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.
To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies—The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon—that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force...
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 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.
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.
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. 241 pages.
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.
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.
"This is the riveting, brutally honest story of a man’s struggle to make something of himself in the theater. Coming from meager circumstances in the Ozark Mountains, he fights his way up the shaky ladder toward fame. He makes mistakes, goes down blind alleys, fails and succeeds, again and again. But he never quits." 480 pages.
Memoir blending a behind-the-scenes history about New York City's Public Theater with an engrossing account of her life working alongside her husband, the Public's founder Joe Papp. 392 pages.
Michael Ball takes the reader backstage inside the making of a West End hit, while diving back into memories to explore that moment in his twenties when the world was at his feet and his life changed beyond recognition. 304 pages.
By Charles Busch. Anecdotal account of the artist's journey in the worlds of Off-Broadway, Broadway, and Hollywood as a playwright, LGBT icon, drag actor, director, and cabaret performer. Features rare photos. 288 pages.
Memoir by Chita Rivera, with Patrick Pacheco. "Chita invites us into workrooms and rehearsal studies, on stage and on set as she works with some of the greatest talents of the age, including Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Hal Prince, Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis Jr, Gwen Verdon, Shirley MacLaine, and many others. We also learn deeply moving, revelatory details about her upbringing and her heritage, and how they indelibly shaped her work and career...
The author uses her life story to empower and encourage anyone seeking to find and live their best life with beauty, dignity and a grace that radiates from within. 172 pages.
Story of Denton's nytheatre.com website, which began in 1997. A journey of one man remaking himself, following his heart and his passion, and along the way helping to forge a new and stronger identity for the indie theater community that he loved.
" ... philosophical-ish musings on connection, creativity, loss, love, faith, and closure." In each chapter: behind-the-scenes stories from Kristin's personal life; high-design, colorful pages of inspirational quotes; engaging prompts, prayers, and inspiring quotes. Bible verses and f-bombs. 224 pages.
Twenty-five years of diaries, from thoughts and insights on theater performances, the craft of acting, politics, friendships, work projects, and his general musings on life. 480 pages.
In this memoir, Nancy Olson Livingston treats readers to an intimate, charming chronicle of her life as an actress, wife, and mother, and her memories of many of the most notable figures and moments of her time, including reminiscences of her marriages to lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner and to Alan Wendell Livingston. Interweaves Livingston's life with her observations of the artists, celebrities, and luminaries with whom she came in contact. 408 pages.
A memoir chronicling the relationship between Stephen Sondheim and journalist Salsini during the latter's time as the founder and editor of The Sondheim Review. 252 pages.
. the unique story of how the author came into leadership at Pasadena Playhouse after a successful career directing on Broadway, in London and at theatres all over the world. In intimate detail, it relates how the theatre was radically changed and reignited by his leadership, including his insistence on making diversity a priority both onstage and off. It is the very personal story of a person who wanted his race to be recognized, but never used as a limitation or a reason to be less than fully...
An emotional, funny, and fabulous memoir by trailblazing and award-winning Trans actor and activist Alexandra Billings. Spanning five decades, from profound lows to exhilarating highs ... captures the events of a pioneering life ... award-winning actor and history-making LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS activist shares not only her own ever-evolving story but also the parallel ways in which queer identity has dramatically changed since the Stonewall riots of 1969. She weaves a true coming-of-age story of ric...
By Broadway stage manager Richard Hester. Foreword by Rick Elice. A journey through one of the most fascinating periods in both our cultural and our personal histories. Written with humor and compassion ... provides a unique perspective on this time and delivers the most important lesson of all - Hope.
By pianist Paul Ford, whom Stephen Sondheim called the "indefatigable master of the musical theatre." Foreword by Mandy Patinkin. Ford looks back on the performances and personalities that defined the American musical theatre in the waning years of the twentieth century. Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Donna Murphy, Elaine Stritch, Victor Garber, Bob Fosse, Gwen Verdon, Stockard Channing, Donna McKechnie, Lauren Bacall, Chita Rivera, Liza Minnelli, Martin Charnin, Liv Ullman, T...
All About Me! charts Mel Brooks’s meteoric rise from a Depression-era kid in Brooklyn to the recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Whether serving in the United States Army in World War II, or during his burgeoning career as a teenage comedian in the Catskills, Mel was always mining his experiences for material, always looking for the perfect joke. His iconic career began with Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, where he was part of the greatest writers’ room in history, which included Carl R...
"The life story of a singular artist and survivor in his own words ... the story of a boy whose talent and courage opened doors for him, but only a crack ... the story of a teenager discovering himself, learning his voice and his craft amidst deep trauma. And it is the story of a young man whose unbreakable determination led him through countless hard times to where he is now; a proud icon who refuses to back down or hide." 288 pages.
Whether she’s playing an “age-defying” book editor on television or dazzling audiences on the Broadway stage, Sutton Foster manages to make it all look easy. How? Crafting. From the moment she picked up a cross stitch needle to escape the bullying chorus girls in her early performing days, she was hooked. Cross stitching led to crocheting, crocheting led to collages, which led to drawing, and so much more. Channeling her emotions into her creations centered Sutton as she navigated the significa...
With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralyzed. She is assured that 90 percent of Bell’s palsy patients see spontaneous improvement and experience a full recovery. Like Ruhl’s own mother. But Sarah is in the unlucky ten percent. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theater, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior brings s...
DANCE OR DIE is an autobiographical coming-of-age account of young refugee, Ahmad Joudeh, who grows up in Damascus with dreams of becoming a dancer. Neither bombs nor family opposition keep him from taking classes, practicing hard, and ultimately becoming a Middle Eastern celebrity after success on a Lebanese reality show. But ISIS threatens him with death if he continues dancing, his father kicks him out of the house, and the war around him intensifies. Recruited by one of Syria’s top dance co...
Drawing on O’Brien’s experience of cancer and of childhood abuse, and on his ongoing collaboration with a war reporter, the four essays in A Story that Happens―first written as craft lectures for the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the US Air Force Academy―offer hard-won insights into what stories are for and the reasons why, "afraid and hopeful," we begin to tell them.
Meredith Patterson (42nd Street, White Christmas) takes you through intimate, personal, joyous and often painful stories of her rise to Broadway ... whatever it took to support herself while battling self doubt, cut-throat competition while trying to stay as human as possible in an often-vicious industry. It is the story of her rise to Broadway, but also how tragedy made her come back down to earth and place her life's work.
David Suchet has been a stalwart of British stage and screen for fifty years. From Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde, Freud to Poirot, Edward Teller to Doctor Who, Harold Pinter to Terence Rattigan, Questions of Faith to Decline and Fall, right up to 2019's The Price, David has done it all. Throughout this spectacular career, David has never been without a camera, enabling him to vividly document his life in photographs. Seamlessly combining photo and memoir, Behind the Lens is the story of David's re...
"Moving between sensual recollection of childhood in a now almost vanished Ireland and reflections on stardom in Hollywood and Broadway, Byrne also courageously recounts his battle with addiction and the ambivalence of fame." Audio versions narrated by the author. 1
Stories from renowned performers, dance educators, and other avid dance adventurers ... about epic dance adventures across North America, Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa highlight various dance traditions, as well as unique aspects of each country's geography, history, demographics and educational systems.
Collection of personal essays, poems and even amusement park maps on the subjects of insecurity, fame, anxiety, and much more. Told in her unique voice (sometimes singing voice).
Autobiography (with photos) by stage and film actor David Suchet. Discusses his London upbringing and love of the city, his Jewish roots and how they have influenced his career, the importance of his faith, how he really feels about fame, his love of photography and music, and his processes as an actor. He looks back on his fifty-year career, including reflections on how the industry has changed, his personal highs and lows, and how he wants to be remembered.
The memoir begins with Wilson's earliest foray into playwriting, then on to Yale where he was a student and a professor. He was assistant to producer Lewis Allen and had a hand in the production of Big Fish, Little Fish and the film version of Lord of the Flies, directed by Peter Brook. Wilson taught at Hunter College and later at the CUNY Graduate Center for more than forty years. He was theatre critic for the Wall Street Journal from April 21, 1972, through the next twenty-three years, and th...
With notes by Professor Knowlson. Samuel Beckett directed Krapp's Last Tape on four separate occasions: this volume offers a facsimile of his 1969 Schiller-Theater notebook.
In this insightful joint working diary, the creative powerhouse of a couple, Lolita Chakrabarti and Adrian Lester, chronicle 16 months of their fascinating working lives, including their experiences working on the stage adaptation of Life of Pi, an original series of monologues about the NHS, the film adaptation of Red Velvet and the TV series The Rook, among many other projects. As readers, we experience, first-hand, their experiences as two of the most proactive and versatile theatre makers t...
Assistant to Bob Mackie, Diana Eden, dancer, actress, and costume designer, pulls back the curtain on stage and screen personalities such as Carol Burnett, Debra Messing, George Clooney, Betty White, Dixie Carter, Thomas Haden Church, Kaley Cuoco, and many more. Illustrated by Marisa Cooper
