19 Theater Books for Your Winter 2025 Reading List
Broadway authors this season include Joel Grey, Cher, and more!
The weather outside might be frightful for a while, but what better time to stay in and snuggle up with a great Broadway read? This season, Broadway's best have put pen to paper to turn out theatre page-turners of every kind. From theatre biographies to theatre fiction; theatre books for kids to theatre history; check out our collection of 19 new Broadway books for every theatre lover's winter reading list.
Check out recent releases and view upcoming books for later this year!
It Happened at the Palace: A History of New York’s Iconic Broadway Theater
It Happened at the Palace: A History of New York’s Iconic Broadway TheaterBy Stewart F. Lane
Available Now
More than a historical account; it's a love letter to the performing arts, a chronicle of New York's cultural evolution, and a business saga of revival and triumph. With an insider's perspective and more than 175 photographs, the author reveal untold stories, intimate portraits of stage legends, and the intricate process of preserving a landmark not only of bricks and mortar but of dreams and memories. It Happened at The Palace: A History of New York’s Iconic Broadway Theater is an essential read for theatre aficionados, history buffs, and anyone who's ever been captivated by the magic of Broadway.
Cher: The Memoir: Part One of a Two-Part Memoir from the Iconic Artist and Actor
Cher: The Memoir: Part One of a Two-Part Memoir from the Iconic Artist and ActorBy Cher
Available Now
After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir. Her remarkable career is unique and unparalleled. The only woman to top Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, she is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who has been lauded by the Kennedy Center. She is a lifelong activist and philanthropist. As a dyslexic child who dreamed of becoming famous, Cher was raised in often-chaotic circumstances, surrounded by singers, actors, and a mother who inspired her in spite of their difficult relationship. With her trademark honesty and humor, Cher: The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century. Cher: The Memoir, Part One follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono—and reveals the highly complicated relationship that made them world-famous, but eventually drove them apart. Cher: The Memoir reveals the daughter, the sister, the wife, the lover, the mother, and the superstar.
The Show Goes On
The Show Goes OnBy Ron Fassler
Available now
How is a suitable replacement chosen to take over on Broadway? What goes into an actor making a role their own in the shadow of another’s highly lauded performance? What happens when someone hops on the moving train that is a multi-million dollar production and replaces a flailing actor during an out of town tryout? Filtered through the lens of 50 years of theatregoing, Ron Fassler, author of Up in the Cheap Seats: A Historical Memoir of Broadway is back with The Show Goes On: Broadway Hirings, Firings and Replacements featuring stories of absurdity, backstabbing, catastrophe, decency, endurance—and that’s just A-E.
Baby Goes to Broadway
Baby Goes to BroadwayBy Maggie Stiggers
Available Now
When Baby Josie is born singing and dancing, her parents know she’s destined for the stage. They pack up their lives and move to New York City, eager for her to chase her Broadway dreams. There, Josie discovers what it truly means to be an actress—learning the value of hard work and dedication. But the most important lesson she uncovers is one she never expected!
Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy That the History Books Left Out
Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy That the History Books Left Out by Jennifer Ashley Tepper
Available Now
The first-ever book to tell the stories of over 300 inspiring women who wrote Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals that Publishers Weekly calls "an exhaustive tribute to women whose contributions to Broadway musical history have often been overlooked." Library Journal praises the book, saying, "Tepper has fashioned a winning book on the unsung heroines of Broadway musicals that will be appreciated by readers of women’s studies and theater lore." Kirkus Reviews says it's an "encyclopedic reference" and a "long-overdue tribute to female lyricists and composers."
How Sondheim Can Change Your Life
How Sondheim Can Change Your Lifeby Richard Schoch
Available Now
Stephen Sondheim died on November 26, 2021, but for countless fans around the world, he is “still here,” to quote one of his lyrics. With acclaimed revivals of his landmark shows occurring around the world and introducing new generations to the man who transformed American musical theater, Sondheim’s legacy has only grown. What is it about such classic songs as “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy, “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music, and “Children Will Listen” from Into the Woods that speaks to us so intimately and profoundly?
Recording Broadway: A Life in Cast Albums
Recording Broadway: A Life in Cast AlbumsBy Thomas Z. Shepard and Gayden Wren
Available Now
Recording Broadway: A life in Cast Albums is veteran producer Thomas Z. Shepard's first-person account of the making of fifty plus years' worth of show albums, featuring up-close-and-personal stories of his work with pretty much everyone who was anyone on Broadway, including Julie Andrews, Leonard Bernstein ("truly awesome but very complicated"), Sheldon Harnick ("as warm and decent as he was talented"), Barbara Cook ("one of my favorites"), Placido Domingo, Gregory Hines, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury ("so gifted and so easy to be with and to work with"), Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim ("a genius, and very easily bruised"), Barbra Streisand ("as professional at 24 as any veteran I've ever worked with"), Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many more.
Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words
By Michael Owen
Available Now
The first lyricist to win the Pulitzer Prize, Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) has been hailed as one of the masters of the Great American Songbook, a period which covers songs written largely for Broadway and Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s. Now, in the first full-length biography devoted to his life, Michael Owen brings Ira out at last from the long shadow cast by his younger and more famous brother George. Drawing on extensive archival sources and often using Ira’s own words, Owen has crafted a rich portrait of the modest man who penned the words to many of America’s best-loved songs, like “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”
Suffs
SuffsBy Shaina Taub
Available Now
Written by one of the most exciting new voices in theater, this epic new musical takes an unflinching look at the unsung trailblazers of the American women’s suffrage movement. In the seven years leading up to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, an impassioned group of suffragists—“Suffs” as they called themselves—took to the streets, pioneering protest tactics that transformed the country. They risked their lives as they clashed with the president, the public, and each other. A thrilling story of brilliant, flawed women working against and across generational, racial, and class divides, Suffs boldly explores the victories and failures of a fight for equality that is still far from over.
Face the Music: My Story
Face the Music: My Story By Alfie Bow
Available Now
Bringing his characteristic sense of cheeky humor to the page, in this heartfelt book Alfie describes for the first time the highs and lows of over a decade of singing and performing across the world. From personal dinners with Queen Elizabeth II and following in the steps of King of Rock 'n' Roll Elvis in Vegas to mischievous antics with Michael Ball, Alfie's book takes us backstage to witness his brilliant career memories.
Singing Utopia: Voice in Musical Theatre
Singing Utopia: Voice in Musical TheatreBy Ben Macpherson
Available Now
Singing Utopia is a unique and ambitious work which asks us to listen differently to voice in musical theatre. Across fifteen case studies from Florodora to Hadestown, Ben Macpherson hears something utopian in the extraordinary, emotional, and situational directness of singing voices as they escape the confines of everyday life. Yet, as this book discovers, the very nature of utopia is paradoxical, fraught with undercurrents of nostalgia, melancholy, and the perpetual threat of the dystopian. Singing Utopia listens across these fault lines in our understanding of utopia and asks what it means for a musical to give voice to an imagined world which is always a contradiction in terms. Who gets to inhabit such a world? Who is excluded? How can we locate utopia in musical theatre voices, and what might be the consequences when its complexities are exposed?
The Ultimate Acting Training Bible: Essential Techniques and Exercises for Developing Your Craft
The Ultimate Acting Training Bible: Essential Techniques and Exercises for Developing Your CraftBy Kimmy Sunday
Available Now
The Ultimate Acting Training Bible: Essential Techniques and Exercises for Developing Your Craft by Kimmy Sunday offers a transformative journey into the heart of acting, meticulously designed to empower both aspiring and seasoned actors. This comprehensive guide is your beacon to unlocking your full potential and transforming into a captivating performer capable of breathing life into characters with authenticity and depth.
Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia
Adventures in Theater History: PhiladelphiaBy Peter Schmitz
Available Now
From the founding of The Walnut Street Theatre and the beginning of the American circus to the world premiere performance of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman, and from censorship and opposition to riots and deadly fires, this engaging collection of short, focused narratives introduces the reader to the often overlooked and frequently underappreciated topic of the history of theater in Philadelphia, and offer a new way of approaching the wider history of this unique and important American city.
A History of the American Musical Theatre
A History of the American Musical TheatreBy Nathan Hurwitz
Available December 24, 2024
From the diverse proto-musicals of the mid-1800s, through the revues of the 1920s, the ‘true musicals’ of the 1940s, the politicization of the 1960s, the ‘mega-musicals’ of the 1980s, and the explosive jukebox musicals of the 2010s and ’20s, every era in American musical theatre reflected a unique set of socio-cultural factors. This new edition has been brought up to date to include musicals from the last ten years, reflecting on the impact of Covid-19 and the state of the contemporary musical theatre industry.
Readying the Revolution: African American Theater and Performance from Post-World War II to the Black Arts Movement
Readying the Revolution: African American Theater and Performance from Post-World War II to the Black Arts MovementBy Jonathan Shandell
Available January 14, 2025
Starting in 1966, African American activist Stokely Carmichael and other political leaders adopted the phrase "Black Power!" The slogan captured a militant, revolutionary spirit that was already emerging in the work of playwrights, poets, musicians, and visual artists throughout the Black Arts movement of the mid-1960s. But the story of those theater artists and performers whose work helped bring about the Black Arts revolution has not fully been told. Readying the Revolution: African American Theater and Performance from Post-World War II to the Black Arts Movement explores the dynamic era of Black culture between the end of World War II and the start of the Black Arts Movement (1946-1964) by illuminating how artists and innovators such as Jackie Robinson, Lorraine Hansberry, Ossie Davis, Nina Simone, and others helped radicalize Black culture and Black political thought. In doing so, these artists defied white cultural hegemony in the United States, and built the foundation for the revolutionary movement in Black theater that followed in the mid 1960s. Through archival research, close textual reading, and an analysis of performance artifacts, Shandell demonstrates how these artists negotiated a space on the public stage for cultivating radical Black aesthetics and built the foundation for the revolutionary movement in Black theater that followed in the mid-1960s.
A Show Tune for Today: 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year
A Show Tune for Today: 366 Songs to Brighten Your YearBy Peter Felicia
Available January 21, 2025
Beloved theatre critic Peter Filichia has created a treasure for the ages with A Show Tune for Today, a whimsical day-by-day calendar—one that can be used again and again, in any year—for musical theatre buffs. Across 366 bite-size entries, Filichia dispenses anecdotes, observations, fun facts, and other confections tied to a single song, perfect for starting each day. Whether tied to a show’s opening date (August 6: “You'll Be Back” / Hamilton), holidays (December 25: “A Christmas Song” / Elf), historic dates (August 21: the actual date of “The Night That Goldman Spoke in Union Square” in 1893 from Ragtime), lyrics (March 2: when Camelot insists winter exits on the dot), or connections more surprising, each entry provides a light delight to put a spring in your step, every day of the year.
Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan’s Girl From the North Country and Broadway's Rebirth
Slow Train Coming: By Todd Almond
Available January 23, 2025
Despite historic, seemingly insurmountable setbacks of four openings, Bob Dylan and Conor McPherson's musical Girl from the North Country became a critical Broadway hit. Hailed as an experience “as close as mortals come to heaven on earth,” by The New York Times, the musical weaves two dozen songs from the legendary catalogue of Bob Dylan into a story of Duluth during the Great Depression, to create a future American classic. Opening on Broadway in the middle of an unprecedented moment, Slow Train Coming is a book about pressing on in the face of extreme adversity. Todd Almond's behind-the-scenes oral history weaves his personal first-hand account of starring in the show with exclusive interviews and reflections from fellow cast members and the creative team.
Nautanki: The Musical Theatre of North India
Nautanki: The Musical Theatre of North IndiaBy Devendra Sharma
Available February 20, 2025
Drawing on more than 4 decades of experience working in Nautanki as a writer, director, singer, and actor, Sharma's book is the first major study to analyse Nautanki not only through its literary bases, but also through live performances, considering it both in a historical vein and as contemporary theatre on the ground. What entertained India's masses and elites before the arrival of cinema in India? When did “modern” theatre begin in India and how did Nautanki contribute to its rise? In this book, renowned theatre scholar and 7th-generation Nautanki artist Devendra Sharma examines the theatrical form of Nautanki-its history, organisational structure, narratives, poetics, musical structures, artists, and performance spaces-which flourished in North India in the 19th and the 20th centuries, and is still popular now.
The Book of Joel
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The Book of JoelBy Joel Grey
Available February 25, 2025
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 is a captivating collection of photographs, ephemera, and posters that capture the multifaceted life and career of the 2023 Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Award, Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe Award winner Joel Grey.
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