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Broadway Bookshelf

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.
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The Complete Lyrics Of Lorenz Hart (1/1/1995)

This expanded edition includes an appendix of previously uncollected and newly discovered lyrics.
The Complete Lyrics Of Lorenz Hart Cover
Musicals!: A Complete Selection Guide for Local Productions (12/2/1994)

From A . . . My Name Is Alice to The Zulu and the Zayde, this second edition of a title first published in 1984 contains information about 500 musicals (100 of which are new to this edition) available for production by community theaters and schools. Listed alphabetically by title, each entry includes date of original production, playwright, composer, lyricist, plot summary, licensing agent and music publisher, recordings and librettos available (for in-depth research by the user), and cast (num...
Musicals!: A Complete Selection Guide for Local Productions Cover
The Story of Starlight Theatre (3/1/1992)

Starlight Theatre is a magic place where an evening of musical theatre under the stars in Kansas City's Swope Park speaks so strongly of emotion that the audience is transformed by the presence of the creative experience. This book is filled with historical photos and provides a "behind the scenes" look at the real workings of the second largest outdoor theatre in the United States. A must for theatre goers everywhere. Unlike many other art forms, live outdoor theatre is a participatory expe...
The Story of Starlight Theatre Cover
The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays (1998)

These three plays are set in a town in Galway so blighted by rancor, ignorance, and spite that, as the local priest complains, God Himself seems to have no jurisdiction there. The Beauty Queen of Leenane portrays ancient, manipulative Mag and her virginal daughter, Maureen, whose mutual loathing may be more durable than any love. In A Skull in Connnemara, Mick Dowd is hired to dig up the bones in the town churchyard, some of which belong to his late and oddly unlamented wife. And the brother...
The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays Cover
Sight Unseen and Other Plays (1995)

Margulies's plays explore individuals' needs to be part of a group, usually a family, a religion, or both. Sometimes these are bitingly funny, as in the parodical Loman Family Picnic, about a young man who escapes his unhappy family life by imagining a musical of Death of a Salesman. Sometimes the plays are surreal, as in the Twilight Zonish What's Wrong With This Picture? about a dead wife and mother who is resurrected by her family's intense need--and then must convince them to let her rest in...
Sight Unseen and Other Plays Cover
Oleanna (1998)

In David Mamet's latest play, a male college instructor and his female student sit down to discuss her grades and in a terrifyingly short time become the participants in a modern reprise of the Inquisition. Innocuous remarks suddenly turn damning. Socratic dialogue gives way to heated assault. And the relationship between a somewhat fatuous teacher and his seemingly hapless pupil turns into a fiendishly accurate X ray of the mechanisms of power, censorship, and abuse.
Oleanna Cover
Glengarry Glen Ross (1994)

Winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize, David Mamet’s scalding comedy is about small-time, cutthroat real estate salesmen trying to grind out a living by pushing plots of land on reluctant buyers in a never-ending scramble for their fair share of the American dream. Here is Mamet at his very best, writing with brutal power about the tough life of tough characters who cajole, connive, wheedle, and wheel and deal for a piece of the action—where closing a sale can mean a brand new Cadillac but losin...
Glengarry Glen Ross Cover
The Marriage of Bette & Boo (1998)

As the play begins Bette and Boo are being united in matrimony, surrounded by their beaming families. But as the further progress of their marriage is chronicled it becomes increasingly clear that things are not working out quite as hoped for. The birth of their son is followed by a succession of stillborns; Boo takes to drink; and their respective families are odd lots to say the least: His father is a sadistic tyrant, who refers to his wife as the dumbest woman in the world; while Bette's side...
The Marriage of Bette & Boo Cover
Laughing Wild and Baby with the Bathwater: Two Plays (1994)

“Laughing wild amid severest woe” perfectly describes the fiercely ironic comedy of Christopher Durang’s Laughing Wild (which takes its title from this Thomas Gray quotation via Samuel Beckett) and the previously unpublished Baby with the Bathwater. In Laughing Wild, two comic monologues evolve into a man and a woman’s shared nightmare of modern life and the isolation it creates. From her turf battles at the supermarket to the desperate clichés of self-affirmation he learns at his “pe...
Laughing Wild and Baby with the Bathwater: Two Plays Cover
Churchill Plays: 2 (1990)

This second collection of plays by Caryl Churchill includes "Objections to Sex and Violence", "Softcops", "Top Girls", "Fen" and "Serious Money".
Churchill Plays: 2 Cover
Churchill: Plays One (1985)

The plays in this volume represent the best of Churchill's writing up to and including her emergence onto the international theatre scene with Cloud Nine. The volume also contains a new introduction by the author as well as short prefaces to each play.
Churchill: Plays One Cover
A Man for All Seasons (1990)

The classic play about Sir Thomas More, the Lord chancellor who refused to compromise and was executed by Henry VIII.
A Man for All Seasons Cover
The Norman Conquests A Trilogy of Plays (1994)

This brilliant comic trilogy details the amorous exploits of Norman, assistant librarian, whose one aim is to make the women of his life happy—these women being, as it happens, three sisters, one of them his wife, who can’t wear contact lenses because “life with Norman is full of unexpected eye movements.” Each play stands uproariously on its own yet interlocks with the others to form an ingenious Chinese puzzle of successive relations.
The Norman Conquests A Trilogy of Plays Cover
Lenya the Legend (1998)

Born Karoline Blamauer in Vienna in 1898, Lenya spent an impoverished childhood there before launching her career in Zurich and then Berlin, where she met and married Weill. The toast of the Berlin arts scene, Weill and Lenya left Germany in 1933 following the election of Hitler as chancellor. Weill was Jewish and an advocate of freedom of expression--his play Der Silbersee ("The Silver Lake"), which contained a caricature of Hitler, had already been banned by the authorities. The couple went to...
Lenya the Legend Cover
Ingmar Bergman: A Life in the Theater (1992)

A revised and expanded edition highlights the developments that have occurred in the interim since the first edition with reference to Bergman's triumphant return to the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm after years of self-imposed exile.
Ingmar Bergman: A Life in the Theater Cover
Under the Rainbow: The Real Liza Minnelli (1996)

The daughter of Judy Garland and movie director Vincente Minnelli, Liza Minnelli has endured excruciating trauma and failure and exhilarating passion and success - with the help of drugs, lovers, and a few close friends. Under the Rainbow is the touching story of a bewildered little girl searching for the childhood she never had and a love that has eluded her. There are two Lizas: the dynamic entertainer whose dramatic voice and stage presence embraced the romantic imagination of her audience; a...
Under the Rainbow: The Real Liza Minnelli Cover
Act One: An Autobiography (1989)

With this new edition, the classic best-selling autobiography by the late playwright Moss Hart returns to print in the thirtieth anniversary of its original publication. Issued in tandem with Kitty, the revealing autobiography of his wife, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Act One, is a landmark memoir that incluenced a generation of theatergoers, dramatists, and general book readers everywhere. The book eloquently chronicles Moss Hart's impoverished childhood in the Bronx and Brooklyn and his long, determin...
Act One: An Autobiography Cover
The Street Where I Live (1980)

This is a highly personal biography of three great shows: My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Gigi. Warm, witty, loving, often hilarious, and poignant in its affection for a glorious era in the American theater, it is the story of what Mr. Lerner calls "the sundown of wit, eccentricity, and glamour." The author himself, try as he will to keep himself out of his pages, emerges not merely as a great talent, but as a man of laughter and love. His principals, however, are Moss Hart and Fritz Loewe, with a st...
The Street Where I Live Cover
Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway (1995)

Lorenz Hart singlehandedly changed the craft of lyric writing. When Larry Hart first met Dick Rodgers in 1919, the commercial song lyric consisted of tired cliches and cloying Victorian sentimentality. Hart changed all that, always avoiding the obvious, aiming for the unexpected phrase that would twang the nerve or touch the heart. Endowed with both a buoyant wit and a tender, almost raw sincerity, Hart brought a poetic complexity to his art, capturing the everyday way people talk and weaving it...
Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway Cover
Cole Porter: A Biography (1979)

In 1933 Irving Berlin wrote to composer-lyricist Cole Porter, ”I am mad about Night and Day.” Millions of others throughout the world have been ”mad about” that Porter gem, as well as dozens of others, including, to name just a few, Begin the Beguine, From This Moment On, It’s De-Lovely, Just One of Those Things, Love for Sale, and My Heart Belongs to Daddy. Cole Porter (1891-1964) set new standards for popular song-writing, and his lyrics and melodies are as bright and sophisticated t...
Cole Porter: A Biography Cover
As Thousands Cheer: The Life Of Irving Berlin (1996)

A look at the life and prolific career of one of America's most successful songwriters.
As Thousands Cheer: The Life Of Irving Berlin Cover
The Complete Phantom of the Opera (1991)

Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Phantom of the Opera has been a smash hit worldwide. Now, here is the definitive account of this theatrical masterpiece, tracing the Phantom legend from its origins in historical fact through numerous artistic incarnations to the present day. The book includes the complete libretto and many specially commissioned color photographs of the production.
The Complete Phantom of the Opera Cover
Cats: Vocal Selections (1983)

This outstanding collection features ten top songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber's beloved musical: The Ad-dressing of Cats * Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town * Gus: The Theatre Cat * Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats * The Journey to the Heavyside Layer * Memory * Mr. Mistoffelees * Old Deuteronomy * The Old Gumbie Cat * Skimbleshanks: The Railway.
Cats: Vocal Selections Cover
Fanfare: Unauthorized Biography of Andrew Lloyd Webber (1990)

A biography of Andrew Lloyd Webber, this book looks at his bohemian upbringing, his relationships with his brother and Tim Rice and his application of classical training to the world of pop music. The author has also written "In For a Penny: the Unauthorized biography of Jeffrey Archer".
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Requiem: Vocal Score (1985)

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem is a requiem mass written in memory of the composer's father, William Lloyd Webber, who died in 1982. Many thought it a surprising turn for such a populist composer as Lloyd Webber to produce a piece of "serious" music, being his first and to date only full-blown classical work. The music mixes Lloyd Webber's melodic and pop-oriented style with more complex, sophisticated and (at times) even austere forms. Lloyd Webber himself called the Requiem "the most personal o...
Requiem: Vocal Score Cover
Andrew Lloyd Webber: A Biography (1985)

A Biography of the great contemporary composer. Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre, and has been referred to as "the most commercially successful composer in history." Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992 followed by a peerage from ...
Andrew Lloyd Webber: A Biography Cover
Andrew Lloyd Webber Anthology (1988)

An exquisite collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber's work from eight different stage productions. Features 27 of his greatest songs, including: I Don't Know How to Love Him * Don't Cry for Me Argentina * Memory * Unexpected Song * Pie Jesu * Only You * The Phantom of the Opera * more.
Andrew Lloyd Webber Anthology Cover
The Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber (1995)

Andrew Lloyd Webber has become the most successful composer in the world's history, earning respect with musicals like Phantom of the Opera and Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. The author surveys the panorama of this giant of the musical theater, telling the story of his life and works by focusing on each of his musicals. 150 color and b&w photos.
The Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber Cover
The Essential Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection (1998)

This outstanding collection features 41 songs from his best loved productions: All I Ask of You * Any Dream Will Do * As If We Never Said Goodbye * Don't Cry for Me Argentina * I Don't Know How to Love Him * Memory * The Music of the Night * The Phantom of the Opera * Pie Jesu * Starlight Sequence * Superstar * Think of Me * Too Much in Love to Care * Unexpected Song * more.
The Essential Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection Cover
Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life and Works (1989)

In Andrew Lloyd Webber Michael Walsh offers a detailed biography of the composer of Evita and Cats. He chronicles the triumphs and tragedies of Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, Whistle Down the Wind, the film version of Evita, his third marriage, and the financial upheaval at The Really Useful Company, Lloyd Webber's production group. Walsh attempts to hack through the mass of Fleet Street sensationalism and get at what is really happening in the life of this talented, troubled man. The book off...
Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life and Works Cover
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN: The Illustrated Songbook (1998)

Compiling the best Broadway hits of America's most beloved songwriting team, this beautifully illustrated gift edition brings alive the timeless music of "Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, Flower Drum Song, The Sound of Music", and more. 60 illustrations, 30 in color.
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN: The Illustrated Songbook Cover
The Wordsmiths: Oscar Hammerstein II and Alan Jay Lerner (1995)

Incomparable and unique in their ability to write both libretti and lyrics, Oscar Hammerstein and Alan Jay Lerner brought the musical theater to an artistic peak that remains unsurpassed. From Show Boat, Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music to Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, and Camelot, they wrote book and lyrics for one glittering gem after another, capturing the verve of the Golden Age of the musical at its peak. Their works continue to hold a preeminent place on stages around the world. Drawing on a w...
The Wordsmiths: Oscar Hammerstein II and Alan Jay Lerner  Cover
South Pacific Vocal Selections (1981)

The New York Times described South Pacific, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and nine Tonys, as "magnificent ... lively, warm, fresh and beautiful." Our deluxe revised Vocal Selections features 15 beloved songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein, a biography, plot synopsis, history of the show, and photos! Includes: Bali Ha'i * Happy Talk * Honey Bun * I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair * Some Enchanted Evening * There Is Nothin' like a Dame * A Wonderful Guy * and more
South Pacific Vocal Selections Cover
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1981)

13 piano/vocal selections from the 1957, 1965, and 1997 television productions of Cinderella, including: Cinderella Waltz * Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful * Falling in Love with Love * Impossible * In My Own Little Corner * Stepsister's Lament * Ten Minutes Ago * and more. Extra features include a Rodgers & Hammerstein biography, plot synopsis, a history of the show, and photos from all three productions.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella Cover
What They Did for Love: The Untold Story Behind the Making of "A Chorus Line" (1989)

The Untold Story Behind the Making of "A Chorus Line". Photography by Martha Swope.
What They Did for Love: The Untold Story Behind the Making of "A Chorus Line" Cover
Sondheim & Company (1994)

Here is a lavish tribute and a candid look at the career of the much-acclaimed, much-loved Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim. Includes candid interviews with his colleagues and stars, telling of his trials, false starts and heartbreaks as well as his successes. 150 photos.
Sondheim & Company Cover
The time of the cuckoo: A comedy in two acts (1983)

A two act play with 3 scenes in each act for 5 males and 5 females. The plot concerns an older unmarried secretary who meets an attentive man while vacationing in Venice. When she finds out he is married and has children she is torn with the moral problem of whether to partake in a short affair.
The time of the cuckoo: A comedy in two acts Cover
Way Off Broadway (1991)

A Complete Guide to Producing Musicals With School and Community Groups.
Way Off Broadway Cover
The Ploughman's Lunch (1986)

The Ploughman's Lunch is a studied analysis of the media world in Margaret Thatcher's Britain during the time of the Falklands War. It was one of the first films to feature in Channel 4's inaugural "Film on Four" season in 1982, enjoying a successful and critically lauded theatrical release prior to its television screening.
The Ploughman's Lunch Cover
The Location of Culture (1994)

This classic study of Shakespeare's tragedies inaugurated a new school of Shakespearean study. Professor Wilson Knight reveals design and significance where previous commentary had remained baffled
The Location of Culture Cover
Stages in Design (1995)

This is a photocopiable pack of practical activities aimed at 14-19 year-old drama students and their teachers. It offers a structured and progressive approach to stagecraft, design and technology in the performing arts. Each assignment contains teacher's notes.
Stages in Design Cover
Exploring Theatre and Education (1980)

Ken Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. He has worked with national governments in Europe and Asia, international agencies, Fortune 500 companies, national and state education systems, non-profit organizations and some of the world's leading cultural organizations. He was knighted in 2003 for his contribution to education and the arts.
Exploring Theatre and Education Cover
Complete Plays (1998)

Though she died penniless and forgotten, Zora Neale Hurston is now recognized as a major figure in African American literature. Best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she also published numerous short stories and essays, three other novels, and two books on black folklore.Even avid readers of Hurston's prose, however, may be surprised to know that she was also a serious and ambitious playwright throughout her career. Although several of her plays were produced during her lif...
Complete Plays Cover
Zorba - Vocal Selections (1983)

8 selections from the 1968 collaboration of Kander & Ebb: Zorba Theme (Life Is) * Happy Birthday to Me * No Boom Boom * Only Love * The Top of the Hill * The First Time * I Am Free * Why Can't I Speak.
Zorba - Vocal Selections Cover
Zombies from the Beyond - A Musical (1998)

A musical comedy celebration of American ideals and foibles in the Eisenhower era. Songs, dances, and laughs abound in the unlikeliest of settings as the Cold War and space race paranoia threaten the good folks at the fictional Milwaukee Space Center in 1955, where the staff is all abuzz at the arrival of rocket scientist Trenton Corbett. The budding romance of Trenton and Mary the daughter of Space Center commander Major Malone is jeopardized when a flying saucer lands in Milwaukee. The craft i...
Zombies from the Beyond - A Musical Cover
The Yeomen of the Guard - Vocal Score (1998)

This Gilbert & Sullivan opera is set in the Tower of London, during the 16th century, and is the darkest, and perhaps most emotionally engaging, of the Savoy Operas, ending with a broken-hearted main character and two very reluctant engagements, rather than the usual numerous marriages. The libretto does contain considerable humour, including a lot of pun-laden one-liners, but Gilberts trademark satire and topsy-turvy plot complications are subdued in comparison with the other G&S operas.
The Yeomen of the Guard - Vocal Score Cover
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown - Vocal Selections (1995)

10 songs from the endearing Broadway production, including: The Baseball Game * The Doctor Is In * Happiness * The Kite (Charlie Brown's Kite) * Little Known Facts * My Blanket and Me * Schroeder * Snoopy * Suppertime * You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown - Vocal Selections Cover
Wuthering Heights - Vocal Score (1961)

Musical drama in a prologue and three acts. Dramatization by Carlisle Floyd after the novel by Emily Bronte, Vocal score published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Wuthering Heights - Vocal Score Cover
Working - Vocal Selections (1997)

Titles include: All the Livelong Day * Brother Trucker * Cleanin' Women * Fathers and Sons * If I Could've Been * It's an Art * Joe * Just a Housewife * Lovin' All * The Mason * Millwork * Neat to Be a Newsboy * Something to Point Out, and others.
Working - Vocal Selections Cover
Woman of the Year - Vocal Selections (1998)

Titles are: Woman of the Year * One of the Girls * I Wrote the Book * See You in the Funny Papers * Sometimes a Day Goes By * The Grass Is Always Greener * We're Gonna Work It Out.
Woman of the Year - Vocal Selections Cover

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