The first comprehensive study of August Wilson's drama introduces the major themes and motifs that unite Wilson's ten-play cycle about African American life in each decade of the twentieth century. Framed by Wilson's life experiences and informed by his extensive interviews, this book provides fresh, coherent, detailed readings of each play, well-situated in the extant scholarship. It also provides an overview of the cycle as a whole, demonstrating how it comprises a compelling interrogation of ...
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...
One of the few studies covering both Broadway and Hollywood musicals, this book explores most of the most famous musicals of the past two centuries, along with many others. Presented as an introductory text for musical, dance and theater majors, as well as for musical lovers, the book includes references for nearly 1000 internet video examples of dance and song.
For generations, residents of New York's Capital District have flocked to the region's numerous theaters. The history behind the venues is often more compelling than the shows presented in them. John Wilkes Booth brushed with death on stage while he and Abraham Lincoln were visiting Albany. The first exhibition of broadcast television was shown at Proctor's Theater in Schenectady, although the invention ironically contributed to the downfall of theaters across the nation. A fired manager of the...
On Streisand begins with a broad year-by-year outline of the landmark achievements, followed by a short biography, some chapters exploring key points in the artistry, then-the major part of the book-a work-by-work analysis. The work-by-work section is broken down into separate chapters, each organized chronologically: the stage shows, then the television shows and concerts, then the movies, and last (because longest) the recordings. Throughout, Mordden follows Streisand's independence, which he...
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.
During the Twenties, the Great White Way roared with nearly 300 book musicals. Luminaries who wrote for Broadway during this decade included Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Rudolf Friml, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, Lorenz Hart, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Sigmund Romberg, and Vincent Youmans, and the era’s stars included Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, and Marilyn Miller. Light-hearted Cinderella musicals dominated these years with such hits as Kern’s long-runnin...
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...
"Since the nineteen-sixties and seventies, New York's experimental-theatre scene has toned down its wild-man character, but Lee Breuer is the grand old man of the movement."?The New Yorker Since he first arrived on the New York art/theatre/performance scene in 1970, Lee Breuer has been at the forefront of the American theatrical avant-garde, creating challenging works both independently and with Mabou Mines, the company he co-founded with JoAnne Akalaitis, Philip Glass, Ruth Maleczech and Da...
Disney Theatrical Productions: Producing Broadway Musicals the Disney Way is the first work of scholarship to comprehensively examine the history and production practices of Disney Theatrical Productions (DTP), the theatrical producing arm of the studio branch of the Walt Disney Corporation.
This book uncovers how DTP has forged a new model for producing large-scale musicals on Broadway by functioning as an independent theatrical producer under the umbrella of a large entertainment corporatio...
Have you ever thought about investing in a Broadway show? Or wondered how it worked? Ever imagine would what it would like to have been an investor in Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, or even Hamilton? Broadway investing, while without a doubt a high-risk investment, can be a fun, fulfilling and yes, even a profitable experience. That's why I often call investing in Broadway shows, ?The riskiest investment you?ll love to make.? Despite the risks, it is possible to find and invest in shows t...
More than a chronicle, America in the Round is a critical history that reveals how far Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage could go with its budget and racially liberal politics, and how Arena both disputed and duplicated systems of power. With an innovative “in the round” approach, the narrative simulates sitting in different parts of the arena space to see the theatre through different lenses—economics, racial dynamics, and American identity.
Standing in front of a full-length mirror in my dressing room at ITV studios, waiting to go on to the set of Backchat, I had a brief conversation with my reflection. 'Michael, what the f*** do you think you're doing?' Theatrical agent Michael Whitehall spent a career pushing others into the spotlight. He had been involved behind the scenes with the careers of many prominent actors, including Colin Firth, Richard Griffiths, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tom Courtenay, Ian Ogilvy, Judi Dench, Edward Fo...
From the star of Broadway's The Book of Mormon and HBO's Girls, the heartfelt and hilarious coming-of-age memoir of a Midwestern boy surviving bad auditions, bad relationships, and some really bad highlights as he chases his dreams in New York City
When Andrew Rannells arrived in New York City from Omaha in 1997, he, like many, saw the city as a chance to break free. To start over. To transform the fiercely ambitious but sexually confused teenager he saw in the mirror into the Broadway leadi...
In this memoir of a roller coaster career on the New York stage, former actor and dancer Bettijane Sills offers a highly personal look at the art and practice of George Balanchine, one of ballet’s greatest choreographers, and the inner workings of his world-renowned company during its golden years.
After getting her start on the stage as a child actor on Broadway, Bettijane Sills joined the New York City Ballet in 1961 as a member of the corps de ballet, working her way up to the level of s...
How do you develop the craft and skills of stage management for today's theatre industry? And how can these same skills be applied in a variety of entertainment settings to help you develop a rewarding and successful career? Drawing on his diverse experience working with companies from across the performing arts spectrum in venues from the Hollywood Bowl to the Barbican Centre in London, Michael Vitale offers a practical resource on the art of stage management for new and established stage m...
Best remembered for his role as the Scarecrow in the 1939 MGM musical The Wizard of Oz, Ray Bolger led a rich and extraordinary career in the decade before and more than four decades after the creation of the film. Ray Bolger: More Than a Scarecrow is the first biography of this classic American entertainer, covering the luminous and forgotten career of the eccentric dancer outside of his burlap mask.
The product of a fragmented, working-class Boston Irish family, Bolger learned tap and ecc...
Betty Comden and Adolph Green were the writers behind such classic stage musicals as On the Town, Wonderful Town, and Bells Are Ringing, and they provided lyrics for such standards as "New York, New York," "Just in Time," "The Party's Over," and "Make Someone Happy," to name just a few. This remarkable duo, the longest-running partnership in theatrical history, also penned the screenplays for such cinematic gems as Singin' in the Rain and The Band Wagon. In the process they worked with such art...
16 selections in standard piano/vocal format with the melody in the piano part from this 2018 Broadway musical based on the story of the 1990 film of the same name, composed by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. Includes: Anywhere but Here * Don't Forget to Dance * Freedom * I Can't Go Back * Long Way Home * Luckiest Girl in the World * Never Give up on a Dream * On a Night like Tonight * Rodeo Drive * Something About Her * This Is My Life * Together Forever * Welcome to Hollywood * Welcome to Our W...
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...
Rex Harrison’s fifth – but not last – wife, Elizabeth said of him: ‘I was very fond of Rex before we were married, and even more fond of him after we were married – it ws the bit in between that was so difficult.’
The Incomparable Rex is an affectionate and witty memoir of one of Britain’s great theatrical and cinematic talents, Rex Harrison. When he died in 1990, the English-speaking world lost one of its most eloquent and fastidious high comedians.
Patrick Garland worked with Harrison o...
Rex Harrison’s fifth – but not last – wife, Elizabeth said of him: ‘I was very fond of Rex before we were married, and even more fond of him after we were married – it ws the bit in between that was so difficult.’
The Incomparable Rex is an affectionate and witty memoir of one of Britain’s great theatrical and cinematic talents, Rex Harrison. When he died in 1990, the English-speaking world lost one of its most eloquent and fastidious high comedians.
Patrick Garland worked with Harrison o...
In The Ultimate Musical Theatre College Audition Guide, author, acting teacher, and musical theatre program director Amy Rogers offers an honest, no-nonsense guide to the musical theatre audition. Written for high school students and their parents, teachers, and mentors, the book demystifies
what can be an overwhelming process with step-by-step explanations of audition checkpoints to answer every student's question, "where do I begin?" Chapters explore degree types, summer programs and intensi...
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...
During the era often commonly known as McCarthyism, many motion picture and television creators were blacklisted for supposed communist ties. There remained, however, a creative outlet that still welcomed these artists--theatre.
This book explores the role theatre played during this turbulent period, covering the formation of the Theatre Guild (which birthed the Group Theatre), the short-lived Federal Theatre Project, and the investigations of the motion picture and television industries, and ...
"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...
(Easy Piano Songbook). The 2018 movie musical sequel to the classic Disney film from 1964 features a top-notch team including Director Rob Marshall ( Chicago ), Lin-Manuel Miranda ( Hamilton ) and music from Hairspray 's award-winning songwriting team of Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman. This folio includes new original songs from the soundtrack: Can You Imagine That * A Cover Is Not the Book * Nowhere to Go But Up * The Place Where Lost Things Go * The Royal Doulton Music Hall * Trip a Little Ligh...
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...
“A paradoxical, puzzling, compellingly hypnotic work.” —Village Voice
In Annie Baker’s The Antipodes, a group of people sit around a table telling, cataloging, and theorizing stories. Their purpose is never clear: are they brainstorming ideas for a TV show? A film? A mythology? This is a world where ghostly fables co-exist with mundane discussions of snacks and sexual exploits, where the vague instruction to tell stories about “something monstrous” though “it might not be a literal monster” be...
Leonard Bernstein is internationally renowned as one of the greatest conductors, composers, musical inspirations, and creative minds of our time. He is also legendary for his extreme passion, raw charisma, and powerful convictions, with a brash, insatiable lust for life that became etched more clearly into the lines of his face with each passing year.
As with many celebrities, Leonard Bernstein was constantly being photographed, but unlike most, he was photographed by some of the greates...
Theater of the Ridiculous is a significant movement that highlighted the radical possibilities inherent in camp. Much of contemporary theater owes this form a great debt but little has been written about its history or aesthetic markers. This book offers a comprehensive overview of the important practitioners, along with critical commentary of their work.
Beginning with Ridiculous' most recognizable name, Charles Ludlam, the author traces the development of this campy, queer genre, from the B ...
“It’s sad, isn’t it? The dead horse of a life we beat, all the wilder, all the harder the deader it gets. On the other hand, there are some nice shops in the area.”
Thom Pain has come to a certain point in his life. Maybe you have too. His entire existence is ordinary; but that ordinariness is a revelation and a wonder and a curiosity. To him at least. He’d better hope so. It’s all he has (except maybe a dictionary and an old love letter).
Comic and disturbing, this provocative monologue ...
(Vocal Score). 17 songs from the 2014 Tony Award-winning score of the Broadway musical featuring music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and based on the novel by Robert James Waller. Includes: Almost Real * Always Better * Another Life * Before and After You/One Second and a Million Miles * Falling into You * Home Before You Know It * It All Fades Away * Look at Me * Something from a Dream * State Road 21/Who We Are and Who We're Meant to Be * Temporarily Lost * To Build a Home * What Do You Ca...
(Vocal Score). 17 songs from the 2014 Broadway musical featuring mysic and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown based on the novel by Robert James Waller. Includes: Almost Real * Always Better * Another Life * Before and After You/One Second and a Million Miles * Falling into You * Home Before You Know It * It All Fades Away * Look at Me * Something from a Dream * State Road 21/Who We Are and Who We're Meant to Be * Temporarily Lost * To Build a Home * What Do You Call a Man like That? * When I'm Gone ...
(Vocal Score). 17 songs from the 2014 Broadway musical featuring mysic and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown based on the novel by Robert James Waller. Includes: Almost Real * Always Better * Another Life * Before and After You/One Second and a Million Miles * Falling into You * Home Before You Know It * It All Fades Away * Look at Me * Something from a Dream * State Road 21/Who We Are and Who We're Meant to Be * Temporarily Lost * To Build a Home * What Do You Call a Man like That? * When I'm Gone ...
One of the most beloved film musicals of all time, The Wizard of Oz represents an enduring family favorite and cultural classic. Yet there is much more to the story than meets the eye, and the MGM movie is just one of many ways in which it has been represented. In this lively and wide-ranging book, editors Danielle Birkett and Dominic McHugh bring together insights from eleven experts into the varied musical forms this great American myth has taken in the past century. Starting with the early a...
Through personal letters from little known Japanese individuals that had never been studied before, Dearest Lenny interweaves an intimate story of love and relationships with a history of Leonard Bernstein's extraordinary transformation from an American icon to the world maestro during the second half of the twentieth century. The passionate, articulate, moving letters of the two Japanese individuals--a woman who began writing fan letters to Bernstein in 1947 and became a close family friend, a...
Housebound because of illness, Caroline hasn't been to school in months. Confined to her room, she has only Instagram and Facebook for company. That is until classmate Anthony bursts in – uninvited and armed with waffle fries, a scruffy copy of Walt Whitman's poetry and a school project due the next day… Caroline is unimpressed all around.
But an unlikely friendship develops and a seemingly mundane piece of homework starts to reveal the pair's hopes and dreams - as well as a deep and mysteri...
Pauline Gibson has unintentionally become a national treasure by staying out of party politics, while one of her close friends from university, Jack Gould, is making his way to the top of the Labour Party. The twenty year span of their adult lives and their contrasting fortunes raise sharp questions about how to do good in the new century.
This absorbing, heartfelt work uncovers the story of the real dancer behind Degas’s now-iconic sculpture, and the struggles of late nineteenth-century Parisian life.
She is famous throughout the world, but how many know her name? You can admire her figure in Washington, Paris, London, New York, Dresden, or Copenhagen, but where is her grave? We know only her age, fourteen, and the work that she did—because it was already grueling work, at an age when children today are sent to school. In t...
‘Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe!’ – Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a narrative many of us believe we know well, and yet the J.M. Barrie play that premiered on a West End stage in December 1904 is not the depiction of Peter, Wendy, Hook, and Never Land that most people have experienced. It was the critical and commercial success of this particular play which propelled the notoriety and appeal of the story, and without the success of that first production, Peter Pan would not be...
Ever since 1934, when Mary Poppins descended from the skies over London into Cherry Tree Lane in the beloved book by P. L. Travers, the world has adored the enchanting adventures and peculiar wisdom of this magical nanny.
From The Gashlycrumb Tinies to The Doubtful Guest, Edward Gorey's wickedly funny and deliciously sinister little books have influenced our culture in innumerable ways, from the works of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman to Lemony Snicket. Some even call him the Grandfather of Goth.
A troubled teenager and her estranged mother-an undocumented immigrant from Mexico-embark on a road trip and strive to mend their fractured relationship along the way. From the writer of the book for the musical In the Heights comes Miss You like Hell, a musical adaptation of Hudes' play 26 Miles that was inspired by her own experience on a road trip with her mother. Combined with the musical talent of Erin McKeown, Hudes artfully crafts a story of the barriers and the bonds of family, while al...
![Thom Pain (based on nothing) [Revised TCG Edition]: With Other Monologues for Theatre Cover](https://cloudimages.broadwayworld.com/bookdb/41OePzn5AIL._SX306_BO1,204,203,200_1.jpg)
