Book by Hugh Wheeler

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.

Stella Adler was one of the 20th Century's greatest figures. She is arguably the most important teacher of acting in American history. Over her long career, both in New York and Hollywood, she offered her vast acting knowledge to generations of actors, including Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro. The great voice finally ended in the early Nineties, but her decades of experience and teaching have been brilliantly caught and encapsulated by Howard Kissel in the twenty-two lessons in this book.

Originally performed by its creators, this 1987 Edinburgh Fringe hit remains the second longest-running West End comedy in history and has been translated into over thirty languages. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) is not so much a play as it is a vaudeville show in which three charismatic, wildly ambitious actors attempt to present all thirty-seven of Shakespeare's plays in a single performance. They have a rudimentary concept of the stories and have imperfectly memorized a smattering of famous lines. Backstage there's a meager assortment of costumes and props. Thus armed, the three brazenly launch into their task with an earnest focus and breakneck enthusiasm.

A jubilant celebration of the greatest VHS cover art in all its gory, glory -- which inspired, scared, and delighted generations of movie-goers.

For anyone who frequented a video store in the '80s or '90s, the styles are instantly recognizable: surprisingly beautiful paintings of fanged and winged monsters; ridiculously lurid depictions of young men and women in peril; illustrations so incompetently drawn as to qualify as outsider art; absurdly overstuffed photomontages. The home video revolution was accompanied by an explosion of all kinds of cover art, embodying the anything-goes ethos of an era when obscure, cheaply produced movies--usually with supernatural storylines and bottom-drawer special effects--could be distributed throughout the world and watched from the comfort of one's living room.

Videotapes from Hell provides a fascinating illustrated history of VHS cover art in all its glory, from direct-to-video oddities to major studio releases. Drawing on the expansive collection of world-renowned horror expert Stephen Jones, it collects nearly 500 pieces of period artwork, accompanied by detailed captions that give the history of the movie and its release dates in video format. In addition to front-cover images and full-sleeve spreads, it includes examples of promotional posters and freestanding original artwork that was incorporated into box designs.

Including a foreword from beloved cult director Joe Dante (Gremlins, The 'Burbs) and commentary from horror luminaries such as Ramsey Campbell, Mick Garris, Stephen King and many more, Videotapes from Hell is a garish and jubilant celebration of a lost genre ripe for rediscovery.

A master actor who's appeared in an enormous number of films, starring with everyone from Nicholson to Kermit the Frog, Michael Caine is uniquely qualified to provide his view of making movies. This new revised and expanded edition features great photos throughout, with chapters on: Preparation, In Front of the Camera - Before You Shoot, The Take, Characters, Directors, On Being a Star, and much more.

Remarkable material ... A treasure ... I'm not going to be looking at performances quite the same way ... FASCINATING!

- Gene Siskel

The definitive biography of the great Shemp Howard, an original member of the Three Stooges, and one of Hollywood's most influential actors that Library Journal calls a complete portrait of a talented character actor, Booklist praises as fascinating, Kirkus Reviews describes as an illuminating... reworking of the Stooges mythology and Patton Oswalt praises as the only book you will ever need to read about anything. Burn all the other books - there is ONLY SHEMP!

Shemp Howard not only had one of the most distinctive faces of the twentieth century, but was also one of its most accomplished, influential comic actors and showbiz personalities. Along with his brother Moe and comedy violinist Larry Fine, Shemp was an original member of the comedy team that became known as the Three Stooges before he quit and set off on his own in 1932.

SHEMP! shows how he made an even greater mark in a successful and until now largely unexplored career in more than a hundred movie shorts and features. He appeared in comedies, dramas, mysteries, Westerns, and musicals alongside the biggest stars of the Golden Age, including W.C. Fields, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, William Powell, Lon Chaney, Jr., Myrna Loy, and the team of Abbott & Costello. Author Burt Kearns challenges the official version of Three Stooges history that's been repeated for decades, shattering myths while uncovering the surprising and often troubling facts behind the man's unlikely story: how the child of Jewish immigrants, supposedly racked by debilitating phobias, could conquer show business; the behind-the-scenes machinations that pushed him to return to the team; and the circumstances surrounding his untimely death.

Through interviews with fans, family members, experts, filmmakers, and celebrities, SHEMP! unearths treasures in Shemp's solo work, examines the cult of Shemp that thrives today, and confirms Shemp Howard's deserved place in cinematic history.

Widely recognized as the most complete and rigorous text of its kind since it was first published in 1942, Speak With Distinction is an invaluable resource. It presents a comprehensive study of the sounds of Spoken English in their most important phonetic environments. This most recent revision also adds much material for comparisons of speech sounds; suggestions for accurate, efficient and conversational ways of combining the sounds into connected utterance; indications that foster a working knowledge of two dialects of speech (General American and what Mrs. Skinner called Good Speech for classic and elevated texts); and beginning material to show application of the principles of Good Speech to well-written texts.

Some important additions to the book are the extensive Glossary and Index, abundant guides to pronunciations, new sections featuring such details as the complete Ask-List of words, a program for the elimination of glottal attacks of vowel and dipthong sounds, greatly expanded practice material of phrases and sentences, and an updated Chart showing several levels of phonetic transcription and spelling equivalents in current usage.

Speak With Distinction can be used in several ways: as a primary educational textbook for both the beginning and advanced actor; as a supplementary textbook for teachers and students who have their own methods and agenda for study; and as a reference book for teachers, speech coaches and directors.

Marx Brothers authority Bader has done a remarkable job successfully uncovering the story of the unknown brother, revealing a genuinely complex character. This book is revelatory not just about Zeppo but also about the rest of the Marx Brothers. - Library Journal

Zeppo was the Marx Brother who didn't want to go into the family business. A juvenile delinquent in his teen years, before joining his brothers on stage, Zeppo balanced two careers: auto mechanic and petty criminal. Even after getting dragged into the world of entertainment--for sixteen years, he did his familial duty as a vaudeville, Broadway, and movie star--he finally made his escape from the Four Marx Brothers. After failed attempts to find steady work in real estate, screenwriting, and the restaurant business, Zeppo finally hit it big as a Hollywood talent agent, representing stars like Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, and Lana Turner. From there, he bred racehorses, owned a manufacturing plant, tried out citrus ranching and commercial fishing, and patented several new inventions. He was, in short, a complex character, and his own family never quite figured him out.

Zeppo: The Reluctant Marx Brother gives a lively account of this checkered life and career. As Robert Bader recounts, Zeppo's lifelong addiction to gambling led him into relationships with several notorious organized crime figures, and he would ultimately appear before grand juries more frequently than movie cameras. (He was certainly the only Marx Brother who saw the corpse of a friend in a newspaper crime scene photo.) Socially, he mixed as easily with mobsters like Mickey Cohen as he did with movie stars like Clark Gable. Comprehensively researched with the full cooperation of Zeppo's estate, including the first-ever interviews with his two sons, this is a remarkable look at the many lives of Zeppo Marx--even the ones he did his best to keep secret.

This is the definitive tribute to the glamor and character of a beloved icon, including rarely published details, photographs and stories about the lasting impact of Audrey Hepburn's remarkable life.
Academy Award-winning actress, fashion icon, ethereal beauty, wife, mother, World War II resistance activist, UNICEF champion-- Audrey Hepburn transcended her era and became a global idol whose appeal continues to soar in the twenty-first century.
Packed with beautiful photographs of the star at her most captivating and supplemented with incisive fashion commentary from award-winning designer Jeffrey Banks, Audrey Hepburn: A Beautiful Uncertainty is a one-of-a-kind exploration of Audrey's glamorous image and remarkable life. Always leading with her heart, Hepburn is shown here fully captured in all her complexity: an often self-doubting but brilliant and genuinely kind woman whose style and activism changed the world.
Slipping behind the scenes of Hollywood's Golden Age, author Tom Santopietro details Audrey's personal and professional life, from her legendary dance partnership with Fred Astaire on the classic Funny Face to her love affairs with Albert Finney and William Holden.
Throughout, her life and career are juxtaposed with the lasting legacy of her iconic image and unerring fashion sensibility, as she played muse to the brilliant designer Hubert de Givenchy and inspired women from Jacqueline Onassis to Carly Simon.

An in-depth telling of the Norman Lear's seven-decade career that Publishers Weekly calls a lovingly detailed portrait and a fitting tribute to a consequential figure in television history and Booklist praises as an extensive and comprehensive look at a comedic legend.
Beginning in the 1970s, writer and producer Norman Lear forever altered the television landscape with such groundbreaking situation comedies as All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, and One Day at a Time. For over half a century his body of work boldly tackled race, class, sexuality, politics, and religion--topics previously considered too taboo to be the subject of comedy on the small screen.
Norman Lear: His Life and Times is the unforgettable story of an extraordinary seven-decade career. Veteran author and entertainment journalist Tripp Whetsell offers an intimate portrait of Lear that is the product of years of research and numerous interviews. Whetsell shows how Lear created the gold standard for television comedies, producing shows that were the first to give underrepresented members of society an authentic prime-time voice, while encouraging audiences to confront their own humanity and shortcomings. In the process, he explores one of television's most transformative periods, detailing Lear's legacy as one of its chief architects and catalysts.
This affectionate and candid tribute combines show-business history with an illuminating consideration of the inner workings of the man in the white hat--a figure who singlehandedly redefined an entire medium by reflecting the world around him.

Amazingly, there has never been a book quite like The Art of Horror - a celebration of frightful images, compiled and presented by some of the genre's most respected names. While acknowledging the beginnings of horror-related art in legends and folk tales, the focus of the book is on how the genre has presented itself to the world since the creations of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley first became part of the public consciousness in the 19th century. It's all here: from early engravings - via dust jackets, book illustrations, pulp magazines, movie posters, comic books, and paintings - to today's artists working entirely in the digital realm.

Editor Stephen Jones and his stellar team of contributors have sourced visuals from archives and private collections (including their own) worldwide, ensuring an unprecedented selection that is accessible to those discovering the genre, while also including many images that will be rare and unfamiliar to even the most committed fan.

From the shockingly lurid to the hauntingly beautiful - including images of vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, demons, serial killers, alien invaders, and more - every aspect of the genre is represented in ten themed chapters. Quotes from artists/illustrators, and a selection from writers and filmmakers, are featured throughout.

Hairspray is the 2003 Tony Award(R) winner for Best Musical!

Based on filmmaker John Waters' affectionately subversive homage to his Baltimore youth, Hairspray takes place in 1962. Chubby Tracy Turnblad (Marissa Jaret Winokur, 2003 Tony winner for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical) is transformed into a teen celebrity on a local TV dance program. With her irresistible stage mother (Harvey Fierstein, 2003 Tony winner for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical) at her side, she attempts to win the heart of the local heartthrob and integrate The Corny Collins Show at the same time.

In a world of marquee names and big personalities, Jenny Anderson is a legend in her own right. As a celebrated Broadway photographer, she has worked with the most important performers in theatre and used the power of photography to tell the stories behind the stories: what happens backstage on a Broadway show.

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 first-ever book to tell the stories of over 300 inspiring women who wrote Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals that Publishers Weekly calls an exhaustive tribute to women whose contributions to Broadway musical history have often been overlooked. Library Journal praises the book, saying, Tepper has fashioned a winning book on the unsung heroines of Broadway musicals that will be appreciated by readers of women's studies and theater lore. Kirkus Reviews says it's an encyclopedic reference and a long-overdue tribute to female lyricists and composers.
From the composers who pounded the pavement selling their music in Tin Pan Alley at the turn of the twentieth century; to the lyricists who broke new ground writing shows during the Great Depression; to the book writers who penned protest musicals fighting for social justice during the 1970s; to those who are revitalizing the landscape of American theatre today, Women Writing Musicals tells the stories of over 300 inspiring women who wrote Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper's definitive book covers prolific and celebrated Broadway writers like Betty Comden and Jeanine Tesori, women who have written musicals but gained fame elsewhere like Dolly Parton and Sara Bareilles, and dramatists you've never heard of--but definitely should have. Among the gems shared here are the stories of Clara Driscoll, who saved the Alamo and also wrote a Broadway musical; Micki Grant, whose mega-hit musical about the Black experience made her the first woman to write book, music, and lyrics for a Broadway show; María Grever, who made her Broadway debut at age 56 and who was the first Mexican female composer to achieve international success; and the first all-female writing team for a Broadway musical, in 1922: Annelu Burns, Anna Wynne O'Ryan, Madelyn Sheppard, and Helen S. Woodruff. This book is a treasure trove for theatre-loving readers that Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor and singer Kristin Chenoweth praises as a wonderful resource for actors, and an important read for anyone interested in theatre.

The SNL Companion is a comprehensive ticket to learning more about every aspect of the late-night comedy staple and its storied history (Library Journal) for all Saturday Night Live fans.

Musical Theatre Acting is a practical and handy resource to supplement classes and to peruse on one's own, even in the waiting room before an audition. - Booklist

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.

A fresh and long-overdue reassessment of James Dean, examining his life and legacy as a queer man.
Although he died at a heartbreakingly young age and appeared in only a handful of movies, James Dean revolutionized American manhood. As a celebrity and icon, he melded vulnerability with determination, sensitivity with strength, in a way that offered a bracing and--for some--threatening new vision of masculinity. His massive influence and the fascination he has always inspired are inseparable from his identity as a queer man whose complex sexuality shattered the norms of midcentury American society. (When asked whether he was a homosexual, he reportedly said, I'm certainly not going through life with one hand tied behind my back.)
Today, even though it is widely accepted that Dean was gay or bisexual, the story of his life and personal character continue to be colored by the prejudices of an earlier era and the work of often unscrupulous biographers and journalists. Drawing on exhaustive new research (including more than four hundred previously secret pages of Dean's personal and business records), Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean is a revelatory reassessment of the man and his legacy. Free from sensationalism--but unafraid to confront the difficult facts of Dean's life--it deploys modern insights into sexual diversity to transform our understanding of James Dean's story, and the stories of boys and men like him.

Grammy Award-winning producer Shepard throws open the door to the recording booth in his exuberant and fine-grained debut memoir.... Broadway aficionados will find plenty to enjoy. - Publishers Weekly

RECORDING BROADWAY: A LIFE IN CAST ALBUMS of the making of fifty-plus years' worth of show albums, featuring up-close-and-personal stories of his work with pretty much everyone who was anyone on Broadway, including Julie Andrews, Leonard Bernstein (truly awesome but very complicated), Sheldon Harnick (as warm and decent as he was talented), Barbara Cook (one of my favorites), Placido Domingo, Gregory Hines, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury (so gifted and so easy to be with and to work with), Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim (a genius, and very easily bruised), Barbra Streisand (as professional at 24 as any veteran I've ever worked with), Andrew Lloyd Webber, and many more.

Alongside this unforgettable saga is the tale of Shepard's childhood as a small-in-stature piano prodigy from East Orange, New Jersey, and his emergence into the world as a recording producer of, first, classical music and then Broadway cast recordings. Told with verve in Shepard's inimitable voice-- a striking combination of Broadway glitz and classical-music elegance--his journey makes for a uniquely compelling story, whether or not you're among the millions of musical lovers around the world for whom his recordings are a vital link to Broadway at its best.

Never before has a monologue book been written completely by people who are actually funny for a living.

This incredibly hysterical, cutting-edge collection of monologues will give an actress the extra bang she needs to land the perfect comedic role. Women's Comedic Monologues features 60 monologues by writers and comics who have written for or performed on Chelsea Lately, Carson Daly, The Tonight Show, Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central Stage, and many more.

This book is the answer to the comedic monologue needs of female actors everywhere!