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Broadway Bookshelf - Must Read Theater Books


Matching Minds with Sondheim (5/20/2025)

By near-universal consensus, Stephen Sondheim was the greatest musical theater composer of his generation—celebrated, among other things, for the wit, sophistication, and intricacy of shows from West Side Story to Sunday in the Park with George. A less well-known avenue for his brilliant creativity was his lifelong fascination with designing and constructing intricate puzzles and games: from treasure hunts and crossword puzzles to parlor and board games. Matching Minds with Sondheim is a jou...
Matching Minds with Sondheim Cover
Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words (11/26/2024)

First full-length biography devoted to the life of Ira Gershwin. Draws on extensive archival sources and often using Ira's own words. 30 illustrations. 400 pages.
Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words Cover
Recording Broadway: A Life in Cast Albums (11/19/2024)

Producer Thomas Z. Shepard's writes about his childhood as a piano prodigy, and of the making of fifty plus years' worth of show albums, featuring stories of his work with Broadway people including Julie Andrews, Leonard Bernstein, Sheldon Harnick, Barbara Cook, Placido Domingo, Gregory Hines, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim, Barbra Streisand, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many more. 408 pages.
Recording Broadway: A Life in Cast Albums Cover
How Sondheim Can Change Your Life (11/19/2024)

Author Richard Schloch makes the case that Sondheim's greatness–beyond the clever lyrics and adventurous music–rests in his ability to tell stories that relate to us all. From Louise's desire for freedom to Sweeney Todd's thirst for revenge, we as an audience relate easily to Sondheim's characters. Follows the arc of Sondheim's career and includes stories about productions and iconic performers, deep readings of his music and lyrics, and insights into his creative process. 304 pages.
How Sondheim Can Change Your Life Cover
It Happened at the Palace: A History of New York’s Iconic Broadway Theater (10/29/2024)

A historical account and love letter to the performing arts, a chronicle of New York's cultural evolution, and a business saga of revival and triumph. More than 175 photographs, untold stories, and intimate portraits of stage legends and the intricate process of preserving a landmark not only of bricks and mortar but of dreams and memories. 200 pages.
It Happened at the Palace: A History of New York’s Iconic Broadway Theater Cover
Broadway Poster Art: 1945–1969 (10/28/2024)

750 advertising posters for the musicals and plays of Broadway's golden age, plus behind-the-scenes stories. Also included: never-before-seen artist progressions from conception to completion, as well as alternate and rejected designs; facts and legends about the productions; a look at how the posters were used around the city; rare images - many one of a kind - from private collections, archives, and libraries nationwide; and an index of artists and shows. 304 pages.
Broadway Poster Art: 1945–1969 Cover
The Wall of Life: Pictures and Stories from This Marvelous Lifetime (10/22/2024)

Extensive photo collection revealing both intimate family memories and images with some of the most significant figures from entertainment and politics. MacLaine reflects on each photo, exploring ambition, love, friendship, motherhood, art, political activism, curiosity, and more. 272 pages.
The Wall of Life: Pictures and Stories from This Marvelous Lifetime Cover
A Show Tune for Today: 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year Calendar (10/15/2024)

Day-to-day calendar (one that can be used again and again, in any year). 366 bite-size entries, with anecdotes, observations, fun facts, and other confections tied to a single song, perfect for starting each day. Tied to a show's opening date, holidays, historic dates, lyrics, or connections more surprising. 400 pages.
A Show Tune for Today: 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year Calendar Cover
The Spamalot Diaries (10/8/2024)

Eric Idle shares original journal entries and raw email exchanges that reveal the sometimes bumpy, always entertaining path to the musical Spamalot's run. 208 pages.
The Spamalot Diaries Cover
Running the Room: Conversations with Women Theatre Directors (9/24/2024)

Explores, through a series of conversations with many of the leading talents working on British stages, what it takes to succeed in the field, and how each director approaches the work in their own way. Contributions from Natalie Abrahami, Annabel Arden, Milli Bhatia, Carrie Cracknell, Tinuke Craig, Marianne Elliott, Nadia Fall, Yaël Farber, Vicky Featherstone, Jamie Fletcher, Sarah Frankcom, Emma Frankland, Rebecca Frecknall, Debbie Hannan, Tamara Harvey, Natalie Ibu, Ola Ince, Lynette Linton,...
Running the Room: Conversations with Women Theatre Directors Cover
The Play's the Thing: Fifty Years of Yale Repertory Theatre (1966-2016) (9/24/2024)

Each of four chapters is dedicated to one of the Yale Rep's artistic directors to date: Robert Brustein, Lloyd Richards, Stan Wojewodski Jr., and James Bundy. Numerous sidebars are dedicated to the spaces used by the theater, the playwrights produced most often, casting, the prop shop, the costume shop, artist housing, and other topics. Illustrated. Based in part on interviews with some of America’s most respected actors about their experiences at the Rep. 400 pages.
The Play's the Thing: Fifty Years of Yale Repertory Theatre (1966-2016) Cover
The Book of Joel (9/17/2024)

The Book of Joel is the visual life story of one of the world’s most beloved entertainers, Joel Grey: actor, singer, dancer, director, and photographer. This sprawling yet intimate scrapbook-style volume uncovers a kaleidoscope of both famous and previously unseen photographs, family snapshots, playbills, posters, and ephemera from Grey’s personal archive, revealing an encyclopedic and all-absorbing visual romp through one of the last living greats of American entertainment.
The Book of Joel Cover
The Third Gilmore Girl (9/17/2024)

Memoir by Kelly Bishop, spanning her six decades in show business from Broadway to Hollywood with A Chorus Line, Dirty Dancing, Gilmore Girls, and much more. Also includes a special collection of personal and professional photographs. 288 pages.
The Third Gilmore Girl Cover
Love Me Tonight (Oxford Guides to Film Musicals) (9/6/2024)

About the musical film Love Me Tonight (1932), with individual chapters devoted to the work's genesis and development of the screenplay, the songs and instrumental music, the role censorship has played in the history of the film, and the film's reception from its time to the modern day. Informed by extensive archival holdings in several major library collections, as well as from the indispensable resources housed at the Paramount Studio archives. 208 pages.
Love Me Tonight (Oxford Guides to Film Musicals) Cover
Rocky Horror Cookbook: 50 Savory, Sweet, and Seductive Recipes from the Cult Musical (9/3/2024)

Officially licensed cookbook based on The Rocky Horror Show. 50 recipes. Examples: Magenta Mash(ed) Potato Cakes, Thrill Me Chill Me Spicy Gazpacho, Rocky’s Mussels, Riff Raff Ramen, and Slow-Cooked Thigh Ragu. "Don't dream it. Eat it." 136 pages.
Rocky Horror Cookbook: 50 Savory, Sweet, and Seductive Recipes from the Cult Musical Cover
Helen Morgan: The Original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld's Last Star (9/3/2024)

Biography on Broadway, film, and radio star Helen Morgan. 394 pages.
Helen Morgan: The Original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld's Last Star Cover
Please Be My Star (9/3/2024)

A wonderfully fun and unique reimagining of The Phantom of the Opera as a teen rom-com set in high school! Erika knows that people find her weird and off-putting. Instead of making friends, she finds solace in talking to herself and obsessing over handsome actors and pop stars. When she starts attending a new school, her loneliness takes on a life of its own and she develops a new obsession: the cutest boy in her theater class, Christian. For some reason, Christian is kind to her and even agree...
Please Be My Star Cover
I Danced on Broadway: Memoir of a Career on Stage (9/3/2024)

By Lee Wilson, who shares stories from her four decades of dancing on Broadway, with anecdotes about theatre legends including Agnes de Mille, Richard Rodgers, Michael Bennett, Donna McKechnie, and Bernadette Peters. She details the economic, political, and social events that led from the Golden Age to the slump of the early 1970s to the rejuvenation of Broadway with the huge success of A Chorus Line. 120 pages.
I Danced on Broadway: Memoir of a Career on Stage Cover
The Hirschfeld Broadway Tarot: Deck and Guidebook (9/3/2024)

From spiritual practitioner, tarot card reader, and former Broadway publicist Emily McGill. Deluxe, one-of-a kind deck that "casts" Broadway icons in traditional tarot roles, complete with the art of Al Hirschfeld. 78 cards (3 X 5 inches), guidebook (4 3/4 X 6 inches, 120 pages), inner card box, and magnetic closure keepsake outer box. Fully illustrated guidebook which includes images of each card, alongside card descriptions and suggested interpretations, as well as sample card spreads to guid...
The Hirschfeld Broadway Tarot: Deck and Guidebook Cover
Fishamble Tiny Plays (8/14/2024)

All 70 tiny plays commissioned by Fishamble for Tiny Plays for Ireland, Tiny Plays 24/7, and Tiny Plays for a Brighter Future performed in Dublin, New York City, and Washington DC. 320 pages.
Fishamble Tiny Plays Cover
Brian Friel: Beginnings (8/2/2024)

Based on newly discovered documents in the BBC and New Yorker archives, the book reveals Friel's youthful personality and his struggles to get noticed as a young writer. His correspondence with his first mentors - Belfast BBC radio producer Ronald Mason, New Yorker editor Roger Angell, and theatre director Tyrone Guthrie - shows how he shaped his early work, how he chose to write for the theatre, and how the patterns that became so memorable in his later plays were set in motion by his beginni...
Brian Friel: Beginnings Cover
Brian Friel: Beginnings (8/2/2024)

Based on newly discovered documents in the BBC and New Yorker archives, the book reveals Friel's youthful personality and his struggles to get noticed as a young writer. His correspondence with his first mentors - Belfast BBC radio producer Ronald Mason, New Yorker editor Roger Angell, and theatre director Tyrone Guthrie - shows how he shaped his early work, how he chose to write for the theatre, and how the patterns that became so memorable in his later plays were set in motion by his beginnin...
Brian Friel: Beginnings Cover
Say It with a Beautiful Song: The Art and Craft of the Great American Songbook (7/15/2024)

Looks at the Great American Songbook's craft and its mastery through essential elements of the beloved songs, investigating the qualities that make the songbook a unique staple of American culture. With anecdotes, each chapter looks at a variety of songs thematically and dives into the lives of songwriters. 210 pages.
Say It with a Beautiful Song: The Art and Craft of the Great American Songbook Cover
Ballplayers on Stage: Baseball, Melodrama, and Theatrical Celebrity in the Deadball Era (7/3/2024)

Explores the relationship between professional baseball and professional theater in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Examines case studies of five representative players from baseball's pre–Babe Ruth “deadball” era: Cap Anson, Mike “King” Kelly, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, and Rube Waddell, with a concluding study of Babe Ruth himself. A historical study of baseball, theater, and the relationship between the two ... also shares insight into the creation of celebrity in early t...
Ballplayers on Stage: Baseball, Melodrama, and Theatrical Celebrity in the Deadball E Cover
A Sense of Theatre: The Untold Stories of the Creation of Britain's National Theatre (7/1/2024)

By Richard Pilbrow (British pioneer of stage lighting; appointed by Sir Laurence Olivier to help create the National Theatre of Great Britain as a member of the building committee). An eye-witness account of the birth and subsequent triumph of one of the world's most famous theatres. The theatre architecture has challenged generations of theatre makers, leading to innovation that has changed theatre worldwide. With insight from leading players in British theatre and the minutes of the deliberat...
A Sense of Theatre: The Untold Stories of the Creation of Britain's National Theatre Cover
Appropriate/An Octoroon: Plays (6/18/2024)

Two plays by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Revised edition. 260 pages.
Appropriate/An Octoroon: Plays Cover
From The Back Of The House: Memoir of a Broadway Theatre Manager (6/14/2024)

Memoir by Broadway theater manager Dan Landon. Spanning from 1978-2018, the book shares backstage and onstage stories of encounters with theatre luminaries such as Bob Fosse, Ian McKellen, Bernadette Peters, August Wilson, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Madeline Kahn, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Stoppard, David Mamet, and more.
From The Back Of The House: Memoir of a Broadway Theatre Manager Cover
Closer than Ever: The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire (6/7/2024)

Chronicles the sixty-six-year (and counting) partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire, with behind-the-scenes accounts of their musicals interspersed with analyses of standout individual numbers. 304 pages.
Closer than Ever: The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. Cover
My First Book–Part 2 (6/4/2024)

Second memoir by veteran motion picture, television and Broadway producer Julian Schlossberg. Je shares stories from his 60 years in show business including new profiles of working with Peter Falk, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, George C. Scott, John Cassavetes and many others. Released 6/4/24.
My First Book–Part 2 Cover
Mike Bartlett (6/3/2024)

By William C. Boles. Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists series editors Maggie Gale and Graham Saunders. Includes Barlett's plays Cock, Doctor Foster, King Charles III, and Albion, a biographical introductory chapter, and new interviews with Bartlett and some of his closest and oft relied upon collaborators. 186 pages.
Mike Bartlett Cover
Jocelyn Bioh: Three Plays: Merry Wives; Nollywood Dreams; School Girls, Or, The African Mean Girls Play (5/30/2024)

First collection of plays from American contemporary playwright Jocelyn Bioh. 216 pages.
Jocelyn Bioh: Three Plays: Merry Wives; Nollywood Dreams; School Girls, Or, The Afric Cover
Yankee Doodle Dandy: George M. Cohan and the Broadway Stage (5/24/2024)

Part of the Broadway Legacies series. In the first book on Cohan in fifty years, Craft situates Cohan as a central figure of his day. Examining his multifaceted contributions and the various sociocultural identities he came to embody, Craft shows how Cohan and his works indelibly shaped the American cultural landscape. 288 pages.
Yankee Doodle Dandy: George M. Cohan and the Broadway Stage Cover
Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales from Broadway, Television, and the Movies (5/21/2024)

The author recounts his career as a theater director, producer and actor that has spanned over 70 years. 240 pages.
Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales from Broadway, Television, and the Movies Cover
Becky Nurse of Salem: A Contemporary Comedy About a Historical Tragedy (5/16/2024)

Play by Sarah Ruhl. Played at Lincoln Center Theater in the fall of 2022. 112 pages.
Becky Nurse of Salem: A Contemporary Comedy About a Historical Tragedy Cover
Christopher Oscar Peña: Three Plays: How To Make An American Son; The Strangers; A Cautionary Tail (5/16/2024)

Edited by Mark Armstrong. Introduced by Hugh Dancy. The work of Latinx American playwright and screenwriter Christopher Oscar Peña. 456 pages.
Christopher Oscar Peña: Three Plays: How To Make An American Son; The Strangers; A Ca Cover
How to Find, Choose, and Prepare Successful Audition (5/16/2024)

Takes the reader step-by-step through the process of building your audition repertoire portfolio ... helps to identify what songs are needed in which categories and explains where to find them, how to source and cut the sheet music, and how to communicate effectively with the accompanist and act the song. 184 pages.
How to Find, Choose, and Prepare Successful Audition Cover
FREE: Words on Music by a Hi-Def Critic in an MP3 World (5/15/2024)

By Lawrence Schulman ("Garland: That’s Beyond Entertainment – Reflections on Judy Garland"). Foreword by Tish Oney. Afterword by Manuel Betancourt. Schulman's writings between 2000 and 2024, on a whole host of artists and authors, including Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Mildred Bailey, Patsy Cline, Bernard Herrmann, among others. 540 pages.
FREE: Words on Music by a Hi-Def Critic in an MP3 World Cover
The Group Theatre: An Enduring Legacy (5/15/2024)

. Examines the history and influence of the Group Theatre, which presented the first plays of Clifford Odets, Sidney Kingsley, and William Saroyan, and launched the careers of Franchot Tone, John Garfield, Elia Kazan, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Martin Ritt, and Luther Adler. 339 pages.
The Group Theatre: An Enduring Legacy Cover
An Actor Convalescing in Devon (5/9/2024)

Play by Richard Nelson, which opened at Hampstead Theatre, London, in March 2024.
An Actor Convalescing in Devon Cover
Peerless: Rouben Mamoulian, Hollywood, and Broadway (5/7/2024)

Rouben Mamoulian, director of the original stage productions of Porgy and Bess, Carousel, and Oklahoma!, as well as films including Love Me Tonight, Queen Christina, City Streets, and Silk Stockings. Famously fired from the film version of Porgy and Bess in a dispute over publicity and quit Cleopatra after arguments over a single scene. Drawing upon Mamoulian's unfinished memoir and diaries, as well as interviews with surviving collaborators. Also explores Mamoulian's aesthetic principles and s...
Peerless: Rouben Mamoulian, Hollywood, and Broadway Cover
Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit that is Transforming America (5/7/2024)

Published with Hachette, Relentless will be available in both English and Spanish and shares the story of Luis’ life and career – from his early days as a Puerto Rican activist to the decades of political strategy and Latino community organizing. Readers will experience the thrill of the ascendency of Hamilton, created by his son Lin-Manuel Miranda, the family’s remarkable humanitarian action after the devastation of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria, and all the grit, triumphs, and challenges of ...
Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit that is Transforming America Cover
The Irish Repertory Theatre: Celebrating Thirty-Five Years Off-Broadway (5/6/2024)

History of the multi-award winning Off-Broadway Irish Repertory Theatre Company, from its beginning in 1988 to its thirty-fifth season in 2023. Considers how the Irish Rep's plays and musicals reflect the Irish diaspora, the relationship between Ireland and America, and what it means to be Irish and Irish American, both historically, and in the twenty-first century. 185 pages.
The Irish Repertory Theatre: Celebrating Thirty-Five Years Off-Broadway Cover
Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production (4/29/2024)

"investigates both the history and current realities of life and work in professional theatrical production in the United States and explores labor practices that are equitable, accessible, and sustainable." 352 pages.
Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production Cover
Playhouse Square and the Cleveland Renaissance (4/23/2024)

In-depth account of Cleveland's Playhouse Square (originally the State, Ohio, Hanna, Allen, and Palace theaters) history, beginning with the 1921 opening, through the darkening of four of their marquees by the end of the 1960s, the renovation and renaissance from the 1970s, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Illustrated and featuring interviews with the central figures involved in saving the Square. 240 pages.
Playhouse Square and the Cleveland Renaissance Cover
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent (4/23/2024)

Judi Dench opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career in a series of intimate conversations with actor and director Brendan O'Hea. Interspersed with vignettes on audiences, critics, company spirit and rehearsal room etiquette, she serves up priceless revelations on everything from the craft of speaking in verse to her personal interpretations of some of Shakespeare's most famous scenes.
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent Cover
Ageless Dancers (4/18/2024)

Photographs by Betti Franceschi, from her collection of photographs of dancers age 70 and up. Forty iconic dancers from the disciplines of ballet, modern, contemporary, tap, and musical theater. 130 pages.
Ageless Dancers Cover
Song of the Season: Outstanding Broadway Songs since 1891 (4/18/2024)

Charts the progress of American showtunes alongside popular music forms as songs evolved from the waltz and ragtime to jazz, rock, rap and hip-hop. Factual analysis and historical context combine to offer a rich picture of the American songbook from Irving Berlin to Elton John. 440 pages.
Song of the Season: Outstanding Broadway Songs since 1891 Cover
The Tony Awards: A Celebration of Excellence in Theatre (4/16/2024)

Coffee table book by Eila Mell and The American Theatre Wing. Foreword by Audra McDonald. Commemorating over 75 years of Broadway greatness with never-before told stories, rare photos from the American Theatre Wing's archives, and more than 100 interviews with past and present Tony winners, including actors, producers, writers, and costume designers. 400+ color and black-and-white photographs. 320 pages.
The Tony Awards: A Celebration of Excellence in Theatre Cover
On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide (4/15/2024)

Traces the early development of Midler's performing ethos from New York's downtown experimental theater scene and examines her impact across media, with chapters on the soaring highs (and occasional cringe-worthy lows) of her stage work, movies, recordings, and television appearances, and considers her influence as an environmental activist and social media presence. Features performance analysis and deeply researched background information, all supporting informed - and divinely opinionated - ...
On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide Cover
Dancing on the Edge: A Journey of Living, Loving, and Tumbling through Hollywood (4/10/2024)

Tamblyn writes about his career and his personal life. 360 pages.
Dancing on the Edge: A Journey of Living, Loving, and Tumbling through Hollywood Cover



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