Dot-Marie Jones and Julie Newmar Set for NOTHING LIKE A DAME Q&A with Eddie Shapiro at Barnes & Noble Today

Special guests Dot-Marie Jones (GLEE) and Tony winner Julie Newmar (Batman) will join Oxford University Press, as they announce the release of the book NOTHING LIKE A DAME: CONVERSATIONS WITH THE GREAT WOMEN OF MUSICAL THEATER by Eddie Shapiro at 6 p.m. tonight, March 26 at the Barnes & Noble at The Grove/Farmers Market (189 The Grove Drive, Suite K 30, Los Angeles, Calif.).

Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater (February 2014) is a collection of exclusive interviews with twenty of the greatest leading women of Broadway, by journalist Eddie Shapiro.

"The history of musical theater is full of incredible, indelible female roles," writes Elaine Paige in her Foreword to NOTHING LIKE A DAME. "Elphaba, Cassie, Reno Sweeney, Nellie Forbush, Millie Dill¬mount, Marian the Librarian, Effie White, Ruth Sherwood, Lorelei Lee... Every one of these amazing characters has been played (and in many cases, created) by at least one of the incredible women in this book, who share their stories in the pages that follow."

NOTHING LIKE A DAME features women who have devoted the majority of their careers to theater and have won at least one Tony Award. It includes Shapiro's experience interviewing the "cantankerous, outspoken, and utterly charming" Elaine Stritch over tea at the Carlyle on Thanksgiving Day, chatting with the eighty-four year old Angela Lansbury in her Manhattan apartment, and asking Patti LuPone about her start in acting while eating her home-baked bread. Each interview is guided by Shapiro's expert knowledge of these women's careers, Broadway lore, and the details of some of Broadway's most famous (and infamous) musicals. Here also are icons like Chita Rivera, who describes the experience of starring in musicals for the past seven decades, right alongside contemporary Broadway stars like Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, who discuss their roles in the smash-hit Wicked. This collection includes dozens of photographs of the actresses in their best-known roles, making it a must-have for theater lovers.

Author/Editor, Eddie Shapiro, grew up singing (quite loudly) the music of Broadway. There is not a cast album he doesn't know by heart or a show he hasn't seen over the last 30 years. He has attended more than 1200 Broadway performances. His theatre related criticism and coverage of the arts has appeared in several publications, most regularly in Out Magazine, Instinct and Backstage West. He has interviewed a multitude of entertainment luminaries including: Charles Busch, Jon Robin Baitz, Marc Cherry, Alan Cumming, Stockard Channing, Dame Edna, Florence Henderson, Nathan Lane, Michelle Lee, Eric McCormack, Terrence McNally, Donna Mills, Meagan Mullally, Ann Reinking, Gwen Verdon and Ben Vereen. Shapiro is the co-author of two previous books, The Actors Encyclopedia of Casting Directors and Queens in the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks. He is the former Director of AIDS Walk New York and AIDS Walk Los Angeles and the Producer of Gay Days at Disneyland.

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