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Broadway Bookshelf

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.
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Gertrude Stein and a Companion (11/19/2011)

Drama / 2f / This extraordinary play won first prize at both the Edinburgh Festival and the Theatre Festival in Sydney, Australia, as well as the Vita Award in South Africa as Best Play. The play begins just after the death of Gertrude Stein. Her ghost returns to Alice B. Toklas and the genesis and development of their relationship is richly portrayed. Mr. Wells has truly captured the feeling, art, music and literature of Paris of those years, when Pablo and Ernest and Henri and all of Gertrude'... 		Gertrude Stein and a Companion Cover
Galway Girl, A (11/19/2011)

Drama / Characters:1 male, 1 femaleScenery: Interior. A couple sit at opposite ends of a table reminiscing about their life together. Each has a point of view and they rarely address each other directly. They are young to begin with, then middle aged, then old, then one dies. The anecdotes they relate are both humorous and tragic. Their lives seem wasted, yet the wife's muted final gesture of affection conveys a love that endured through years of bickering. A critical success in London, Ireland ... 		Galway Girl, A Cover
Funny Money (11/19/2011)

Little Theatre. Farce . Ray Cooney . Characters: 6 male, 2 female. Never has this master of farce been frenetically funnier. Henry A. Perkins, a mild mannered C.P.A, accidently picks up the wrong briefcase one full of money. Henry assumes it is illicit cash and he decides to keep it. Knowing that the former owner must have his briefcase, he rushes home to book one way fares to Barcelona. He tells his confused wife to leave everything behind; if she doesn't like Barcelona, they can go to Bali... 		Funny Money Cover
Frankenstein (11/19/2011)

Drama / Character: 4 male, 4 femaleScenery: Interior. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant young scientist, returns to his Swiss chateau to escape a terrible pursuer. No one can shake free the dark secret that terrifies him: not his mother, nor his fiancee, nor his best friend. Even the pleading of a gypsy girl accused of murdering Victor's younger brother falls on deaf ears, for Victor has brought into being a creature made from pieces of the dead. The creature tracks Victor to his sanctuary to dem... 		Frankenstein Cover
Drop Dead (11/19/2011)

Comedy / Characters: 7 male, 3 female Scenery: Interior . A cast of has been actors plan to revive their careers in Drop Dead!, a potboiler murder mystery directed by "Wonder Child of the Broadway Stage" Victor Le Pewe (a psychotic eye twitching megalomaniac). At the dress rehearsal the set falls, props break, and the producer and an actor are murdered. During the opening night performance, the murders continue. The remaining thespians must save the show and their careers, solve the mystery and ... 		Drop Dead Cover
Dream of a Common Language (11/19/2011)

Drama / 2m, 3f, 1m child / This intriguing work produced at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and in New York was inspired by an actual incident: women were banned from the artists' dinner to plan the first Impressionist painting exhibit in 1874, even though works by women were to be shown. In the play, the dinner is at the home of Victor, a successful artist, and Clovis, an artist who no longer paints. After helping with the preparations and being excluded from the dining room, Clovis devises a "w... 		Dream of a Common Language Cover
The Diaries of Adam and Eve (11/19/2011)

Comedy . Characters: 1 male, 1 female . Exterior Set. Originally broadcast on American Playhouse, this delightful adaptation is set in a Victorian garden and is structured as a series of diary entries by Adam and Eve. The play also works as a reader's theatre piece. At first, Adam is puzzled by the new arrival in the garden and he is suspicious of her disturbing appetite for fruit. Eve, believing herself to be some sort of experiment, is curious about another experiment in the garden, perhaps s... 		The Diaries of Adam and Eve Cover
The Birth of Shylock & the Death of Zero Mostel (5/1/1999)

Shakespeare's Shylock in The Merchant of Venice--the epitome of money-grabbing avarice and cruelty--is, Arnold Wesker believes, "a libel on the Jews" and a reflection of Elizabethan racism. Wesker, one of Britain's most revered playwrights, decided to create a counter portrait to the Bard's offensive character by writing his own play, Shylock, in which the Jew is compassionate, intelligent, and deeply moral. John Dexter, the world-renowned director, arranged to have it open on Broadway in 1977 w... 		The Birth of Shylock & the Death of Zero Mostel Cover
Polaroid Stories (1/1/1999)

Naomi Iizuka’s 1997 play, Polaroid Stories, consciously uses stories, characters and themes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to tell the stories of street kids living on the edge in a desolate, urban landscape. Because these characters are named after Orpheus and Eurydice, and Echo and Narcissus, or based on stories of Dionysus, and Ariadne and Theseus, and because scenes are entitled “The Story of Semele” or “Theseus in the Labyrinth,” Iizuka creates a world that has two dimensions: the g... 		Polaroid Stories Cover
Footnotes: A Memoir (11/6/1997)

Broadway icon Tommy Tune rummages through the packed attic of his eventful life as a nine-time Tony-winning dancer, director, and choreographer for his colorful memoir, Footnotes. Tune brings forth a surprising amount of grit from the glitter and froufrou, plus several startlingly graphic passages. His Texas boyhood amid supportive parents lead to a quick rise in the world of 1970s Broadway, and brought this modern-day Fred Astaire to success at the helm of shows such as Nine, My One and Only, G... 		Footnotes: A Memoir Cover
Lost Broadway Theatres (9/1/1997)

Theaters are more than just buildings, more than giant musical instruments, as some have described them. For regular theatergoers, they're old friends. When a theater disappears, there's a palpable sense of mourning. Updated to 1997, Lost Broadway Theatres recalls, in photos and memories, playhouses from the colossal and opulent American Theatre, now a parking lot, to the cozy Punch and Judy, now the site of an office building. The good news is that several of the houses previously considered do... 		Lost Broadway Theatres Cover
Showtune: A Memoir (11/1/1996)

This memoir is by the man who created the Broadway hits "Hello Dolly!," "Mame," and "La Cage Aux Folles." The self-described "Mr. Show Business, the razzmatazz musical comedy writer, a cheerful man whose life is dedicated to making people smile and feel good and leave the theater humming a show tune," Jerry Herman takes readers on a sentimental journey, retracing his steps toward big-time success and occasional disappointment. Though Herman relates losing his lover to AIDS, and tells of his own ... 		Showtune: A Memoir Cover
One Hell of a Life (9/20/1995)

Stapleton (b. 1925) has enjoyed a long career as a character actress and has won every award in sight: Oscar, Tony, Emmy. Her memoir, written with Scovell, covers her starstruck girlhood, her Broadway debut in 1946 and her charter membership in the Actor's Studio and offers insights into her art in such roles as Serafina (The Rose Tattoo). Along the way she talks candidly about her friendship with Marilyn Monroe, her struggle to save Montgomery Clift from self-destruction, the emotional dues she... 		One Hell of a Life Cover
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
Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika (11/1/1993)

The second half of the author's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Angels in America, follows the characters introduced in Millennium Approaches into the 1990s as they continue to struggle with the ravages of AIDS. Original. 		Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika Cover
Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika (11/1/1993)

The second half of the author's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Angels in America, follows the characters introduced in Millennium Approaches into the 1990s as they continue to struggle with the ravages of AIDS. Original. 		Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika Cover
Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches (5/1/1993)

The most anticipated new American play of the decade, this brilliant work is an emotional, poetic, political epic in two parts: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika. Spanning the years of the Reagan administration, it weaves the lives of fictional and historical characters into a feverish web of social, political, and sexual revelations. 		Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches 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
A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Michael Bennett (7/1/1990)

Mandelbaum, who writes about musical theater for several New York publications, here pays tribute to the accomplishments of the young director-choreographer who died of AIDS in 1987. He traces the evolution of Bennett's style from his early works (including Company and Follies ) to the high point of his career, A Chorus Line , and beyond ( Ballroom ; Dreamgirls ). The major part of the book is devoted to the longest-running show in Broadway history. The chapter on the improvisatory workshops in ... 		A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Michael Bennett Cover
Five O'Clock Angel: Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just (1/1/1990)

A remarkable collection of letters reveals the most intimate portrait yet available on the private life of Tennessee Williams. Maria St. Just was for 30 years Williams' closest friend, confidant, and reader and the inspiration for Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 		Five O'Clock Angel: Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just Cover
Listening Out Loud: Becoming a Composer (9/1/1989)

The latest entry in Harper & Row's series on the professions explores composition as a career. Best known for her musical theater work (e.g., Doonesbury ), Swados has also written operas, oratorios, and TV and film scores. With this broard perspective, she addresses many musical styles (rock, jazz, classical), work settings (concert hall, theater, recording studio), and the composer's job from creative impulse to the craft of composition to the practical task of getting the music performed. Some... 		Listening Out Loud: Becoming a Composer Cover
My Side: The Autobiography of Ruth Gordon (5/2/1986)

Ruth Gordon's autobiographical account. 		My Side: The Autobiography of Ruth Gordon Cover
Playwrights, Lyricists, Composers, on Theater (1/1/1986)

Largely culled from the Dramatists Guild Quarterly, here are reflections about Broadway by many of its most successful professionals. The entries, most in the form of dialogues or panel discussions, are in three sections: analyses of specific shows (Death of a Salesman, Gypsy, Torch Song Trilogy, etc.) by those who created and performed in them; conversations with individual dramatists about their own careers; and group discussions of more general theater topics, such as criticism, librettos and... 		Playwrights, Lyricists, Composers, on Theater Cover
Letters from an Actor (4/1/1984)

Letters from William Redfield while he was performing in the Gielgud-Burton production of "Hamlet." 		Letters from an Actor Cover
The Whorehouse Papers (5/17/1982)

A Candid, Hilarious, and sometimes hysterical out of school account of the joys, sorrows, and confusions, and small murders attendant to the making of a smash Broadway Musical. 		The Whorehouse Papers Cover
Letting My Hair Down (1/1/1973)

Lorrie Davis's account of two years with the love rock tribe of the musical 'Hair' --from dawning to downing of Aquarius 		Letting My Hair Down Cover
The Show Business Nobody Knows (1/1/1973)

Wilson was writer with the New York Post whose column ran from 1942 until 1983. His chronicling of the Broadway scene during the "Golden Age" of show business formed the basis for his book 'The Show Business Nobody Knows' which was published in 1971. 		The Show Business Nobody Knows Cover
The Making of No, No, Nanette (1/1/1973)

Don Dunn's account of the making of No, No, Nanette. 		The Making of No, No, Nanette Cover
The Making of a Musical: Fiddler on the Roof (1/1/1971)

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the classic musical 'Fiddler on The Roof'. 		The Making of a Musical: Fiddler on the Roof Cover
The Glass Menagerie (12/31/1969)

No play in the modern theatre has so captured the imagination and heart of the American public as Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. Menagerie was Williams's first popular success and launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, the play has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and is studied and ... 		The Glass Menagerie Cover
The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde (12/31/1969)

Wilde on Sincerity: "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal." Nearly a century after his death, the wit of Oscar Wilde remains as fresh and barbed as ever. This collection of his works, letters, reviews, anecdotes and repartee is ample proof of this iconoclast's enduring place in the world of arts and letters. 		The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde Cover
The Director's Voice: Twenty-One Interviews (12/31/1969)

Arthur Bartow is the Artistic Director of the Department of Drama at New York University. He is the author of The Director's Voice (TCG) and has been a consultant and a producer. He staged the original production of Short Eyes by Miguel Pinero and Elizabeth Swados' The Beautiful Lady. 		The Director's Voice: Twenty-One Interviews Cover
Arcadia (12/31/1969)

Arcadia takes us back and forth between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ranging over the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life. Focusing on the mysteries—romantic, scientific, literary—that engage the minds and hearts of characters whose passions and lives intersect across scientific planes and centuries, it is “Stoppard’s richest, most ravishing comedy to date, a play... 		Arcadia Cover
Rewrites: A Memoir (12/31/1969)

After serving an apprenticeship under Sid Caesar and Phil Silvers in Los Angeles, Neil Simon returned to New York at age 30 to embark on a career as a playwright. Some 35 years and three dozen plays later, the most successful comedy writer in the history of the American stage is still at it. In Rewrites, Simon reflects on his career, his relationship with his older brother and mentor Danny, and the loss of his wife Joan to cancer. Along the way, he reveals the price he has paid for his achieveme... 		Rewrites: A Memoir Cover
Side Show (12/31/1969)

This collection features PVG arrangements of 16 songs from the recent Broadway run of this controversial, critically acclaimed new musical that will be opening next year in Europe. Songs include: Come Look at the Freaks * The Devil You Know * Feelings You've Got to Hide * I Will Never Leave You * Leave Me Alone * Like Everyone Else * One Plus One Equals Three * Private Conversation * Say Goodbye to the Freak Show * Tunnel of Love * We Share Everything * When I'm by Your Side * You Should Be Love... 		Side Show Cover
Sam Shepard: Seven Plays (12/31/1969)

Sam Shepard is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of more than forty-five plays. He was a finalist for the W. H. Smith Literary Award for his story collection Great Dream of Heaven, and he has also written the story collection Cruising Paradise, two collections of prose pieces, Motel Chronicles and Hawk Moon, and Rolling Thunder Logbook, a diary of Bob Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Review tour. As an actor he has appeared in more than thirty films, and he received an Oscar nomination in 1984 for... 		Sam Shepard: Seven Plays Cover
Hurlyburly and Those the River Keeps: Two Plays (12/31/1969)

Full Length, Drama Characters: 4 male, 3 female Interior Set This riveting drama took New York by storm in a production directed by Mike Nichols and starring William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Judith Ivey, Christopher Walken, Harvey Keitel, Cynthia Nixon and Jerry Stiller. Characters nose deep in the decadent, perverted, cocaine culture that is Hollywood, pursing a sex crazed, drug-addled vision of the American Dream. Later stage and screen incarnations have attracted such actors as Ethan Hawke,... 		Hurlyburly and Those the River Keeps: Two Plays Cover
The Birthday Party and The Room: Two Plays (12/31/1969)

In The Birthday Party, a musician who escapes to a dilapidated boarding house becomes the victim of a ritual murder in which everyone- assassins, victim, and observers- implacably plays out the role assigned him by fate.The Room, a derelict boarding house again becomes the scene of a visitation of fate when a blind Black man suddenly arrives to deliver a mysterious message. 		The Birthday Party and The Room: Two Plays Cover
Betrayal (12/31/1969)

Part of a collection of Harold Pinter's works, this is a comedy of sexual manners in which Pinter captures the psyche's sly manoeuvres for self-respect with sardonic forgiveness. Written in 1978 by the author of "The Caretaker", "The Lover", "The Homecoming" and "The Birthday Party". --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 		Betrayal Cover
Death of a Salesman (12/31/1969)

The tragedy of a typical American--a salesman who at the age of 63 is faced with what he cannot face: defeat and disillusionment. 		Death of a Salesman Cover
Lips Together, Teeth Apart (12/31/1969)

The author of such critically acclaimed plays as The Lisbon Traviata and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Terrence McNally has graced the American theater with a voice that captures our fear of intimacy in the modern age with dead-on insight, wit, and poignancy. But never has he blended these disparate elements into such a brilliantly cohesive whole as he has in Lips Together, Teeth Apart,hailed by Frank Rich of the New York Times as McNallys"most ambitious and most accomplished play yet... 		Lips Together, Teeth Apart Cover
The Cripple of Inishmaan (12/31/1969)

In 1934, the people of Inishmaan learn that the Hollywood director Robert Flaherty is coming to the neighboring island to film a documentary. No one is more excited than Cripple Billy, an unloved boy whose chief occupation has been grazing at cows and yearning for a girl who wants no part of him. For Billy is determined to cross the sea and audition for the Yank. And as news of his audacity ripples through his rumor-starved community, The Cripple of Inishmaan becomes a merciless portrayal of a w... 		The Cripple of Inishmaan Cover
The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays (12/31/1969)

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 (12/31/1969)

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 (12/31/1969)

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 (12/31/1969)

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 (12/31/1969)

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 (12/31/1969)

“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 (12/31/1969)

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

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