Broadway Autobiographies

Unsinkable is the definitive memoir by film legend and Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds. Actress, comedienne, singer, and dancer Debbie Reynolds shares the highs and lows of her life as an actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age, anecdotes about her lifelong friendship with Elizabeth Taylor and her experiences as the foremost collector of Hollywood memorabilia, and intimate details of her marriages and family life with her children, Carrie and Todd Fisher. A story of heartbreak, hope, and sur...

In this luminous memoir, Rita Moreno shares her remarkable journey from a young girl with simple beginnings in Puerto Rico to Hollywood legend—and one of the few performers, and the only Hispanic, to win an Oscar, Grammy, Tony and two Emmys. Born Rosita Dolores Alverio in the idyll of Puerto Rico, Moreno, at age five, embarked on a harrowing sea voyage with her mother and wound up in the harsh barrios of the Bronx, where she discovered dancing, singing, and acting as ways to escape a tumult...

John Pizzarelli, the son of jazz guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli, is a connoisseur of American song who grew up among the legends of jazz. From teenage explorations of rock music to life on the road with his father, he worked his way from gigs in tiny clubs to opening for Frank Sinatra during his final international tour. Now Pizzarelli performs in festivals and top venues across the United States and the world, and he shares his unique journey in this revealing, charming, and heartwarming memoir...

Best known for the hit musicals West Side Story and Gypsy , Arthur Laurents began his career writing socially minded plays such as Home of the Brave and Time of the Cuckoo . He also garnered impressive credits as a screenwriter ( The Way We Were ) and stage director ( La Cage aux Folles ). Such a varied professional life makes for absorbing reading, as unleashed in his lively 2000 autobiography, Original Story By . Laurents passed away early in 2011 but not before writing The Rest of the Story ...

Everyone has heard of the Jersey Boys. Thirteen million people have seen the show, totaling more than $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Jersey Boys tells the true-life story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and features such hits as "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like A Man," and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You." The production is currently in its seventh year on Broadway, and is also playing in Las Vegas, London, Auckland, and is on two US National Tours. Since its debut in 200...

From car mechanic to internationally loved opera, musical and recording star: the story of Alfie Boe...Alfie Boe is the first official bad boy of opera: a musical superstar celebrated not only in Britain, but worldwide. This is the story of his life - the ups and the downs, from finding fame to losing his father - and, essentially, of his love affair with music. Raised in Lancashire, the youngest of nine children and with a father who played opera at home, Alfie's story is not typical of most mu...

The Memory of All That is Katharine Weber’s memoir of her extraordinary family. Her maternal grandmother, Kay Swift, was known both for her own music (she was the first woman to compose the score to a hit Broadway show, Fine and Dandy) and for her ten-year romance with George Gershwin. Their love affair began during Swift’s marriage to James Paul Warburg, the multitalented banker and economist who advised (and feuded with) FDR. Weber creates an intriguing and intimate group portrait of the r...

Cyndi Lauper is a singer-songwriter who has released eleven albums and over forty singles. Her hit singles include 'Time After Time,' 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,' and 'True Colors.' She starred as Jenny in THE THREEPENNY OPERA on Broadway. Her most recent project, Kinky Boots, will have its pre-Broadway world premiere in Chicago this fall. Directed and choreographed by Tony® Award-winner Jerry Mitchell, Kinky Boots will play the Bank of America Theatre (18 West Monroe Street, Chicago, IL) i...

Rita Hayworth dancing by candlelight in a small Mexican village; Elizabeth Taylor devouring homemade pasta and tenderly wrapping him in her pashmina scarf; streaking for Sir Laurence Olivier in a drafty English castle; terrifying a dozing Jackie Onassis; carrying an unconscious Montgomery Clift to safety on a dark New York City street. Captured forever in a unique memoir, Frank Langella's myriad encounters with some of the past century's most famous human beings are profoundly affecting, funn...

A vibrant, exuberant self-portrait of one of today’s greatest living actors. Christopher Plummer’s magnificent book recounts the wild adventure that is his life, stretching from a privileged childhood in Canada to the glorious, star-studded New York of the fifties to a sensational career in film appearing in some of our most beloved classics. Here are his late nights out with Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, Paddy Chayefsky, and Arthur Miller; his affairs and marriages; his collaboratio...

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1885. Excerpt: ... CLOSING SCENES. DECEMBER 7th.--Mr. Irving's engagement, which began on November ioth, was ended last night. It has filled a period of four weeks and it has been prosperous to the actor and advantageous to the public. The pieces presented were, with two exceptions, those in which Mr. Irving and Miss Terry had been see...

"I've been waiting for someone to write this book for years: a thorough-going analysis and reconsideration of American approaches to Stanislavsky from a feminist perspective ... lively, intelligent, and engaging." Phillip Zarrilli, University of Exeter "Theatre people of any gender will be transformed by Rose Malague’s eye-opening study An Actress Prepares. Women performers have long needed this trenchant analysis of the craft of method acting, one that intervenes in its more sexist tendencie...

Conducting an orchestra is something that is seen as well as heard, but it is quite misunderstood when it comes to knowing what this person actually does for a living. This most mysterious of jobs is brought to life for the music lover as well as for the aspiring maestro in a new book by Leonard Slatkin. Drawing on his own experiences on and off the podium, Slatkin brings us into the world of the baton. He tells tales of some of the most fascinating people in the musical world, including Frank ...

This groundbreaking anthology, part of theWomen, Theatre and Performanceseries, brings together an extraordinary mix of one-act and full length plays and solo performance texts written by women. Included in the volume are texts by Beatrice Herford, Ruth Draper, Zora Neale Hurston, and G.B. Stern, originally performed across commercial and amateur theaters in Britain and America. Some of the plays have remained unpublished since their original performance – Georgina Weldon'sNot Alone, Clothilde ...

Theater Careers is designed to empower aspiring theater professionals to make savvy, informed decisions through a concise overview of how to prepare for and find work in the theater business. Tim Donahue and Jim Patterson offer well-researched information on various professions, salary ranges, educational and experience requirements, and other facets certain to enlighten students contemplating a theater career, as well as inform counselors, teachers, and parents of available opportunities and t...

For more than seven decades the circuses enjoyed tremendous popularity in the Soviet Union. How did the circus—an institution that dethroned figures of authority and refused any orderly narrative structure—become such a cultural mainstay in a state known for blunt and didactic messages? Miriam Neirick argues that the variety, flexibility, and indeterminacy of the modern circus accounted for its appeal not only to diverse viewers but also to the Soviet state. In a society where government-legiti...

Theatre and architecture are seeming opposites: one a time-based art-form experienced in space, the other a spacial art experienced over time.This book will explore and disprovethese assumptions, demonstrating ways in which theatre and architecture are co-constitutive and contextualizing their dynamic and complex inter-relationship historically and culturally

Light contains a range of classic accounts and rare documents that offer not only different approaches to light as a creative force in performance, but also an account ofits rich history as a practice. Considered through its equipment, its dramaturgy, and as an element of design, light is shown to have aprofound effect on an audience.

Laurents passed away early in 2011 but not before writing The Rest of the Story, in which he revealed all that had happened in his life since Original Story By, filled with the wisdom he gained by growing older and a new perspective brought on by Laurents' experience of deep personal loss, including the death of his longtime companion, Tom Hatcher. Laurents' style remains engrossing and brutally honest. His voice is still highly intelligent, loving, generous, and gracious. He remained committed ...

All the excitement of Broadway during the glory days of the Great White Way comes to life in Tales of a Broadway Flack, David A. Longs engrossing new biography about Sol Jacobson, press agent for some of Broadways most memorable shows and legendary performers, from Desi Arnaz and Eddie Bracken (Too Many Girls, 1939), Boris Karloff (Arsenic and Old Lace, 1941), Tallulah Bankhead (The Skin of Our Teeth, 1942), to Zero Mostel (Fiddler on the Roof, 1964) with a plethora of shows in between. If you ...

In this riveting and surprising personal history, John Lithgow shares a backstage view of his own struggle, crisis, and discovery, revealing the early life and career that took place out of the public eye and before he became a nationally known star. Above all, Lithgow’s memoir is a tribute to his most important influence: his father, Arthur Lithgow, who, as an actor, director, producer, and great lover of Shakespeare, brought theater to John’s boyhood. From bedtime stories to Arthur’s illust...

One of Hollywood's most talented and memorable actresses ("The Hustler, Carrie") and three-time Oscar nominee presents an intimate memoir covering her life and career.

Was it worth it, this awful struggle to survive, no matter what the cost?" Harold is Hal Holbrook’s affecting memoir of growing up behind disguises, and his lifelong search for himself. Abandoned by his mother and father when he was two, Holbrook and his two sisters each commenced their separate journeys of survival. Raised by his powerful grandfather until his death when Holbrook was twelve, Holbrook spent his childhood at boarding schools, visiting his father in an insane asylum, and hopin...

For millions of people around the world, Carol Brady is synonymous with motherhood, but growing up as the youngest of ten children in rural Indiana in the aftermath of the Great Depression, Florence Henderson lived a life quite different from that of the quintessential TV mom she later played on television. Florence's father was a dirt-poor tobacco tenant farmer who was nearly fifty years old when he married Florence's twenty-five-year-old mother, and was nearly seventy when Florence was born....

As If: An Autobiography traces the complex life and career of director, scholar, and theorist Herbert Blau, one of the most innovative voices in the American theater. From his earliest years on the streets of Brooklyn, with gang wars there, to the often embattled, now-legendary Actor's Workshop of San Francisco, the powerfully told story of Blau's first four decades is also a social history, moving from the Great Depression to the cold war, with fallout from "the balance of terror" on what he on...

"These are memoirs of a kid born in New York City in 1925. His dad, George Senior, was a pianist, composer, and orchestra leader at Proctor's Vaudeville Theatre, and his mother, Helen, played in a classic dance troupe. Hanky-panky ensued. They married, and I soon was the result... I write like I talk. A long time ago I tried making 'talking and telling the truth' one and the same. That isn't just difficult; it means painfully reviewing things you've been led to believe since you were a child. Th...

Simon Callow writes with perceptiveness, wit and flair about the remarkable people he has encountered in the course of his career. My Life in Pieces coincides with his latest stage venture, a one-man show called Shakespeare: The Man from Stratford, written by the well-known Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Bate.

Gayle Batt is the kind of lady who throws elegant cocktail parties while wearing layers of silk chiffon, dripping pearls, and eight months’ pregnant. She is the kind of woman who says “anyhoo” and calls everyone “Dahlin’” or a special pet name. With hair, makeup, and nails always done to perfection, she triumphs rather than crumbles when infidelity, alcoholism, cancer, or any form of adversity attempts to shatter her family. Endearing and enduring, Gayle is a big-hearted, strong-willed true Sout...

From one of America’s finest, and most celebrated, classical dancers; former principal dancer for more than three decades with the New York City Ballet—the irresistible story of an exhilarating life in dance. He writes of the New York City Ballet and those at its center: Lincoln Kirstein; Jerome Robbins; George Balanchine (“With Robbins, you were amplified; with Balanchine, you were transformed”), as well as the ballerinas who were Balanchine’s muses—Maria Tallchief, Tanaquil LeClercq, Allegr...

I can hardly believe that it is more than half a century since I first stepped on to the stage of the Old Vic Theatre and into a way of life that has brought me the most rewarding professional relationships and friendships. I cannot imagine now ever doing anything else with my life except acting…” – Judi Dench From London’s glittering West End to Broadway’s bright lights, from her Academy Award-winning role as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love to “M” in the James Bond films, Judi Dench has ...

Actor Ron Moody has enthralled generations with his masterly performance as Fagin in both the stage and film versions of Oliver! - one of the great classics of British theatre and cinema. Planning to become an academic, he first took to the boards when a student at the London School of Economics - writing and performing in student Reviews. But his comedic talent and ability to create a string of eccentric and original characters quickly caught the attention of West End producers, who recognised ...

Hugh Martin: The Boy Next Door is an enchanting jaunt through the Golden Era of Broadway and the MGM musicals. This firsthand account captures the energy and excitement of those special times, with eyewitness tales of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, and dozens more. Hugh recounts the origins of some of America's most beloved songs, including the perennial favorite, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Martin also reveals some secrets that only he could know: the truth about his ...

"Anything Goes" gave you the story so far, "I Am What I Am" reveals more about the man behind the television sensation, focusing on John's unique approach to life and love. Written with John's trademark style, the book will be filled with juicy titbits from behind the scenes of "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood", alongside heart-warming family anecdotes and personal revelations, including John's perspective on fame and how it has affected him. Also containing exclusive details about John's forthcoming...

Broadway legend LuPone, a five-time Tony nominee and two-time Tony winner, raises the curtain on her life and career in this engaging memoir. Detailing both her travails and her triumphs, she takes the reader on a guided tour recalling some memorable moments in musical theater. She began in her teens when she and her twin brothers performed on Long Island as the LuPone Trio. On a 1968 scholarship at John Houseman's Juilliard Drama Division, she was "overwhelmed with fear," but then toured with H...

In 1975, singer-dancer-choreographer McKechnie was one of the brightest lights on the Great White Way, winning a Tony for her performance in A Chorus Line, and now theatergoers will be elated to see her autobiography shelved in stores only days before A Chorus Line's October Broadway revival. McKechnie's memories of the original musical's creative genesis serve as the centerpiece, and the other chapters are equally compelling. Her story is one of fierce drive and determination. Leaving Detroit a...

A remarkable autobiography of the last great wartime icon, this account depicts the life and times of Dame Vera Lynn. Born Vera Welch on March 20, 1917 in the East End of London, Lynn’s career was set from an early age—along with her father, who also did a “turn,” she sang in Working Men’s Clubs ate the mere age of seven years old. She had a successful radio career with Joe Loss and Charlie Kunz in the 1920s and 30s, but it was with World War II that she became the iconic figure that captured th...

The story of Julie Andrews's early life would make a fine movie. Thanks to her gift for storytelling and delicate sense of nuance, it makes an even more splendid book. As she threads her way from a difficult childhood in war-torn England, she wins our sympathy, only to engulf us in the excitement of a peripatetic career that began when she was only 12. When she sang before the queen in 1948, she became the youngest solo artist ever to participate in a royal command performance. Home, however, is...

'Well now, prove it, Sheila. As John would say, "Put your money where your mouth is." Be a depressed widow boring the arse off everyone, or get on with life. Your choice.' In The Two of Us Sheila relived her life with John Thaw - years packed with love and family, delight and despair. And then she looked ahead. What next? Gardening, grannying and grumbling, while they all had their pleasures, weren't going to fill the aching void that John had left. 'Live adventurously', a Quaker advice, was hov...

It's conventional wisdom that Hollywood has no use for a woman over forty. So it's a good thing that Diahann Carroll—whose winning, sometimes controversial career breached racial barriers—is anything but conventional. Shonda Rhimes, the creator and executive producer of the hit program Grey's Anatomy, developed a role just for her, and a recent show that's touring the United States, The Life and Times of Diahann Carroll, was enthusiastically embraced by the New York Times. And all this since Car...

The autobiographical account by one of German theater's great actors of his life in the theater.

Elaine Paige, the undisputed “First Lady of Musical Theatre” Celebrates 40 years on the stage this year. Memories is the remarkable story of her own life, on and off the stage, in words and pictures. She takes us through her extraordinary career from her earliest stage appearances, to her many starring roles in some of the biggest musicals of the modern era, including Hair, Grease, Evita, Cats, Chess, Piaf, Sunset Boulevard and The Drowsy Chaperone. She tells it how it was, sharing moments of j...

Leslie Caron is one of the most cherished and admired international film stars of our time. She made her film debut with Gene Kelly in the classic MGM musical An American in Paris, created one of the most enduring roles in American musicals as Gigi, danced with Fred Astaire in Daddy Long Legs, and starred with Cary Grant in Father Goose. In Thank Heaven (an homage to "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," the song Maurice Chevalier sings about her in Gigi) Caron shares her remarkable life story. F...

Sondra Lee - an actress, dancer, director, teacher . . . and the original Tiger Lily to millions - takes us through nearly 50 years of a glorious career on stage (High Button Shoes, Peter Pan, Hello, Dolly!, among others) and films (Fellini's La Dolce Vita) -- in front and behind the camera. Describing her extraordinary adventures, always with a touch of humor and loving memories, recollections of trials and tribulations, countless series of short-lived and lifelong friendships and romantic flin...

You might know her as a Tony Award-winning Broadway star, who originated the role of Galinda the Good Witch in the smash musical Wicked and won a Tony for 1999's You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Or you may recognize her from her starring roles on TV -- The West Wing, Pushing Daisies, Sesame Street...oh, and her Huge Hit Sitcom Kristin on NBC. (Huge hit. L.A. breast-implant huge. Ask either of the people who watched it.) Or maybe you saw her sexy spread in FHM magazine? Or her appearance on Pat ...

So begins bestselling author and award-winning actress Shirley MacLaine, as she invites readers to join her on the most powerful, provocative journey of her life. Over the years, Shirley has firmly established herself as a fearless, iconoclastic thinker and seeker of truth. Now, as she confronts the realities and rewards of growing older, she reflects on the greater understanding of her own place in the universe that her experiences have brought to her. Sparked by the experience of moving int...

A rollicking, rich portrait of a life. And what a life! By one of today’s greatest living actors. He was born a Canadian on a Friday the thirteenth in 1929—the year of the Crash. His boyhood was one of privilege: an ancestor was a Governor General; his great-grandfather Sir John Abbott was Canada’s third prime minister and owned railroads. There were steam yachts, mansions, and a life of Victorian gentility and somewhat cluttered splendor. Plummer tells how “this young bilingual wastrel, i...

Strouse is best-known for having written the music for the Broadway hits Bye Bye Birdie and Annie, both somewhat lightweight shows—the first, a lighthearted look at teen life, circa 1960; the other, a singing-dancing version of the classic comic strip Little Orphan Annie. Yet both have grace and power that haven’t diminished over the years. The same may come to be said of this lively, highly readable memoir. Strouse touches on the darker themes in his life—his mother’s mental illness, his own ba...