Show Books

Play by Qui Nguyen. L.A. Theatre Works production recorded before a live audience at the UCLA James Bridges Theater in February 2020. Will Dao, Desiree Mee Jung, Greg Watanabe, Paul Yen, Jeena Yi. Directed by Tim Dang. Original music by Shane Rettig.

The Nest, Poor Behavior, The Way of the World, Seared, Bernhardt/Hamlet, Downstairs, and Fool. 643 pages.

The novel, in verse, that inspired the West End/Broadway play by Stefano Massini. Spanning three generations and 150 years, a moving epic that tells the story of modern capitalism through the saga of the Lehman brothers and their descendants. A story of immigration, ambition, and success.

When she was fifteen years old, Heidi Schreck earned money for her college tuition by giving speeches about the U.S. Constitution. Decades later, she traces the effect this document has had on four generations of women in her family. Deftly examining how the United States’ founding principles are inextricably linked with our personal lives, Schreck also explores the ways in which their misuse has engendered violence and inherited trauma. With passion and wit, this galvanizing new play acknowled...

Features original monologues by writers such as David Lindsay-Abaire, Clare Barron, Hilary Bettis, Hansol Jung, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Christopher Oscar Peña, Jesse Eisenberg and Monique Moses. A rich collection that can be enjoyed by actors, writers and those looking for creative responses to the global COVID-19 crisis. 144 pages.

All five scripts from the 43rd annual cycle of world premieres: Everybody Black by Dave Harris; The Thin Place by Lucas Hnath; The Corpse Washer, adapted for the stage by Ismail Khalidi and Naomi Wallace, from the novel of the same name by Sinan Antoon; How to Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla; and We've Come to Believe, a collaboratively-written play by Kara Lee Corthron, Emily Feldman, and Matthew Paul Olmos

Play anthology featuring five docudramas originally commissioned by L.A. Theatre Works that each explore pivotal moments in 20th century U.S history: The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial by Peter Goodchild; The Real Dr. Strangelove by Peter Goodchild; RFK: The Journey to Justice by Murray Horwitz and Jonathan Estrin; The Chicago Conspiracy Trial by Peter Goodchild; Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers by Geoffrey Cowan and Leroy Aarons.

Charlie Savoy was once Hollywood’s hottest A-lister. Now, ten years later, she’s pushing forty, exiled from the film world and back at the summer Shakespeare theater in the Berkshires that launched her career—and where her old flame, Nick, is the artistic director.

A rollicking tale of love, magic, madness, and murder, Shakespeare for Squirrels is a Midsummer Night’s noir—a wicked and brilliantly funny good time conjured by the singular imagination of Christopher Moore.

Two-volume set of 14 plays and two silent film screenplays by turn-of-the-20th century American playwright George Ade. Many of these works have never been published before and some do not exist in complete form anywhere else. Ade’s plays offer a valuable and funny commentary on politics, community and social norms in the late 1800s/early 1900s.

Meet Alex, a photographer on a holiday with his family in the south of France. Meet Abe, a music producer with a baby on the way. Two men - both fathers, husbands, and sons - take us on a journey you will never forget. The finest actors of their generation, Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Sunday in the Park with George) and Tony Award nominee Tom Sturridge (1984), had audiences roaring to their feet during the sold-out Broadway engagement. Now Sea Wall / A Life, a dramatic exploration of...

The Humana Festival of New American Plays has been a leading home for extraordinary playwrights and their imaginations for more than four decades, making Actors Theatre of Louisville one of the nation’s preeminent powerhouses for new play development. For six weeks every spring, Louisville exerts a gravitational pull on producers and theatre lovers from around the country, who travel from far and wide for the adventure of seeing a diverse slate of fully-produced new plays. Many Humana Festival ...

The photographer Josh Lehrer's up-close-and-personal document of the evolution, and revolution, that is Hamilton: An American Musical. Only the second official book, Hamilton: Portraits of the Revolution invites Hamilfans to experience the award-winning show in a brand-new and intimate way through more than 100 portraits of the cast, including Lin-Manuel Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), Leslie Odom Jr. (Aaron Burr), Daveed Diggs (Lafayette), Phillipa Soo (Eliza Schuyler Hamilton), and Renée Eli...

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative to...

Based on the popular play by the same name, John Cariani's Almost, Maine is an interlinked collection of heartwarming and heartbreaking YA stories that will have you thinking about love in an entirely new way. Welcome to Almost, Maine, a town that’s so far north, it’s almost not in the United States―it’s almost in Canada. And it almost doesn’t exist, because its residents never got around to getting organized. So it’s just . . . Almost. One cold, clear Friday night in the middle of winter...

A new book from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the award-winning songwriters of the hit Broadway show Dear Evan Hansen. When Benj Pasek and Justin Paul set out to write a pivotal song for Dear Evan Hansen, a musical they had been working on for years, they knew it had to be big and emotional and genuine. So they tapped into their main character's loneliness and allowed him to sing his way out of it. The result was "You Will Be Found," a song that sets in motion a moment that goes viral in the w...

Play by Matthew Lopez inspired by E. M. Forster's novel Howards End, and set in New York three decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic. Premiered in London in 2018. This edition includes revisions made for the 2019 Broadway production. 336 pages.

From Tony Award-winning actress Laura Benanti and Met Opera soprano Kate Mangiameli comes M is for Mama (and also Merlot), a board book -- not for babies, but for their moms! Yes, motherhood is amazing, but let's face it: its not unicorns and rainbows all the time. Some days you find poo on your leg, and some days you're covered in vomit. Being able to find the humor in all the ups and downs is a mommy-must! This irreverent board book, hilariously illustrated by popular U.K. artist Helene We...

Play by Anne Carson that reconsiders the stories of two iconic women—Marilyn Monroe and Helen of Troy—from their point of view. Premiered at The Shed in 2019. 64 pages.

A shocking assassination in the heart of London. In a bizarre mix of high-stakes global politics and radioactive villainy, a man pays with his life. At this time of global crises and a looming new Cold War, A Very Expensive Poison sends us careering through the shadowy world of international espionage from Moscow to Mayfair. Lucy Prebble (Enron, The Effect) brings a shocking story to the stage, adapted from the book by Luke Harding, with an astute mix of real events, vaudeville and thrill...

Playwright Sarah Ruhl’s first book of poetry, 44 Poems for You, offers poems that form a subtle, personal meditation on family, motherhood, and loss. With a finely tuned ear for language, Ruhl’s poetry sings with a humbling honesty about what it means to share our lives with others and with those who form our hollows: a miscarriage, a close friend lost to cancer, and the sublimity of nature. She delves into womanhood through the physical reality of the everyday, and shows us life through her ha...

Play by Richard Nelson about Joe Papp. Played the Public Theater in 2017. 96 pages. It is 1958. In the midst of a building boom in New York City, Joe Papp and his colleagues are facing pressure from the city’s elite as they continue their free Shakespeare 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.

Guess How Much I Love You meets Someday in this gentle read-aloud picture book that shows us that with just the right amount of care and support, even the smallest of seeds can grow to stand one hundred feet tall. Thanks for the love that you’ve shown me Right now I’m so very small But with water and light I will keep gaining height And then one day I’ll stand at a hundred feet tall Hundred Feet Tall is a tender ode to the power of unconditional, immutable love. Because no matter how ...

A meticulous and respected stationmaster struggles to overcome his guilt when he finds himself suddenly culpable for a violent train crash that results in eighteen deaths. As the community come together to grieve, they succumb to a mob mentality that threatens to ostracize anyone who challenges the collective definition of morality and truth. An intriguing hybrid of theatrical genres, Ödön von Horváth's 1937 play is part moral fable, part socio-political commentary and part noir-ish thriller...

The Old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation—in the breeze, in the cotton fields…and in the crack of the whip. Nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems. Slave Play rips apart history to shed new light on the nexus of race, gender, and sexuality in twenty-first-century America.

The official behind-the-scenes book of the record-breaking, award-winning play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is one of the most celebrated stage productions of the past decade. Opening in London's West End in 2016, on Broadway in 2018, in Melbourne in 2019 -- and with more productions worldwide still to come (including San Francisco later this year) -- the play has smashed records, collected countless rave reviews and awards, and captivated audiences ni...

Comprehensive and beautifully designed, Grease: The Director's Notebook also includes all new exclusive interviews with the key cast members and crew, including Olivia Newton-John, John Travolta, and Stockard Channing, original script pages, call sheets, conceptual images, and more.

Seventeen-year-old Emma Nolan wants only one thing before she graduates: to dance with her girlfriend at the senior prom. But in her small town of Edgewater, Indiana, that's like asking for the moon. Alyssa Greene is her high school's "it" girl: popular, head of the student council, and daughter of the PTA president. She also has a secret. She's been dating Emma for the last year and a half. When word gets out that Emma plans to bring a girl as her date, it stirs a community-wide uproar...

A Journey through the Founding of America A richly illustrated and concise companion book to Hamilton: The Exhibition which delves into the historical events that inspired the phenomenally popular musical about Alexander Hamilton?s life and the Revolutionary War era. The Hamilton musical, says Lin-Manuel Miranda, is ?a story about America then, told by America now.? The phenomenally popular show has inspired a hunger for knowledge about the American Revolution and Alexander Hamilton, unti...

The Road to Wicked examines the long life of the Oz myth. It is both a study in cultural sustainability-- the capacity of artists, narratives, art forms, and genres to remain viable over time--and an examination of the marketing machinery and consumption patterns that make such sustainability possible. Drawing on the fields of macromarketing, consumer behavior, literary and cultural studies, and theories of adaption and remediation, the authors examine key adaptations and extensions of Baum's 1...

Come From Away: Welcome to the Rock - a fully illustrated companion volume to the hit Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, featuring the book and lyrics for the first time in print. Come From Away tells the remarkable true story of 38 planes and 6,579 passengers that were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland, on September 11, 2001, doubling the population of one small town on the edge of the world. The people of Newfoundland opened their arms to the displaced, offering food, shelter, and f...

Jeremy Heere is your average high school dork. Day after day, he stares at beautiful Christine, the girl he can never have, and dryly notes the small humiliations that come his way. Until the day he learns about the "squip." A pill-sized supercomputer that you swallow, the squip is guaranteed to bring you whatever you most desire in life. By instructing him on everything from what to wear, to how to talk and walk, the squip transforms Jeremy from geek to the coolest guy in class. Soon he is ...

Stunning concept art, powerful behind-the-scenes photography, and fascinating interviews with the cast and crew pack The Art and Making of The Lion King, offering an inside perspective on how director Jon Favreau and his talented team used the most advanced virtual cinematography and computer graphics techniques to craft a film of both legend and hyperrealism. The story of The Lion King has entered the pantheon of cultural mythology, as has its iconic music. In revisiting this tale, the filmmak...

John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask?s Hedwig and the Angry Inch opened on Valentine?s Day,1998, in New York City, and ever since it and its genderqueer heroine have captivated audiences around the world. As the first musical to feature a genderqueer protagonist as its lead, the show has had an extraordinary life on film, Broadway and in the music field. A glam rock musical with a complex relationship to issues related to art, eroticism and matters of identity formation, Hedwig and the Angry...

No one's any right to be what father is - never questioned, never answered back... First staged in 1912 and described as "the most powerful play produced in England in this decade," Githa Sowerby's Edwardian classic on family and labour enjoyed huge success in London and New York before disappearing from view. In a Northern industrial town, John Rutherford rules both factory and family with an iron will. But even as the furnaces burn relentlessly at the Glassworks, at home his children be...

The most frequently asked question about writing musicals is, "Which comes first, the music or the lyrics?" As anyone on Broadway will tell you, the answer is, "The book." Tony-winning book writer Robert L. Freedman takes you through the process of writing a new musical, including story structure, song placement, dialogue, character development, and more that led to the creation of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder , the 2014 Best Musical Tony winner. With candor and insight, Freedman desc...

For the 50th anniversary of The Who?s most legendary album, Tommy, comes the definitive illustrated guide to the album, featuring a foreword from Pete Townshend as well as new interviews with the legend himself and showcasing original art from the artist of the album's iconic case. On May 23, 1969, The Who released their breakthrough album, Tommy. It was their fourth studio album and would sell more than twenty million copies, receive wide critical acclaim, and be inducted into the Grammy Ha...

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....

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.

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.

“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 comedy, musical interlude...

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...

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 necessary ...

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 ...

"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...

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...

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...

"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...

“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 of prese...

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...