement that highlighted the radical possibilities inherent in camp. Much of contemporary theater owes this form a great debt but little has been written about its history or aesthetic markers. This book offers a comprehensive overview of the important practitioners, along with critical commentary of their work. Beginning with Ridiculous' most recognizable name, Charles Ludlam, the author traces the development of this campy, queer genre, from the B ...

Adapting The Wizard of Oz: Musical Versions from Baum to MGM and Beyond

(12/3/2018)

One of the most beloved film musicals of all time, The Wizard of Oz represents an enduring family favorite and cultural classic. Yet there is much more to the story than meets the eye, and the MGM movie is just one of many ways in which it has been represented. In this lively and wide-ranging book, editors Danielle Birkett and Dominic McHugh bring together insights from eleven experts into the varied musical forms this great American myth has taken in the past century. Starting with the early a...

Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro

(12/1/2018)

Through personal letters from little known Japanese individuals that had never been studied before, Dearest Lenny interweaves an intimate story of love and relationships with a history of Leonard Bernstein's extraordinary transformation from an American icon to the world maestro during the second half of the twentieth century. The passionate, articulate, moving letters of the two Japanese individuals--a woman who began writing fan letters to Bernstein in 1947 and became a close family friend, a...

Rise Up!: Broadway and American Society from 'Angels in America’ to ‘Hamilton’

(11/5/2018)

Penned by one of America's best-known daily theatre critics and organized chronologically, this lively and readable book tells the story of Broadway's renaissance from the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, via the disaster that was Spiderman: Turn off the Dark through the unparalleled financial, artistic and political success of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton. It is the story of the embrace of risk and substance. In so doing, Chris Jones makes the point that the theatre thrived by finally figurin...

Balanchine and Kirstein's American Enterprise

(11/1/2018)

In 1933 choreographer George Balanchine and impresario Lincoln Kirstein embarked on an elusive quest to found a ballet company and school in the United States. Though their efforts would eventually result in the creation of the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet, the first decade of their collaborative efforts was anything but assured. Tracing the tangled histories of two of the most important figures in twentieth-century dance, Balanchine and Kirstein's American Enterprise ...

Dance in America: A Reader's Anthology: A Library of America Special Publication

(10/9/2018)

From ballet and Balanchine to tap and hip-hop, two centuries of rich and eloquent writing about the beauty and magic of American dance. Like American speech, American dance has from the beginning been a fusion of many different tones and inflections, with European traditions of ballet and social dancing encountering Native American rituals and African American improvisations to create something altogether new, and extraordinary. Now, in this landmark anthology, dance critic Mindy Aloff (Hipp...

The Lost Letters of William Shakespeare: The Undiscovered Diary of His Strange Eventful Life and Loves

(9/21/2018)

Could a treasure trove of 400-year-old letters constitute a previously unknown "diary" written by William Shakespeare? After 25 years of research, we believe the astonishing answer is yes. We learn that Shakespeare left home bound for the New World, where he hoped to restore is family's fortunes, but knowing how risky the journey would be, he wanted to create a record for his two-year-old son (Hamnet) so that, one day, Hamnet would know why his father left home (especially in case Shakespeare w...

A Star Is Born (Turner Classic Movies): Judy Garland and the Film that Got Away

(9/18/2018)

New York Times bestselling author and daughter of Judy Garland tells the story of A Star Is Born -- at once the crowning achievement and greatest disappointment in her mother's legendary career. This is a vivid account of a film classic's production, loss, and reclamation. A Star Is Born -- the classic Hollywood tale about a young talent rising to superstardom, and the downfall of her mentor/lover along the way -- has never gone out of style. It has seen five film adaptations, but none compare...

Media and Performance in the Musical: An Oxford Handbook of the American Musical, Volume 2

(9/17/2018)

For the past several years, the American musical has continued to thrive by reflecting and shaping cultural values and social norms, and even commenting on politics, whether directly and on a national scale (Hamilton) or somewhat more obliquely and on a more intimate scale (Fun Home). New stage musicals, such as Come from Away and The Band's Visit, open on Broadway every season, challenging conventions of form and content, and revivals offer audiences a different perspective on extant shows (Ca...

Media and Performance in theMedia and Performance in the Musical: An Oxford Handbook of the American Musical, Volume 2 Musical: An Oxford Handbook of the American Musical, Volume 2

(9/17/2018)

For the past several years, the American musical has continued to thrive by reflecting and shaping cultural values and social norms, and even commenting on politics, whether directly and on a national scale (Hamilton) or somewhat more obliquely and on a more intimate scale (Fun Home). New stage musicals, such as Come from Away and The Band's Visit, open on Broadway every season, challenging conventions of form and content, and revivals offer audiences a different perspective on extant shows (Ca...

Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America

(9/4/2018)

The music of Broadway is one of America's most unique and popular calling cards. In Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America, author Laurence Maslon tells the story of how the most beloved songs of the American Musical Theater made their way from the Theater District to living rooms across the country. The crossroads where the music of Broadway meets popular culture is an expansive and pervasive juncture throughout most of the twentieth century--from sheet music to radio bro...

Royal Shakespeare Company - Angus McBean Wall Calendar 2019 (Art Calendar)

(8/15/2018)

This striking wall calendar is a wonderful celebration of the photography of Angus McBean, who was renowned for revolutionising theatre photography in the late 1930s. It features his iconic photographs taken from plays staged by the RSC, including Laurence Olivier as Macbeth and Vivien Leigh as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth; Kathleen Michael as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and Dorothy Tutin as Viola in Twelfth Night. You’ll be sure to find your favourite play in this great wall calendar....

Love & War: An Alex & Eliza Story

(4/17/2018)

1780. Albany, New York. As the war for American Independence carries on, two newlyweds are settling into their new adventure: marriage. But the honeymoon's over, and Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler are learning firsthand just how tricky wedded life can be. Alex is still General George Washington's right-hand man and his attention these days is nothing if not divided--much like the colonies' interests as the end of the Revolution draws near. Alex & Eliza's relationship is tested furthe...

Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles

(4/17/2018)

An eye-opening history of Manhattan told through its most celebrated street. Broadway takes us on a mile-by-mile journey that traces the gradual evolution of the seventeenth-century’s Brede Wegh, a muddy cow path in a backwater Dutch settlement, to the twentieth century’s Great White Way. We learn why one side of the street was once considered more fashionable than the other; witness construction of the Ansonia Apartments, Trinity Church, and the Flatiron Building and the burning of P. T...

The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals

(4/15/2018)

Strike Up the Band, Of Thee I Sing, and Let ’Em Eat Cake). The decade also saw the last musicals by Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Vincent Youmans; found Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in full flower; and introduced both Kurt Weill and Harold Arlen’s music to Broadway. In The Complete Book of 1930s Broadway Musicals, Dan Dietz examines in detail every musical that opened on Broadway from 1930 through 1939. This book discusses the era’s major successes, notorious failures, and musicals that ...

Sondheim and Wheeler's Sweeney Todd (The Fourth Wall)

(3/30/2018)

Sweeney Todd, the gruesome tale of a murderous barber and his pastry chef accomplice, is unquestionably strange subject matter for the musical theatre - but eight Tony awards and enormous successes on Broadway and the West End testify to its enduring popularity with audiences. Written by Hugh Wheeler, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, the musical premiered in 1979 and has seen numerous revivals, including Tim Burton's 2007 film version. Aaron C. Thomas addresses this darkly funny piece...

Detroit on Stage: The Players Club, 1910-2005

(12/1/2017)

Founded in 1910, Detroit's Players Club is an all-male club devoted to the production of theater by members for other members' enjoyment. Called simply "The Players," members of the club design, direct, and act in the shows, including playing the female roles. In Detroit on Stage, Marijean Levering takes readers behind the scenes of the club's private "frolics" to explore the unique history of The Players, discover what traditions they still hold dear, and examine why they have survived relativ...

Death of a Salesman in Beijing (2nd edition)

(10/19/2017)

Tells the story of Arthur Miller's time in China directing Death of a Salesman at the Beijing People's Theatre, with Chinese actors. Second edition is given a contemporary context as the production and process is investigated against the backdrop of twenty-first century China and its theatre, through a new introduction by Claire Conceison, Professor of Theatre Studies at Duke University. Photographs by Inge Morath. 264 pages.

The American Theatre Wing, an Oral History: 100 Years, 100 Voices, 100 Million Miracles

(9/12/2017)

In 1943, a wounded soldier aided by a cane limped into the Stage Door Canteen, the American Theatre Wing's fabled New York club created to entertain the Allied forces. Two hours later, he was said to have left with a spring in his step and without the cane. This "miracle" is recounted in the lavish new book, The American Theatre Wing, an Oral History: 100 Years, 100 Voices, 100 Million Miracles . The other 999,999 miracles are more commonplace, if no less remarkable, told by the impassioned art...

Shakespeare in the Theatre: Mark Rylance at the Globe

(8/10/2017)

Explores the Globe Theatre's first decade of productions under the leadership of Sir Mark Rylance. Material from the theatre's archive, interviews with Globe practitioners, and Rylance's own personal archive. Concludes with an in-depth interview with Rylance himself.

When Broadway Went to Hollywood

(12/1/2016)

When films like The Jazz Singer started to integrate synchronized music, in the late 1920s many ambitious songwriting pioneers of the Great White Way - George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and Lorenz Hart, among many others - were enticed westward by Hollywood studios' promises of national exposure and top dollar success. But what happened when writers native to the business of Broadway ran into the very different business of Hollywood? Their movies had their producer despots,...

Musicals: The Definitive Illustrated Story

(10/27/2016)

Musicals: The Definitive Illustrated Story showcases the complete history of the musical on stage and screen, from its origins in ancient Greece to early twentieth century dance halls and vaudeville to the golden age of cinema productions to the record-breaking Broadway musicals of today. Packed with historical insights, memorabilia, behind-the-scenes gossip, and artifacts, Musicals: The Definitive Illustrated Story takes you on the ultimate behind-the-scenes tour of the best-loved musicals,...

Experiencing Broadway Music: A Listener's Companion

(10/16/2016)

Experiencing Broadway Music: A Listener’s Companion will cover approximately the last century of American musical theater, beginning with the early-twentieth-century shift from European-influenced operettas and bawdy variety shows to sophisticated works of seamlessly integrated song and dance that became uniquely American. It will conclude with an examination of current musical trends and practices on Broadway. As a musician who works on Broadway and in developmental musical theater, Kath...

Singing and Dancing to The Book of Mormon: Critical Essays on the Broadway Musical

(4/27/2016)

One of the most successful shows in Broadway history, The Book of Mormon broke box office records when it debuted in 2011 and received nine Tony awards, including Best Musical. A collaboration between Trey Parker and Matt Stone (creators of the show South Park) and Robert Lopez (Avenue Q), the show was a critical success, cited for both its religious irreverence and sendup of musical traditions. In Singing and Dancing to The Book of Mormon: Critical Essays on the Broadway Musical, Marc Edwar...

Blue-Collar Broadway: The Craft and Industry of American Theater

(4/1/2016)

Behind the scenes of New York City's Great White Way, virtuosos of stagecraft have built the scenery, costumes, lights, and other components of theatrical productions for more than a hundred years. But like a good magician who refuses to reveal secrets, they have left few clues about their work. Blue-Collar Broadway recovers the history of those people and the neighborhood in which their undersung labor occurred. Timothy R. White begins his history of the theater industry with the dispersed ...

The Ultimate Broadway Musical List Book

(2/16/2016)

From Showboat to Hamilton, American musical theater has long held the imagination of the nation's theatergoers. Those who love Broadway musicals always have their favorites-their all-time bests, their most reviled shows, and the ones that are absolutely unforgettable. The Ultimate Broadway Musical List Book considers the history of the Broadway musical from the unique perspective of the list-the bests and worsts of various eras, the groundbreaking shows and the forgotten gems. Author Steven M. ...

The Product of Our Souls: Ragtime, Race, and the Birth of the Manhattan Musical Marketplace

(5/10/2015)

In 1912 James Reese Europe made history by conducting his 125-member Clef Club Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The first concert by an African American ensemble at the esteemed venue was more than just a concert--it was a political act of desegregation, a defiant challenge to the status quo in American music. In this book, David Gilbert explores how Europe and other African American performers, at the height of Jim Crow, transformed their racial difference into the mass-market commodity known as "b...

Transatlantic Broadway: The Infrastructural Politics of Global Performance

(3/11/2015)

Transatlantic Broadway traces the infrastructural networks and technological advances that supported the globalization of popular entertainment in the pre-World War I period, with a specific focus on the production and performance of Broadway as physical space, dream factory, and glorious machine. Inspired by post-humanist scholarship, this book pays heed to the non-human entities and the backgrounded or disappeared human laborers who participated in the transnational expansion of theatre netwo...

Theatre World Volume 69: 2012-2013

(3/1/2015)

SPIDER-MAN: A BUMPY RIDE ON BROADWAY

(1/8/2015)

“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” had all the makings of a mega-hit and was one of the most highly anticipated shows on Broadway. With music and lyrics by U2’s Bono and the Edge, direction by Julie Taymor (“The Lion King”) and a stellar cast, the show seemed destined for success. But, from the get-go, the musical seemed cursed, plagued with delays, financial troubles, stars bailing out and faulty flying equipment that caused a series of injuries. As things went from bad to worse, even t...

Blue-Collar Broadway: The Craft and Industry of American Theater

(12/5/2014)

Behind the scenes of New York City's Great White Way, virtuosos of stagecraft have built the scenery, costumes, lights, and other components of theatrical productions for more than a hundred years. But like a good magician who refuses to reveal secrets, they have left few clues about their work. Blue-Collar Broadway recovers the history of those people and the neighborhood in which their undersung labor occurred. Timothy R. White begins his history of the theater industry with the dispersed ...

It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great White Way

(12/2/2014)

In this deliciously revealing oral history of Broadway from World War II through the early 1980s, more than one hundred theater veterans—including Carol Channing, Hal Prince, Donna McKechnie, Hal Holbrook, Andrea McArdle, and Al Hirschfeld—deliver the behind-the-scenes story of the hits, the stars, the feuds, and the fiascoes. Along the way there are evocations of the great comedians and dramatic actors who had that indefinable magic that made them stand out above the rest. With verve, love...

The Villainous Stage: Crime Plays on Broadway and in the West End

(10/31/2014)

Live theatre was once the main entertainment medium in the United States and the United Kingdom. The preeminent dramatists and actors of the day wrote and performed in numerous plays in which crime was a major plot element. This remains true today, especially with the longest-running shows such as The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Sweeney Todd. While hundreds of books have been published about crime fiction in film and on television, the topic of stage mysteries has been largely une...

The Musical as Drama

(10/12/2014)

Derived from the colorful traditions of vaudeville, burlesque, revue, and operetta, the musical has blossomed into America's most popular form of theater. Scott McMillin has developed a fresh aesthetic theory of this underrated art form, exploring the musical as a type of drama deserving the kind of critical and theoretical regard given to Chekhov or opera. Until recently, the musical has been considered either an "integrated" form of theater or an inferior sibling of opera. McMillin demonstrat...

Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual in the American Theater

(10/9/2014)

The "villainous homosexual" has long stalked America's cultural imagination, most explicitly in the figure of the queer murderer, a character in dozens of plays. But as society's understanding of homosexuality has changed, so has the significance of these controversial characters, especially when employed by LGBT theater artists themselves to explore darker fears and desires. Murder Most Queer examines the shifting meanings of murderous LGBT characters in American theater over a century, showin...

Transposing Broadway: Jews, Assimilation, and the American Musical

(10/2/2014)

Tradition!( The Highly Improbable Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-To-Hollywood Story of Fiddler on the Roof the World's Most Belo)

(9/30/2014)

How The Wiz Was

(9/7/2014)

First-time author Jeremy Aufderheide explores the making of The Wiz, the rock musical based on The Wizard of Oz. Jeremy has uncovered new information and conducted thorough interviews with cast members and other key players that put to rest myths about the show. The book paints as accurate a picture possible revealing the making of one of the biggest musical hits of the 1970s.

Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof

(9/2/2014)

In the half-century since its premiere, Fiddler on the Roof has become a supremely potent cultural landmark, beloved by audiences the world over. Now, in a history as captivating as its subject, award-winning drama critic Alisa Solomon traces how and why the story of Tevye the milkman, the creation of the great Yiddish writer Sholem-Aleichem, was reborn as blockbuster entertainment and a cultural touchstone, not only for Jews and not only in America. It is first a story of the theater, as So...

Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War

(8/22/2014)

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 a...

The Omaha Community Playhouse Story: A Theatre's Historic Triumph

(8/21/2014)

The stars began to shine at the Omaha Community Playhouse when their first lead actress, Dodie Brando (Marlin Brando’s mother), called Herberta Fonda (Henry Fonda’s mother) to recruit young Henry to join her on the stage. Mrs. Brando and Henry discovered little Dorothy McGuire, and the Playhouse had its third star. When the Playhouse’s second director, Bernard Szold, secured Grant Wood to do scenic design for the controversial play, Brigham Young, the stage was set for success. Few...

Flopperoo!

(7/25/2014)

For any Broadway aficionado, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s only flop is a fascinating study. Pipe Dream had as its composers the two most successful tunesmiths since Gilbert and Sullivan writing the music and the twentieth century’s greatest American author, John Steinbeck, writing the script. How could it fail? Still, fail it did--and so sensationally that people have wondered for over fifty years: What happened?

By Dan Dietz The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals

(7/17/2014)

Back Stage Pass: A Survey of American Musical Theater

(7/11/2014)

For One Night Only...: The Civil War, The Brothers Booth and Shakespeare in Central Park

(7/10/2014)

Three sons of the London-born actor Junius Brutus Booth followed in their father’s footsteps and became eminent tragedians of the 19th century American stage, bringing the drama of William Shakespeare to audiences across the country and helping to secure the Bard’s legacy for generations to come. When the brothers Booth [Junius, Jr., Edwin and John Wilkes] gathered in New York during the fall of 1864 to stage a benefit production of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the quintessential t...

Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now

(7/10/2014)

The glorious tradition of the Broadway musical from Irving Berlin to Jerome Kern and Rodgers and Hammerstein to Stephen Sondheim. And then . . . Cats and Les Miz. Mark Steyn's Broadway Babies Say Goodnight is a sharp-eyed view of the whole span of Broadway musical history, seven decades of brilliant achievements the best of which are among the finest works American artists have made. Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Carousel, Gypsy, and more. In an energetic blend of musical history, analysis, and backsta...