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Show Book Books

Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim

(2004)

Subtitled The Broadway Musical from "Show Boat" to Sondheim, Geoffrey Block's book concerns itself with the creative process that made hits out of 14 musical comedies, such as Guys and Dolls and My Fair Lady, rather that just interpreting the impact of the finished projects. Block is adept at demonstrating how musical themes are used by the witty composers to tell or buttress the stories in subtle ways; there seem to be as many passages of sheet music recreated in the pages as there are photos. ...

Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim

Broadway Nights: A Romp of Life, Love, and Musical Theatre

(2007)

"No one out there knows Broadway or can tell a story like the a-mahzing Seth Rudetsky."—Jonathan Groff, Tony-nominated actor/singer, "Spring Awakening" “BROADWAY NIGHTS literally made me laugh out LOUD. Seth Rudetsky is the funniest man I know. Period.” —Kristin Chenoweth, Tony award-winning actress “Seth Rudetsky knows every skeleton in (or out) of the closet on Broadway and his passion, joy and encyclopedic knowledge of that Magic Kingdom inform every sentence of this book. He ...

Broadway Nights: A Romp of Life, Love, and Musical Theatre

Encyclopedia Of The Musical Theatre

(1980)

Drawing equally from Viennese operetta, Parisian cabaret, vaudeville, and Tin Pan Alley, the American musical theatre has thrived in an unprecedented variety of forms and styles as our truest hybrid art. From Show Boat and Oklahoma! to West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and A Chorus Line, the musical has attracted our finest actors, composers, writers, directors, and choreographers. The greats and near-greats are finally brought together in this essential reference guide to over 2,000 persona...

The Opera of the Twentieth Century: A Passionate Art in Transition

(2006)

In the late 1500s in Florence, aristocrats of the Renaissance renovated classical Greek dramas into dramatic musicals and gave birth to the first operas. After centuries of transformation, the opera is still appreciated as a historically dynamic paradigm of the fine arts. Composers of the twentieth century have worked hard to fashion a voice distinct from the romantic composers of the nineteenth century and the traditions that preceded them, and this volume explores the extent of their success. ...

The Opera of the Twentieth Century: A Passionate Art in Transition

The Theatre Quotation Book: A Treasury of Insights and Insults

(2004)

In two acts that consider what the theatre is and what it does, a star-studded cast of intellects, wits and wags here take center stage to enlighten, provoke, and amuse. A collection of close to 1000 distinctive anecdotes, aphorisms, adages and assaults written and spoken by actors, directors, composers, producers, critics and other observers - everyone from Sophocles to David Mamet, from Buddha to Brando.

The Theatre Quotation Book: A Treasury of Insights and Insults

Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America

(1998)

Schulman, a lesbian activist and 1997 winner of the Stonewall Award, joined ACT UP in 1987. Shortly thereafter, she completed her fourth novel, People in Trouble (NAL Dutton, 1991), which featured a group of East Village artists struggling with homelessness and AIDS and was based on her personal experiences. After attending a performance of Rent in February 1996 and writing a review of it, Schulman realized that the storyline of this mega-hit was, in fact, taken directly from her novel. Stagestr...

Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America

Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre

(1999)

Last year, Davies's widow, Brenda, and their daughter, Jennifer Surridge, worked to compile The Merry Heart, a collection of Davies's speeches and writings on reading, writing and books. Davies had consented to the plans for that book in the last months of his life. This, however, seems to be purely a production of his estate and is, truth to tell, uneven. There are some wonderful pieces: His speech on "The Noble Greeks" wanders convincingly from Greek religion and culture to Jim Jones and Davi...

Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre

An Opera Miscellany: Everything you never knew about opera for buffs and bluffers

(2009)

This fascinating book brings together for the first time everything you never knew about the world of opera. Fun, engaging and entertaining, it is a collection of facts, figures and miscellany which captures the sublimity and silliness of opera. From opera etiquette to the role of goats in opera, bible characters to favorite foods of the leading sopranos, no opera fan (whether serious or armchair) anywhere will fail to be educated and entertained. The book includes a foreword by Lesley Garrett,...

An Opera Miscellany: Everything you never knew about opera for buffs and bluffers

Musicals in Focus

(2009)

This second edition is fully revised, with full-colour images throughout, new entries on the latest musicals and a brand new index and glossary. This book explores precursors to the musical, from The Beggar's Opera, through operetta to works such as No, No, Nanette. It then takes you through the development of the genre, looking at changes in style during its 80-year history, and shows why a series of significant works have become so influential. It offers a series of case studies, with example...

The Immediate Experience: Movies, Comics, Theatre, and Other Aspects of Popular Culture

(2002)

This collection of essays, which originally appeared as a book in 1962, is virtually the complete works of an editor of Commentary magazine who died, at age 37, in 1955. Long before the rise of Cultural Studies as an academic pursuit, in the pages of the best literary magazines of the day, Robert Warshow wrote analyses of the folklore of modern life that were as sensitive and penetrating as the writings of James Agee, George Orwell, and Walter Benjamin. Some of these essays--notably "The Western...

The Immediate Experience: Movies, Comics, Theatre, and Other Aspects of Popular Cultu

Opera as Drama

(2005)

By and large, the new edition of Opera as Drama retains the spirit and format of the original ( LJ 11/1/56). However, in an effort to generalize the methodology used throughout the work, Kerman has added an interesting section outlining a viable method of opera criticism. In addition, he has modified the chapter devoted to Mozart to include a penetrating discussion of Idomeneo. The thoughtful withdrawal of somewhat callow remarks on various composers, operas, etc., will also be regarded as a wel...

The Theater Posters of James Mcmullan

(1998)

On buses, billboards, and train platforms, in newspapers and magazines, a poster's swift promise in glorious color or powerful dark tones offers a vivid impression of what awaits a theatergoer, and provides the lasting mental image of a play long after its closing night. No one creates such images with more invention, honesty, and beauty--sometimes disturbingly, but always memorably--than James McMullan. The Theater Posters of James McMullan is an illuminating collection of thirty-six posters f...

Edward Gorey's Dracula: A Toy Theatre: Die Cut, Scored and Perforated Foldups and Foldouts

(2007)

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel took place in the wild Carpathian Mountains, London and rural England, and various places in between. But the Dracula for which Edward Gorey created the set designs reproduced in miniature here--a version that ran to nearly a thousand Broadway performances--compresses the action to one locale: the sanatorium of Dr. Seward, near the town of Purley, somewhere in the English countryside. Based on Edward Gorey's set and costume designs for his award-winning Broadway producti...

Edward Gorey's Dracula: A Toy Theatre: Die Cut, Scored and Perforated Foldups and Fol

Off-Off-Broadway Explosion: How Provocative Playwrights of the 1960's Ignited a New American Theater

(2003)

The off-off-Broadway movement of the 1960s remains one of the most dynamic periods in the history of American theater. Filled with one-on-one interviews and entertaining anecdotes, Off-Off-Broadway Explosion explores the backstage stories and captivating history of the unusual venues and legendary personalities of the era. Readers will discover intimate accounts of the innovative Beat Generation playwrights who transformed the New York stage, such as Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Am...

Off-Off-Broadway Explosion: How Provocative Playwrights of the 1960's Ignited a New A

How to Enjoy Opera

(1987)

Discusses the essential elements of opera, surveys the history of opera, and describes the plots of one hundred popular operas.

Charles Osborne's Theatricals: The Collected Dramatic Criticism

(1999)

In 1986 Charles Osborne, ex-actor and translator of plays from French and German (and once described in Vogue as 'a suave 20th century version of the universal man') published a vitriolic attack on British drama critics. As a result, he was offered the posiiton as Chief Theatre Critic for the Daily Telegraph. He agreed to undertake the job for a period of no more than five years. His perceptive, trenchant and wittily expressed reviews established him as a highly respected recorder of the London ...

Charles Osborne's Theatricals: The Collected Dramatic Criticism

Mary Poppins: Anything Can Happen If You Let It

(2007)

Two veteran writers collaborate on this fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the journey that took the “practically perfect” nanny from the pages of P. L. Travers’s beloved novels to the stage. Well-known British writer and radio personality Brian Sibley tells Mary Poppins’s story, from her obscure origins in Travers’s Australian childhood and her progress through the series of books Travers began to write in 1934, to her incarnation by Julie Andrews in one of the most succe...

Mary Poppins: Anything Can Happen If You Let It

Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers

(1999)

This majestic reference fully chronicles the shows, songs, and careers of all the major composers of the American musical theater, from Jerome Kern's earliest interpolations to the latest hits on Broadway. Gershwin, Rodgers, Porter, Berlin, Bernstein, Loesser, Sondheim, Kander, Finn, Flaherty, and more--this book covers their works, their innovations, their successes, and their failures. Show Tunes is simply the most comprehensive volume of its kind ever produced, and this newly revised and upda...

Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers

The New York Times Essential Library: Opera: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Works and the Best Recordings

(2004)

Opera lovers are notoriously argumentative, so anyone drawing up a list of the "most important" works in the medium should expect to generate plenty of debate. Tommasini, chief music critic for the New York Times, recognizes that some of the selections in this opinionated, and admittedly quirky, guidebook will prompt second-guessing, but he makes the case for each of them with passion and conviction. The result is a collection of original essays that should prove both illuminating to opera novi...

The New York Times Essential Library: Opera: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Importa

Shakespeare's Globe: An Interactive Pop-up Theatre

(2005)

Gr. 5-8. This large-format "book" folds out into three sections. The first displays a pop-up model of the Globe Theatre. On the next is an excellent booklet about the famous playhouse, written in the person of Richard Burbage. Glued into the third are pockets holding tiny, stick-puppet players on stiff, glossy paper and two actors' copies of a playbook reprinting and introducing a number of short scenes from Shakespeare's plays. Beautifully painted, the detailed and fairly sturdy pop-up model i...

Shakespeare's Globe: An Interactive Pop-up Theatre

Lights on Broadway: A Theatrical Tour from A to Z, with CD

(2009)

With a dazzling cover, high-interest topic, and involvement by acclaimed performer Brian Stokes Mitchell (he wrote the introduction and afterword as well as performing on the included CD), this has the promise of being a showstopper, though it doesn’t totally deliver. The attractive design, A–Z format, and splashy computer-generated full-page illustrations will certainly appeal to many. Theater terms for each letter of the alphabet are given brief descriptions: audition, actor, box office, ...

Lights on Broadway: A Theatrical Tour from A to Z, with CD

Art Isn't Easy: The Theater of Stephen Sondheim

(1992)

Gordon explicates the works of Sondheim to repudiate the common perception of musical theater as mere escapist entertainment, showing how Sondheim tackles real, complex subjects, without fear of introducing pain, trauma, and difficult ideas onto the Broadway stage.

Art Isn't Easy: The Theater of Stephen Sondheim

No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous

(2006)

Starred Review. Much has been written about the American institution of vaudeville, but readers would be hard-pressed to find an account as humorous and sharp as writer and performer Trav S.D.'s tasty chronicle. Although critics in the early 20th century lambasted vaudeville as crude, sometimes clever, but generally "trite and empty," the author points out that from 1881 to 1932, vaudeville "was the heart of American show business," so ubiquitous that "if you were beyond the reach of vaudeville...

No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous

The Studio

(1985)

In 1967, John Gregory Dunne asked for unlimited access to the inner workings of Twentieth Century Fox. Miraculously, he got it. For one year Dunne went everywhere there was to go and talked to everyone worth talking to within the studio. He tracked every step of the creation of pictures like "Dr. Dolittle," "Planet of the Apes," and "The Boston Strangler." The result is a work of reportage that, thirty years later, may still be our most minutely observed and therefore most uproariously funny po...

West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical

(2010)

In West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical, Wells presents a major scholarly study of the famous American musical West Side Story, viewing the work from cultural, historical, and musical perspectives. From the 'mambo craze' of the 1950s to the work's ongoing permeation of popular culture, Wells looks at the myriad ways in which this canonic musical reflects and refracts American culture. Drawing on primary documentary sources, oral history_including interviews with members...

The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched

(2010)

What is unique and essential about theater? What separates it from other arts? Do we need "theater" in some fundamental way? The art of theater, as Paul Woodruff says in this elegant and unique book, is as necessary - and as powerful - as language itself. Defining theater broadly, including sporting events and social rituals, he treats traditional theater as only one possibility in an art that - at its most powerful - can change lives and (as some peoples believe) bring a divine presence to ear...

The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched

Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater, with Some Thoughts on Muses (Especially Helga Testorf), Transgender Women, Kabuki Goddesses, Porn Queens, Poets, Hou

(2010)

The performance of female characters by male Noh actors sparks a deeply researched, lovingly detailed, and obsessive discourse on the nature of feminine beauty by award-winning novelist and essayist Vollmann (Imperium). The book charts an increasingly peripatetic path through the meticulous yet ineffable art of Noh drama from the perspective of an enthusiast, all the while groping toward some definition of beauty and the feminine. But the feminine, and even the label female, is something widely...

Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater, with

The American Stage: Writing on Theater from Washington Irving to Tony Kushner

(2010)

Here is the story, told firsthand through electric, deeply engaged writing, of America's living theater, high and low, mainstream and experimental. Drawing on history, criticism, memoir, fiction, poetry, and parody, editor Laurence Senelick presents writers with the special knack "to distill both the immediate experience and the recollected impression, to draw the reader into the charmed circle and conjure up what has already vanished." Through the words of playwrights and critics, actors and d...

The American Stage: Writing on Theater from Washington Irving to Tony Kushner

Passion Play 2010 Oberammergau

(2010)

A once-in-a-decade performance of The Passion Play comes to life in this richly illustrated book. Every decade a small village in Germany continues a tradition that dates back four centuries to the time of the Plague. 2,000 villagers, nearly one-half the town s population, stage a retelling of the life of Christ. Each production draws millions of visitors to the town of Oberammergau to experience the performance. This official companion volume to the world-renowned event captures the d...

Hirschfeld On Line

(2000)

Al Hirschfeld is one of the greatest caricaturists ever to have put pen to paper, and this monumental retrospective is a testament to his genius. From '30s icons like actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine to the stars of Seinfeld, Hirschfeld's fluid line has limned some of the most enduring images of our favorite entertainers. The collection opens with a biographical essay by New York Times writer Mel Gussow that sketches the arc of Hirschfeld's career and the development of his reputation as a ...

Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops

(1992)

While ample material on hit Broadway musicals is readily available, detailed critical information on musical flops has been difficult to come by. Mandelbaum's ( "A Chorus Line" and the Musicals of Michael Bennett , LJ 6/15/89) informative and entertaining survey of almost 200 musical flops from 1950 to 1990 fills the void admirably. Framed by the 1988 megaflop Carrie , which theater buffs still speak of in hushed tones, the shows are presented thematically rather than chronologically, thus bett...

Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops

Broadway Musicals, Revised and Updated: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time

(2010)

Broadway Musicals is a richly illustrated, and information-packed celebration of the most popular and enduring Broadway shows of all time. Each show is featured in a detailed, photo-filled chapter that includes expert commentary, special features on the creators and performers, plot synopses, cast and song lists, production details, and backstage anecdotes. Also included are sidebars on Broadway flops, advertising posters, the greatest scores, and more. This edition includes several shows not i...

Broadway Musicals, Revised and Updated: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time

Michener's South Pacific

(2011)

"May is one of the foremost authorities on writer James Michener. In this book he takes you inside the creation of Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific and the musical South Pacific May fascinates us with his detailed accounts of key players like Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Josh Logan, and many others."--Ken Womble, director of James Michener: An Epic Life "Stephen J. May confirms his reputation as James Michener’s most pertinent, sensitive, and accessible biographer with Michener�...

Fiddler on the Roof

(2004)

The full text and complete lyrics, as well as photographs from the original production.

Don't Stop Believin': The Unofficial Guide to Glee

(2010)

The kids in McKinley High School’s glee club, New Directions, might not be the most popular, but Glee is unquestionably a runaway hit. Since its premiere in May 2009, Glee has exploded as one of the most popular hours on TV, earning an astounding 19 Emmy nominations in its first season. In addition to the show’s staggering success, Glee’s songs have been heating up the music charts, with 25 tracks on the 2009 hot 100 list, a hit-rate topped only by the Beatles when they had 31 hits in 1964...

Don't Stop Believin': The Unofficial Guide to Glee

Into the Woods

(2002)

The Tony Award-winning musical, now adapted into a lavishly illustrated book Into the Woods is the imaginative account of what happens when the lives of new and old fairy-tale characters dramatically and humorously come together. Cinderella, Jack (of bean-stalk fame), Little Red Ridinghood, and the Baker and his Wife set out for the forest on a quest to find "happily ever after." Along the way they meet Rapunzel, a Wicked Witch, a lascivious Wolf, vengeful Giants, a couple of charming Princes...

Broadway Musicals Show by Show: Sixth Edition

(2008)

The long-awaited update of this acclaimed, best-selling title. The most comprehensive and widely used Broadway reference book has been expanded and updated to include more than 300 of the most important and memorable productions of the American musical theatre, including revivals. Chronologically arranged beginning with The Black Crook in 1866, the sixth edition adds entries on numerous musicals from recent years, including The Lion King, Hairspray, The Producers, Wicked, The Boy from Oz, Mamma ...

Broadway Musicals Show by Show: Sixth Edition

The Fantasticks: The Complete Illustrated Text Plus the Official Fantasticks Scrapbook and History of the Musical

(2000)

"Richly illustrated, it is ideal for fans of the show, as well as admirers of musical theatre." - Variety * "Anybody who has seen the show (who hasn't?) should read the book" - Entertainment Today * "The perfect present for any Fantasticks fans." - Cleveland Plain Dealer * "A valuable resource. Recommended for all collections." - Choice

The Fantasticks: The Complete Illustrated Text Plus the Official Fantasticks Scrapboo

The Story of 42nd Street: The Theatres, Shows, Characters, and Scandals of the World's Most Notorious Street

(2008)

Quick! In the heart of little old New York, you’ll find a thoroughfare—what is it? Forty-second Street, of course! In this entertaining book, noted theater historian Mary Henderson traces the rise and fall and rise of the street that symbolizes the Broadway experience. The first theater went up in 1899, and by 1920, there were twelve stretching from avenue to avenue, plus a flow of trolleys, a subway stop at each end, and a never-ceasing bustle of activity in between. The 1920s and 1930s wer...

The Story of 42nd Street: The Theatres, Shows, Characters, and Scandals of the World'

The Phantom of the Opera, the first year backstage

(2008)

This is a catalogue of photographs taken behind the scenes during the first year of the musical 'Phantom of the Opera'. The photographs contained give a unique insight into life backstage at Her Majesty's theatre, London, and include images of the original cast members, from the principals, Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman and Steve Barton, to the chorus. These photos capture the ambiance, and eeriness, of a production that takes the audience back to 19th century Paris, as well as including man...

The Phantom of the Opera, the first year backstage

The Little Mermaid: From the Deep Blue Sea to the Great White Way

(2009)

From its first publication as a fairy tale told by Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid has been enthralling children and adults alike with its story of the transforming power of love. In 1989, Disney put little Ariel on film, gave her flaming red hair and an Oscar-winning musical score, and, in the process, reinvented the animated feature as a viable art form. Now the creative powers at Disney have reimagined the mermaid and her friends again, bringing one of Disney’s most beloved prin...

The Little Mermaid: From the Deep Blue Sea to the Great White Way

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