Introduction by Christopher Bond

Mr. Sondheim fearlessly explores psychic caverns where civilized people are not dying to go ... A naked Sweeney Todd stands revealed as a musical of naked rage, chewing up everyone in its path as it spits out blood and tears. - Frank Rich, The New York Times - A work of such scope and such daring that it dwarfs every other Broadway musical that even attempts to invite comparison. - Rex Reed, New York Daily News

(Applause Libretto Library). Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Book by Quiara Alegria Hudes. Conceived by Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights is an exciting musical about life in Washington Heights, a tight-knit community where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. During its acclaimed Off-Broadway and Broadway runs and now a hit movie musical, In the Heights became an audience phenomenon and a critical success. It's easy to see why: with an amazing cast, a gripping story, and incredible dancing, In the Heights is an authentic and exhilarating journey into one of Manhattan's most vibrant communities. And with its universal themes of family, community, and self-discovery, In the Heights can be enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds. Among the musical's many accolades are two Drama Desk Awards, a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, and a nomination for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Find out what it takes to make a living, what it costs to have a dream, and what it means to be home... In the Heights.

Hamilton: The Revolution gives readers an unprecedented view of both revolutions, from the only two writers able to provide it. Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages -- since before this was even a show, according to Miranda -- traces its development from an improbable performance at the White House to its landmark opening night on Broadway six years later. In addition, Miranda has written more than 200 funny, revealing footnotes for his award-winning libretto, the full text of which is published here.

Their account features photos by the renowned Frank Ockenfels and veteran Broadway photographer, Joan Marcus; exclusive looks at notebooks and emails; interviews with Questlove, Stephen Sondheim, leading political commentators, and more than 50 people involved with the production; and multiple appearances by President Obama himself. The book does more than tell the surprising story of how a Broadway musical became a national phenomenon: It demonstrates that America has always been renewed by the brash upstarts and brilliant outsiders, the men and women who don't throw away their shot.

The In-Between: Intimate and Candid Moments of Broadway Stars has been years in the making. It is Anderson's personal ode to the theatre community, including more than 100 of her photographs taken behind the scenes of the most iconic shows of the last decade: Hamilton, Wicked, The Lion King, Kinky Boots, Sweeney Todd, Waitress, Hadestown, Phantom of the Opera, and many, many more. With a foreword from Tony Nominee and Oscar Winner Ariana DeBose and rare photography of performers like Patti LuPone, Hugh Jackman, Chita Rivera, Jonathan Groff, and Gavin Creel, this gorgeous book gives Broadway fans a privileged glance behind the curtains of the world's most prestigious theaters and the stars who grace their stages.

The incredible journey of a musical from potential disaster to success, and the Broadway industry that managed to stay alive during the pandemic shutdown of 2020-22.

Despite historic, seemingly insurmountable setbacks of four openings, Bob Dylan and Conor McPherson's musical Girl from the North Country became a critical Broadway hit. Hailed as an experience as close as mortals come to heaven on earth, by The New York Times, the musical weaves two dozen songs from the legendary catalogue of Bob Dylan into a story of Duluth during the Great Depression, to create a future American classic.

Opening on Broadway in the middle of an unprecedented moment, Slow Train Coming is a book about pressing on in the face of extreme adversity. Todd Almond's behind-the-scenes oral history weaves his personal first-hand account of starring in the show with exclusive interviews and reflections from fellow cast members and the creative team.

Together they follow the show from its beginnings at New York's Public Theater where it emerged as an underdog-of-a-show, through a fraught jump to Broadway against a backdrop of the emerging Covid-19 pandemic and the longest shutdown in Broadway history, which resulted in the theatre industry's subsequent fight for survival.

Told through personal stories, anecdotes from the cast, production shots, behind-the-scenes photos, and insights from the creators, this book is both an inside look at a perilous moment of one of America's proudest institutions, Broadway, and a true story of American grit and determination lived by the company of this quirky musical-that-could.

Musical theatre performers are akin to Olympic athletes. They need finely tuned minds, bodies, and spirits to perform at a high level, in some cases up to eight times a week. JV Mercanti has trained countless emerging performers in Pace University's acclaimed Musical Theatre program. His teachings take readers through a journey of mind, body, and spirit as a way of engaging the full self when it comes to creating a performance. His extensive knowledge covers everything from script analysis and character research to auditions and rehearsals.

Musical Theatre Acting: A Practical Guide serves as a guide to the musical theatre artist, student, or professional who needs a refresher on how to hone and sharpen their skills while honoring their interpretation of the material. This is a short and accessible roadmap for the performer who knows that success in musical theatre means being part of storytelling that is wholistic and incredible.

From 1933 Sally-Jane Heit went for the brass ring of stardom as she circled the carousel of life. Did she catch it?

Even with all her talent, navigating the script written for a woman of her generation gave her one big headache. With an overbearing mother, a wayward husband, a wild stint in an open marriage, unconventional friendships, and three glorious daughters who didn't get the mother they wanted but made do, her unstoppable dream of stardom moved her from summer stock to Broadway to Hollywood (where if you blinked, you'd miss her)

Her chance meeting with Lily Tomlin inspired her to create her doppelganger, Harriet Ferment, the central character of her one-woman show, which she performed until she was 84. She finally became what she always wanted to be... in control.

Her story. Her way.

In Not Yet!, Sally-Jane dishes on her adventures and exploits on stage and off - a wild mix of epic drama and slapstick comedy. She spills the beans on negotiating family life, discovering she had a g-spot, flirting with fame, global warming of another kind, and dodging death. Buckle up for a wild ride of laughs, love, and a long and adventurous lifetime.

It would be difficult, indeed, to imagine anyone more qualified to give us a celebration, from the perspective of an insider, of the Broadway musical. From the first run of Guys and Dolls in 1950 to the recent debut of Rent, Stuart Ostrow, a prot D'eg D'e of the great composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, has been personally involved in many of the major Broadway productions of our time. The steadily growing number of fans of the Great White Way will delight in his reminiscences about the shows that have shaped musical theater, such as Hello Dolly, Funny Girl, Man of LaMancha, Cabaret, 1776, and M. Butterfly--to name just a few.

Readers of A Producer's Broadway Journey will certainly be entertained by Ostrow's behind-the-scenes anecdotes of Bob Fosse, Barbra Streisand, Betty Buckley, Cole Porter, Lerner and Loewe, Hal Prince, Ethel Merman, and many other legends encountered in his accomplished career. But in addition to the tales or re-writes, stand-ins, near-disasters, and moments of theatrical magic, the author also provides a unique historical perspective on almost half a century of the musical.

Ten years later, in the wake of the enormous international success of this groundbreaking, multiaward-winning show, its original director, Michael Mayer, urged Sater to write notes explicating its famously evocative, poetic lyrics.

In rich detail, Sater's notes address the literary sources and allusions of each lyric. He also writes feelingly of what prompted the songs over the course of the show's eight years of development. In so doing, Sater expands on his partnership with Sheik and his experiences with original cast members, Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff, now also known from Glee.

These notes will prove invaluable for fans of the show, for all those interested in theater, and most especially for all the young performers who will play the roles and sing these songs.

I'm writing one great song before I...

When Jonathan Larson died, he left behind a musical poised to become a world-spanning phenomenon. When RENT struck, Larson became a legend - and his work legendary.

But legends and overnight successes are never spawned from nothing, and the story of how Jonathan Larson became a Tony Award winning composer and Pulitzer Prize winning dramatist has never been covered in depth - until now.

By looking at Larson's entire 16-year output, Boho Days looks at not just how RENT and tick, tick... BOOM! came to life but where they came from - and how they really fit into Larson's work as a whole.

Featuring new interviews with Larson's creative and personal associates and extensive archival research, Boho Days demystifies the composer's vision and advancement, offering fans new and old the full story of the man behind the musical which changed the world.

I think Jonathan Larson would have really enjoyed reading this book. I wish he could have.--Barry Singer (Author EVER AFTER: The Last Years of Musical Theater and Beyond)

For those saying Superbia revival when? you should pick up the great @bohodaysbook by J. Collis, it's the most exacting and accurate accounting of Jonathan's creative output. There's SO MANY revisions of Superbia, it's a challenge. This book is THE Larson deep dive.

--Lin-Manuel Miranda (Composer/Lyricist HAMILTON, Director TICK, TICK...BOOM!)

Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

New book by Douglas Carter Beane

Original book by Oscar Hammerstein II

In March 2013, a new Rodgers and Hammerstein musical opened on Broadway - new to Broadway, but based on a TV musical first written nearly 60 years before, and beloved by audiences all over the world. It was Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, which very quickly became the belle of the ball of the Broadway season, winning cheers for its fresh take on a timeless classic. Douglas Carter Beane created a new, Tony-nominated book that was hailed for complementing the inspirational themes of Rodgers and Hammerstein with a 21st-century sensibility, giving the musical new characters, surprising plot twists, and revelatory moments that harkened back to the Charles Perrault version of the fairy tale. The score was cheered as well: the familiar songs from the television versions - In My Own Little Corner Impossible A Lovely Night Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful and so on - along with undiscovered gems from the trunk. Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella was hailed by the Associated Press as a charming, witty and relevant take on the classic story and cheered by New York magazine as a wised-up, wit-spackled CINDERELLA... As solidly entertaining as they come!

Described by the New York Times as classic activist theater and a cross between 'A Christmas Carol' and a trial at The Hague's International Criminal Court.

In this, his latest work, the protean Ishmael Reed--the legendary artist and prolific writer--continues to burnish his already sterling reputation by dismantling the 'Creation Myth' of the founding of the U.S., as represented in the incredibly profitable play and musical, Hamilton. Reed, a verbal acrobat of global renown, demonstrates here why he is widely considered to be the leading intellectual in the U.S. today.

-Gerald Horne, author of The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the USA

This powerful play, originally produced at the Nuyorican Poets Caf , comprehensively dismantles the phenomenon of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Hamilton. Reed uses the musical's crimes against history to insist on a radical, cleareyed way of looking at our past and our selves. Both durable and timely, this goes beyond mere corrective - it is a meticulously researched rebuttal, an absorbing drama, and brilliant rallying cry for justice.

The perfect tie-in to both the success of and backlash to Hamilton, it is the major voice in contrast to the recent movie. It captures both the earnest engagement that fans of the musical desire, as well as the exhausted disbelief of those who can't stand it. Teachers, students and fans of drama, literature, and history will find much to love. It is written by one of America's most respected and original writers, who is eagerly promoting it, and who is long overdue for a renaissance.

As you might imagine, writing a Broadway musical has its challenges. But it turns out there are challenges one can't begin to imagine when collaborating with two rock legends and a superstar director to stage the biggest, most expensive production in theater history. Renowned director Julie Taymor picked playwright Glen Berger to cowrite the book for a $25 million Spider-Man musical. Together--along with U2's Bono and Edge--they would shape a work that was technically daring and emotionally profound, with a story fueled by the hero's quest for love...and the villains' quest for revenge. Or at least, that's what they'd hoped for.

But when charismatic producer Tony Adams died suddenly, the show began to lose its footing. Soon the budget was ballooning, financing was evaporating, and producers were jumping ship or getting demoted. And then came the injuries. And then came word-of-mouth about the show itself. What followed was a pageant of foul-ups, falling-outs, ever-more harrowing mishaps, and a whole lot of malfunctioning spider legs. This circus-rock-and-roll-drama, with its $65 million price tag, had become more of a spectacle than its creators ever wished for. During the show's unprecedented seven months of previews, the company's struggles to reach opening night inspired breathless tabloid coverage and garnered international notoriety.

Through it all, Berger observed the chaos with his signature mix of big ambition and self-deprecating humor.

Smashes Broadway clichés with an electric guitar and the funniest libretto I can remember. - New York

Passing Strange was nominated for 7 Tony Awards, and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Musical.

The Tony Awards: A Celebration of Excellence in Theatre pays tribute to the magic that happens when the curtain goes up and Broadway's best and brightest step onto center stage. Supported by the American Theatre Wing, the arts organization that founded the Tony Awards in 1947 and continues to produce the Tony Awards live telecast each year, author Eila Mell has interviewed a cavalcade of past and present Tony winners, including actors, producers, writers, costume designers, and many many others. Their voices fill the pages of this book with fascinating, behind-the-scenes stories about what it's like to win the theatre world's highest honor.

Featuring a foreword by Audra McDonald and over 400 color and black-and-white photographs, The Tony Awards also spotlights more than 130 captivating interviews with a parade of industry insiders, including:

Mel Brooks, Matthew Broderick, Carol Burnett, Kristin Chenoweth, Glenn Close, James Corden, Bryan Cranston, Neil Patrick Harris, Jennifer Holliday, Hugh Jackman, John Kander, Angela Lansbury, Judith Light, Hal Linden, Kenny Leon, Patti LuPone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Rita Moreno, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Martin Short, Tom Stoppard, Julie Taymor, Leslie Uggams, and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Hours of Fun-Filled Facts & Trivia Questions! - Special Launch Price

This trivia book begins with the precursors to musical theatre throughout the world and narrows to the island we will come back to time and time again: Manhattan. We explore each thrilling decade and then cover grader topics that span the years. Each chapter begins with a series of multiple-choice and true or false questions with the answers following on the next page. After testing your knowledge, peruse the Did you know Section for quirky anecdotes, fun facts, and important records to addd to your knowledge.

Grab a copy and test yourself on your knowledge of Broadway Theatre!