Broadway Bookshelf — Show Book — Page 3

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

Show Book Books

The Art and Making of Aladdin

(4/30/2019)

The Art and Making of Aladdin offers the ultimate behind-the-scenes look into the 2019 live-action adaptation of the Disney classic Aladdin. Filled with striking imagery and fascinating behind-the-scenes details, The Art and Making of Aladdin examines the creation of Disney?s latest addition to their lineup of live-action adaptations of classic animated favorites. This deluxe book features an in-depth look at never-before-seen concept art, unit photography, and other gorgeous visual details....

Fairview

(4/30/2019)

Grandma?s birthday approaches. Beverly is organizing the perfect dinner, but everything seems doomed to go awry?the silverware is all wrong, the radio is on the fritz, and the rest of the family can?t be bothered to lift a hand to help. And yet, what appears at first to be a standard family dramedy takes a sharp, sly turn into a startling examination of deep-seated paradigms about race in America.

American Political Plays in the Age of Terrorism: Break of Noon; 7/11; Omnium Gatherum; Columbinus; Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them

(4/4/2019)

This powerful anthology brings together reflective and raw plays by American playwrights surrounding the psychic and political boundaries of the many faces and shadows of terrorism. Allan Havis's introduction addresses a variety of terrorism cases from the last 25 years, examines several theories of the root causes of modern terrors, and underscores how theatre forms a unique contour to social and philosophical thought on terrorism.

American Political Plays in the Age of Terrorism: Break of Noon; 7/11; Omnium Gatheru

Who's Holiday

(3/30/2019)

“A raunchy riff on Dr Seuss’s yuletide tale… The little tyke has become a bottle-blonde adult who spends her days in a trailer appointed with Airstream functionality and seasonal kitsch…brassy, very funny…a holiday offering that dirties up Christmas while ultimately reveling in its spirit.” Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times “This irreverent, adults-only sequel…dares to be as tasteless as possible while replicating Seuss’s trademark rhythms…flawless…juggling com...

Rebus: Long Shadows: The New Play

(3/19/2019)

The stage debut for the legendary detective John Rebus in this brand new, original story by Ian Rankin, written alongside the award-winning playwright Rona Munro. John Rebus is not as young as he was, but his detective instincts have never left him. And after the daughter of a murder victim turns up outside his flat, he's going to need them at their sharpest. Enlisting the help of his old friend DI Siobhan Clarke, Rebus is determined to solve this cold case once and for all. But Clarke ha...

Plays by Women from the Contemporary American Theater Festival: Gidion's Knot; The Niceties; Memoirs of a Forgotten Man; Dead and Breathing; 20th Century Blues

(2/21/2019)

Based at Shepherd University, in West Virginia, the Contemporary American Theater Festival is nationally and internationally recognized as a home for playwrights and the development and production of new plays. The Festival makes it a priority to celebrate and produce playwrights with strong, distinct voices, with a core value to tell diverse stories. This anthology of work provides plays that speak to one of the most compelling virtues of artists everywhere – freedom of speech. A necessar...

Plays by Women from the Contemporary American Theater Festival: Gidion's Knot; The Ni

Illyria (TCG Edition)

(2/5/2019)

It is 1958. In the midst of a building boom in New York City, Joe Papp and his colleagues are facing anger and pressure from the city's elite as they continue their free Shakespeare productions in Central Park. From the creator of the most celebrated family plays of the last decade comes a drama about a different kind of family-one held together by the belief that the theater, and the city, belong to all of us. Richard Nelson's plays include Two Shakespearean Actors and James Joyce's The Dead ...

If I Forget and Other Plays

(2/5/2019)

"Passionate and provoking." ?New York Times on If I Forget "Plays about the conflict in Iraq have mostly focused on the experience of soldiers or the politicians who put them in danger, but Steven Levenson's sensitive drama is welcome for the imaginative sympathy it extends to the families left behind." ?New York Times on The Language of Trees "The electricity in the room is palpable. . . . Levenson's dialogue is lean, dynamic and flows naturally." ?Time Out New York on The Unavoidable Disapp...

Sea Wall (Modern Plays)

(1/28/2019)

There's a hole running through the centre of my stomach. You must have all felt a bit awkward because you can probably see it. Sea Wall is a delicate monologue, completely devastating and beautifully powerful. Alex's story, spoken directly to the audience, begins full of clear light and smiles, as he speaks about his wife, visiting her father in the South of France, having a daughter, photography, and the bottom of the sea. His tone is natural, happy and engaging, with flickers of questi...

Contemporary Plays by African Women: Niqabi Ninja; Not That Woman; I Want to Fly; Silent Voices; Unsettled; Mbuzeni; Bonganyi

(1/24/2019)

This volume uniquely draws together seven contemporary plays by a selection of the finest African women writers and practitioners from across the continent, offering a rich and diverse portrait of identity, politics, culture, gender issues and society in contemporary Africa. Niqabi Ninja by Sara Shaarawi (Egypt) is set in Cairo during the chaotic time of the Egyptian uprising. Not That Woman by Tosin Jobi-Tume (Nigeria) addresses issues of violence against women in Nigeria and its attenda...

Contemporary Plays by African Women: Niqabi Ninja; Not That Woman; I Want to Fly; Sil

How to Transcend a Happy Marriage (TCG Edition)

(1/8/2019)

"An idea-inebriated comedy from the adventurous author of In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play." ?The New York Times "Sarah Ruhl tackles the polyamorous in her brilliant new play and finds love, beauty, and music." ?The Wrap Over dinner with another married couple, George and her husband grow fascinated by stories of their friends' new acquaintance-an intriguing younger woman named Pip, who is both polyamorous and hunts her own meat. What be- gins as an innocent intellectual discussion turn...

How to Transcend a Happy Marriage (TCG Edition)

The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek (TCG Edition)

(12/25/2018)

“Tender, ruminative… Fugard has been anatomizing the evils of apartheid, and the troubling legacies it left behind, throughout his long and distinguished career.” —Charles Isherwood, New York Times Inspired by the life of Nukain Mabuza, a self-taught artist who painted the boulders on the farm on which he worked, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek observes two differing experiences with racism, in the decades during and following apartheid, while ultimately illuminating the meaning ...

The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek (TCG Edition)

Rage (Modern Plays)

(12/19/2018)

Simon Stephens' explosive play Rage was written as a counterpoint for Elfriede Jelinek's Wut. Composed as 31 high-energy scenes, each one is based on a series of photos by Joel Goodman which captured the excitement and the mayhem of New Year's Eve 2015/16 in Manchester city centre. Published in the Manchester Evening News the photos quickly went viral in capturing a vital cross-section of a country on the edge. As the clock strikes twelve the celebratory mood turns into violence, racism, mar...

The Antipodes (TCG Edition)

(12/18/2018)

“A paradoxical, puzzling, compellingly hypnotic work.” —Village Voice In Annie Baker’s The Antipodes, a group of people sit around a table telling, cataloging, and theorizing stories. Their purpose is never clear: are they brainstorming ideas for a TV show? A film? A mythology? This is a world where ghostly fables co-exist with mundane discussions of snacks and sexual exploits, where the vague instruction to tell stories about “something monstrous” though “it might not be a liter...

I and You (Modern Plays)

(11/28/2018)

Housebound because of illness, Caroline hasn't been to school in months. Confined to her room, she has only Instagram and Facebook for company. That is until classmate Anthony bursts in – uninvited and armed with waffle fries, a scruffy copy of Walt Whitman's poetry and a school project due the next day… Caroline is unimpressed all around. But an unlikely friendship develops and a seemingly mundane piece of homework starts to reveal the pair's hopes and dreams - as well as a deep and mys...

I'm Not Running (Faber Drama)

(11/27/2018)

Pauline Gibson has unintentionally become a national treasure by staying out of party politics, while one of her close friends from university, Jack Gould, is making his way to the top of the Labour Party. The twenty year span of their adult lives and their contrasting fortunes raise sharp questions about how to do good in the new century.

Dance Nation (Oberon Modern Plays)

(11/13/2018)

WINNER: 2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize

J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan (Fourth Wall)

(11/13/2018)

‘Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe!’ – Peter Pan Peter Pan is a narrative many of us believe we know well, and yet the J.M. Barrie play that premiered on a West End stage in December 1904 is not the depiction of Peter, Wendy, Hook, and Never Land that most people have experienced. It was the critical and commercial success of this particular play which propelled the notoriety and appeal of the story, and without the success of that first production, Peter Pan would ...

Practically Poppins in Every Way: A Magical Carpetbag of Countless Wonders (Disney Editions Deluxe (Film))

(11/6/2018)

Ever since 1934, when Mary Poppins descended from the skies over London into Cherry Tree Lane in the beloved book by P. L. Travers, the world has adored the enchanting adventures and peculiar wisdom of this magical nanny.

Practically Poppins in Every Way: A Magical Carpetbag of Countless Wonders (Disney Ed

Miss You Like Hell

(11/6/2018)

A troubled teenager and her estranged mother-an undocumented immigrant from Mexico-embark on a road trip and strive to mend their fractured relationship along the way. From the writer of the book for the musical In the Heights comes Miss You like Hell, a musical adaptation of Hudes' play 26 Miles that was inspired by her own experience on a road trip with her mother. Combined with the musical talent of Erin McKeown, Hudes artfully crafts a story of the barriers and the bonds of family, while al...

Thom Pain (based on nothing) [Revised TCG Edition]: With Other Monologues for Theatre

(10/16/2018)

“It’s sad, isn’t it? The dead horse of a life we beat, all the wilder, all the harder the deader it gets. On the other hand, there are some nice shops in the area.” Thom Pain has come to a certain point in his life. Maybe you have too. His entire existence is ordinary; but that ordinariness is a revelation and a wonder and a curiosity. To him at least. He’d better hope so. It’s all he has (except maybe a dictionary and an old love letter). Comic and disturbing, this provocativ...

Thom Pain (based on nothing) [Revised TCG Edition]: With Other Monologues for Theatre

Pipeline (TCG Edition)

(10/16/2018)

“Pipeline confirms Dominique Morisseau’s reputation as a playwright of piercing eloquence.” —Ben Brantley, New York Times With profound compassion and lyricism, Morisseau brings us a powerful play that delves into the urgent issue of the “school-to-prison” pipeline that ensnares people of color. Issues of class, race, parenting, and education in America are brought to the frontlines, as we are left to question the systematic structures that ultimately trap underserved communities...

Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel

(10/9/2018)

Dear Evan Hansen, Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why... When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family's grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong. He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell, that the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend. Suddenly, Evan isn't invisible anymore--even to the girl of his dreams. And Connor Murphy's parents,...

Lulu the Broadway Mouse

(10/9/2018)

Lulu is a little girl with a very big dream: she wants to be on Broadway. She wants it more than anything in the world. As it happens, she lives in Broadway's Shubert Theatre; so achieving her dream shouldn't be too tricky, right? Wrong. Because the thing about Lulu? She's a little girl mouse. When a human girl named Jayne joins the cast of the show at the Shubert as an understudy, Lulu becomes Jayne's guide through the world of her theatre and its wonderfully kooky cast and crew. Together, ...

The Backstagers and the Ghost Light (Backstagers #1)

(9/25/2018)

The stage crew at St. Genesius Prep—or Backstagers, as they like to call themselves—are ready for whatever the theater world can throw their way: the madness of tech week, inevitable prop malfunctions, and all the paranormal activity that goes on behind the scenes. Luckily Jory, Hunter, Sasha, Beckett, and Aziz are up for the job! But lately, someone—or something—seems set on ruining their production of Phantasm. It all started when an actor brought a Spirit Board to the cast party,...

The Backstagers and the Ghost Light (Backstagers #1)

Torch Song Trilogy: Plays

(9/25/2018)

What begins as a chance encounter in a New York nightclub leads drag performer Arnold Beckoff on a hilarious yet touching pursuit of love, happiness, and a life he can be proud of. From a failed affair with a reluctant lover to a committed relationship with the promise of a stable family, Arnold’s struggle for acceptance meets its greatest resistance when he faces off against the person whose approval is most important to him: his mother. This edition contains for the first time ever both ...

Chimerica and Other Plays

(9/18/2018)

“[A] gloriously rich, mind-expanding three-hour play, which explores the complex relationship between China and America.” —Guardian on Chimerica Lucy Kirkwood has swiftly made a name for herself as one of Britain’s leading young playwrights and is widely considered to be the natural successor to the great Caryl Churchill. Kirkwood’s plays are infused with a sharp wit and a fierce intelligence, taking an unflinching look at the issues affecting our world today. This collection gathers...

Cost of Living (TCG Edition)

(9/18/2018)

Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Cost of Living deftly challenges the typical perceptions of those living with disabilities and delves deep into the ways class, race, nationality, and wealth can create gulfs between people, even as they long for the ability to connect. Eddie, an unemployed truck driver, and his estranged ex-wife, Ani, find themselves unexpectedly reunited after a terrible accident leaves her quadriplegic. John, a brilliant PhD student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess...

Nate Expectations

(9/18/2018)

When the news hits that E.T.: The Musical wasn’t nominated for a single Tony Award—not one!—the show closes, leaving Nate both out of luck and out of a job. And while Nate’s cast mates are eager to move on (the boy he understudies already landed a role on a TV show!), Nate knows it’s back to square one, also known as Jankburg, Pennsylvania. Where horror (read: high school) awaits. Desperate to turn his life from flop to fabulous, Nate takes on a huge freshman English project with h...

The Nap: Us Edition

(9/4/2018)

Dylan isn't your typical snooker player. He's a vegetarian, for starters. This is the biggest week of his life and everybody wants a piece of him?his ex-con Dad, local gangster Waxy Chuff, and the snooker corruption squad. From the author of One Man, Two Guvnors, this is a laugh-out-loud comedy/thriller about love, honor, and not getting snookered.

Corduroy Takes a Bow

(9/4/2018)

Celebrate 50 years of America's favorite teddy bear with a brand-new, classically illustrated picture book by Academy Award winner Viola Davis. When Lisa takes Corduroy to the theater for the very first time, it’s so magnificent and exciting that he just can’t help heading out on his own to explore. From the orchestra pit to the prop table to the dressing rooms, Corduroy sees it all. Could there be a place for Corduroy on stage, too? Fifty years after this lovable, inquisitive teddy...

Status (Oberon Modern Plays)

(8/30/2018)

Status is a show about someone who doesn't want his any more. About running away from the national story you're given. About who is responsible for that story and what might happen to it if you give it up. A globe-spanning journey of attempted escape, with songs along the way. Status springs from conversations about who we might be, and whether your country needs you more than you might need it.

Network

(8/23/2018)

I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore. Howard Beale, news anchorman, isn’t pulling in the viewers. In his final broadcast he unravels live on screen. But when the ratings soar, the network seize on their newfound populist prophet, and Howard becomes the biggest thing on TV. Adapted for the stage by Lee Hall from the Paddy Chayefsky film, Network premiered at the National Theatre, London, in November 2017.

The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family

(8/14/2018)

“An extraordinary theatrical event in which the personal and the political combine in a way that suggests a contemporary Chekhov.” —Michael Billington, Guardian This intimate and landmark series follows the Gabriel family of Rhinebeck, New York, through the momentous and divisive 2016 election year. While preparing meals in their kitchen, together they grapple in real time with issues of money, history, art, politics and family, as well as the fear of having been left behind.

The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family

Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Revised TCG Edition)

(5/15/2018)

In the aftermath of the Civil War, England stands at a crossroads. Food shortages, economic instability, and a corrupt political system threaten to plunge the country into darkness and despair. The Parliament men who fought against the tyranny of the King now argue for stability and compromise, but the people are hungry for change. For a brief moment, a group of rebels, preachers, soldiers, and dissenters dare to imagine an age of hope, a new Jerusalem in which freedom will be restored to the l...

Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Revised TCG Edition)

The Wolves: A Play: Off-Broadway Edition

(4/17/2018)

One of the most-talked about new plays of the 2016 Off-Broadway season, Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves opened to enthusiastic acclaim, including two sold-out, extended runs at The Playwrights Realm/The Duke on 42nd Street. The Wolves follows the 9 teenage girls?members of an indoor soccer team?as they warm up, engage in banter and one-upmanship, and fight battles big and small with each other and themselves. As the teammates warm up in sync, a symphony of overlapping dialogue spills out their ...

The Wolves: A Play: Off-Broadway Edition

The Penitent (TCG Edition)

(4/17/2018)

In David Mamet’s searing new drama, Charles, a psychiatrist, is thrown into a firestorm of controversy when he refuses to testify on behalf of a gay client accused of killing ten people. He claims his refusal is a principled defense of the Hippocratic oath, enshrining the confidentiality of the doctor-client relationship. The client’s defense claims it is bigotry. As Charles is subjected to a Job-like barrage of misfortune, The Penitent asks the question: What is the cost of standing up for...

Vicuna: A Play

(4/10/2018)

In his Upper East Side atelier, a bespoke tailor, Anselm Kassar, is persuaded by the vulgar real estate mogul turned presidential candidate Kurt Seaman to make him the perfect suit. A suit to “stun them” at the final debate before the election, a suit for him to wear while he takes on his unnamed female opponent. Kassar agrees to make Seaman a suit with magical powers of persuasion, to allow him to “close the deal with the American people.”

Wakey, Wakey (TCG Edition)

(4/3/2018)

Will Eno's latest work is an existential meditation on the way human beings tend to labor through life forgetting to appreciate the smaller things -- moments of laughter, the natural beauty of the world, and especially one another. In Wakey, Wakey, the joyful and moving new play by master of seriocomedy Will Eno, a man in hospice care resolves to spend the remainder of his dwindling days on Earth discovering ways to celebrate his life.

A Doll's House, Part 2 (TCG Edition)

(4/3/2018)

Fifteen years after Nora Helmer slammed the door on her stifling domestic life, a knock comes at that same door. It is Nora, and she has returned with an urgent request. However, before Nora can get what she needs, she must reckon with the people she left in her wake, who have some choice words for the former Mrs. Helmer. Lucas Hnath's funny, probing, and bold new play is at once a continuation of Ibsen's complex exploration of traditional gender roles while also creating a sharp contemporary t...

All That Jazz: The Life and Times of the Musical Chicago

(4/2/2018)

In 1975, the Broadway musical Chicago brought together a host of memes and myths - the gleefully subversive character of American musical comedy, the reckless glamour of the big-city newspaper, the mad decade of the 1920s, the work of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon (two of the greatest talents in the musical's history), and the Wild West gangsterville that was the city of Chicago itself. The tale of a young woman who murders her departing lover and then tricks the jury into letting her off, Chica...

All That Jazz: The Life and Times of the Musical Chicago

Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical Is Restaging America's Past

(3/22/2018)

America has gone Hamilton crazy. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical has spawned sold-out performances, a triple platinum cast album, and a score so catchy that it is being used to teach U.S. history in classrooms across the country. But just how historically accurate is Hamilton? And how is the show itself making history? Historians on “Hamilton” brings together a collection of top scholars to explain the Hamilton phenomenon and explore what it might mean for our understanding o...

Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical Is Restaging America's Past

Year of the Queen: The Making of the Hit Show Priscilla Queen of the Desert

(1/4/2018)

After an eight year absence from big musical theatre, Jeremy Stanford suddenly finds himself cast in a leading role of one of the most expensive and eagerly anticipated Australian musicals ever; Priscilla Queen of the Desert - The Musical. Involved from the outset, starting with the workshop of the first script, he navigates the auditions, the nerve-wracking rehearsals and finally, the incredibly fraught lead up to the world premier of this hit show. It's a wild bus trip through a landscape of ...

Year of the Queen: The Making of the Hit Show Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Dear Evan Hansen: Through the Window

(1/2/2018)

A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he's always wanted: a chance to finally fit in. Both deeply personal and profoundly contemporary, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is a new American musical about life and the way we live it. The book-produced by Melcher Media, the team behind Hamilton, Wicked, Rent, and many more-tells the story of the musical from its conception nearly a decade a...

Indecent (TCG Edition)

(12/12/2017)

When Sholem Asch wrote God of Vengeance in 1907, he didn’t imagine the height of controversy the play would eventually reach. Performing at first in Yiddish and German, the play’s subject matter wasn’t deemed contentious until it was produced in English, when the American audiences were scandalized by the onstage depiction of an amorous affair between two women. Paula Vogel’s newest work traces the trajectory of the show’s success through its tour in Europe to its abrupt and explosive...

The Art and Making of The Greatest Showman

(12/12/2017)

The glorious world of P.T. Barnum and the holiday movie The Greatest Showman come to life in this lavish art book. Featuring unit photography and concept art of stars Hugh Jackman, Zac Ephron, Michelle Williams, and Zendaya as well as behind-the-scenes tales of the film’s making. Lyrics to the movie musical’s showstopping tunes, by the song-writing team behind La-La Land. Foreword by Director Michael Gracey.

The Art and Making of The Greatest Showman

Everybody's Talking About Jamie

(11/1/2017)

Inspired by a true story, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is the new hit musical for today. Jamie New is sixteen and lives on a council estate in Sheffield. Jamie doesn’t quite fit in. Jamie is terrified about the future. Jamie is going to be a sensation. Supported by his brilliant loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness, into the spotlight. John McCrea, Josie Walker, Tamsin Carroll, Mina Anwar, Lucie Sho...

Complete Little Orphan Annie Volume 14

(10/31/2017)

A chronological reprinting of one of the most important comic strips of the 20th Century. Annie is a cultural icon--in both her red-headed, blank-eyed appearance, and as an embodiment of American individuality, spunk, and self-reliance. Even those who don't know strip are keenly aware of the plucky orphan, her loveable dog Sandy, and her adoptive benefactor, "Daddy" Warbucks, through the Broadway play, the hit movie, and the song "Tomorrow," made famous by both. What would you do if you foun...

Knives in Hens

(10/26/2017)

Includes new introduction by Mark Fisher. Making its New York City debut at 59E59 October 2017. 48 pages. Paperback published previously, including in July 2015.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel (The Oxford Keynotes Series)

(10/25/2017)

The first book on Carousel's history and impact. Presents new archival materials on the creation of the show.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel (The Oxford Keynotes Series)

View all Videos

Tickets From $59

Tickets From $70

Tickets From $72

Tickets From $106