Broadway / Musical Theatre Books- Page 2

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 1/2/05 at 7:34pm

I have 'AT THIS THEATER', the Playbill book and I LOOOOOOOVE it. What I love even more, though is my Broadway: The American Musical book. Its gigantic and expensive but God is it worth it!

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 1/2/05 at 8:07pm

I love the "The Shuberts Present : 100 Years of American Theater" The pictures there are beautiful! I also like "A Day at the New Amsterdam Theatre" It's all pictures, but there are some really really cool behind the scenes photos oh the lion king.

[VeuveClicquot]

Posted: 1/2/05 at 8:09pm

Magruder, re: "Broadway Babies Say Goodnight," it does often seem homophobic. (For instance, his chapter about William Finn is called "The Fags").

However, I got the sense that he wasn't a truly homophobic person (he loved "Falsettos", and goes into great detail about its importance), he was just a bit insensitive and could have used better judgment in titling his chapters.

[NaughtyGaudy]

Posted: 1/2/05 at 8:14pm

i like at this theatre. a lot of information about each of the broadway theatres. i think it is copies of articles from playbill.

[jczelyph]

Posted: 1/3/05 at 1:56pm

Yo. I thoroughyl recommend the book 'Andrew Lloyd Webber' by John Snelson. It's from the Yale Broadway Masters series. Another good book is the 'Cambridge Companion to Musicals'. Both of these tend toward a slightly more academic approach to the genre, rather than Mordden's style (although I do like his books too). Finally another book you should at is 'Musicals' by Kurt Ganzl. It's an excellent account of the history and development of the genre and doesn't have the jingoistic feel of most American books on the musical.

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 12/11/07 at 11:46pm

I just finished reading Without You by Anthony Rapp and I would highly recommend it!

[soubrette]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 2:08am

There are 4 great books by Steven Suskin you must check out...
Broadway Yearbook 1999 - 2000
Broadway Yearbokk 2000 - 2001
Broadway Yearbook 2001 - 2002
Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at B'way's Biggest Musical Bombs

Also John Willis' Theatre World volumes are full of invaluable information; likewise the Guernsey Best Plays volumes.

I know there is a book about the making of "Fiddler on the Roof" (much like, but less juicy than, a similar book on "No No Nanette" as another poster mentioned).

I also highly recommend anything by Ken Mandelbaum (Not Since Carrie / A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Michael Bennett) and Ethan Mordden--he's incredibly learned, his "taste" is not the reason to read his stuff--he's a terrific writer who puts theatre in historical context.

Happy reading!

[appleric]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 2:54am

There's also a great book about touring called, "Letters from Backstage" that I highly recommend.

[DaneSaw]

Posted: 12/12/07 at 9:52am

I saw the Playbill Yearbook (may be the Broadway Yearbook?) 2007 at Barnes & Nobel the other day, it looked pretty cool...a yearbook-style compilation of Broadway shows, as recent as Spring Awakening. Good as a coffee-table book or for research, or just for fun I suppose.

I had to use "The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from Hair to Hedwig" by Elizabeth Wollman as a resource for a project I was doing and wound up reading most of the book. Pretty cool.

[me2]

Posted: 12/13/07 at 6:30pm

I love many of these suggestions. I'd also add Barry Singer's EVER AFTER, particularly if you liked Ethan Morden's HAPPIEST CORPSE book (along the same lines). Another must is Broadway Musicals: The Greatest Shows of All Time by Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik. If interested, I linked to my blog where I discusses these and other books.
Broadway Blog: Broadway Books link