Broadway Books

[Hannahbelle]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 12:16am

Hi!  I love Broadway and need some reading suggestions for the summer.  I especially love leading ladies and mysteries about musicals.  Any suggestions?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 6:18am

Not Since Carrie

 

Jen Tepper's books are well recd.

[rcwr]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 8:57am

Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater by Eddie Shapiro

[TheSassySam]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 10:12am

Some notable ones on my shelves at the moment: 

 

1) Not Since Carrie 

2) TheaterMania Guide to Musical Theater Recordings 

3) Second Act Trouble  

4) Broadway Musical MVPS 1960-2010 by Peter Filichia 

5) Ethan Mordden's books! He's very opinionated, but I loooooove that. Though, I would skip, "The Happiest Corpse I've Ever Seen." 

6) Everything Was Possible by Ted Chapin 

7) Hot Seat by Frank Rich

Song of Spider-Man by Glen Berger

9) Diary of a Mad Playwright by James Kirkwood

10) The Untold Stories of Broadway Vol. 1, 2, & 3 by Jennifer Ashley Tepper 

11) Unnaturally Green (true story about an unlikely girl becoming the standby in Wicked) 

12) Razzle Dazzle - Michael Riedel

13) The Secret Life of the American Musical - Jack Viertel

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 11:54am

THE SEASON, William Goldman

SONDHEIM & CO., Craig Zadan

The above are excellent, nonfiction works about the theater. I don't normally read fiction about the theater, but the grandma of them all is the epic VALLEY OF THE DOLLS by Jacqueline Susann.

It makes for perfect beach reading.

Updated On: 7/11/17 at 11:54 AM

[Hannahbelle]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 4:33pm

These ideas are fabulous!  Thanks!

[bowtie7]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 5:48pm

The Sound of Broadway Music: a book of orchestrators & orchestrations by Steven Suskin. (I thought it might be more of a reference book and then ended up reading all 600 pages cover to cover. Loved it and learned so much.)

No Pickle, No Performance by Harold J Kennedy. (Wonderful, funny remembrances of theatre days done by, mostly from the frantic world of summer stock.) (Just the story of the title and a temperamental actress who refuses to perform due to the lacking condiment on a sandwich is worth searching out this book.)

Updated On: 7/11/17 at 05:48 PM

[TheThreadMaster]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 9:05pm

The Phantom and Les Mis books were pretty phenomenal. Blew me away

[saxpower]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 9:20pm

Light reading- and mainly pictures but "Lost Broadway Theaters" by Nicholas von Hoogstraten and "Broadway Theaters History and Architecture" by William Morrison are both interesting.  "Lost Broadway Theaters" has more text but is limited to theaters that were "lost" at the time the book was written.   However, that DOES include the Hudson and Studio 54 (it also has a chapter about the New Amsterdam but talks about the Disney Renovations). The other book is primarily pictures, but still interesting and does have a page or so of text for each theater.  It also includes still-operating theaters   Both are out of print so you'll have to get them through a library, eBay, or used on Amazon. 

 

If you like the "At this Theatre" blurbs in Playbill, "At This Theatre" by Louis Both includes much longer versions for each current theatre.   It keeps being updated- looks like most recently in 2010. 

 

 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 9:27pm

Felicia Ricci's Unnaturally Green is a sensational beach read.

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 9:57pm

"Everything Was Possible", in my opinion, is a must read.

I am currently reading "A Chorus Lime and the Musicals of Michael Bennett". 

[Crazy NooNooHead]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 10:42pm

If you love leading ladies and haven't read Patti LuPone: A Memoir yet, I highly recommend it.

[zainmax]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 10:54pm

TheThreadMaster said: "The Phantom and Les Mis books were pretty phenomenal. Blew me away

 

"

Do you mean the original novels?

If you have seen Miss Saigon, then there is an excellent old book about its making. Ed Behr and Mark Steyn wrote it. But, it is about the size of a coffee-table book.

[jtishere]

Posted: 7/11/17 at 11:51pm

-Second Nothing Like A Dame - a some great conversations with some great women of the theatre

-Along the conversation lines, The Art of the American Musical: Conversations with the Creators is one of 
 favorite books about Broadway - some really fascinating conversations

-Anything by Ethan Mordden - his decade-by-decade critical histories are fun to dive into, and I really enjoyed his most recent book, When Broadway Went to Hollywood

-The TheaterMania Guide to Musical Theater Recordings is indispensable. 

-Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater by Larry Stempel is a doorstopper but well worth
 the effort

-The Secret Life of the American Musical by Jack Viertel is excellent and does a great job at breaking down how a musical works and what makes a great showtune.

-Stephen Citron has a Great Songwriters Series, of which his Sondheim & Lloyd-Webber: The New Musical I am almost finished with. The book needed a copy editor and a fact checker, but there's some fascinating stuff to be gleaned.

The Sound of Their Music hones in on R&H's collaborations.

Not Broadway per se, but Roadshow! is a FASCINATING critical history of the epic musicals of the 1960s and why some succeeded and some flopped.

 

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 7/12/17 at 1:51am

zainmax said: "TheThreadMaster said: "The Phantom and Les Mis books were pretty phenomenal. Blew me away

 

"

Do you mean the original novels?

If you have seen Miss Saigon, then there is an excellent old book about its making. Ed Behr and Mark Steyn wrote it. But, it is about the size of a coffee-table book.

 

"

I'm sure that was a reference to The Complete Phantom of the Opera by George Perry and The Complete Book of Les Miserables by Edward Behr. I would agree that both books are great and serve as a wealth of information on the two respective musicals. They are in the same vein of the Miss Saigon book that you mentioned, which is also good despite the fact that it lacks the libretto in the back of the book.