3,698 posts
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Post by anthony40 on Oct 14, 2016 20:08:35 GMT
In terms of hardback theatre related books I have the following:
Rent by Jonathan Larson Chess by William Hartston Tarzan- The Broadway Adventure by Michael Lassell Les Miserables- History in the Making by Edwin Behr Sunset Boulevard- from Movie to Music by Edward Behr The Story of Miss Saigon by Edward Behr and Mark Steyn The Complete Aspects of Love by Kurt Ganzel The complete Phantom of the Opera by Gregory Perry Hairspray- The Roots hosted by the Authors of the Ht Broadway Musical by Mark O'Donnell, Thomas Meehan, Marc Sharman and Scott Wittman Disney's Beauty and the Beast- A Celebration of The Broadway Musical by Donald Franz The South Pacific Companion by Laurence Maslon Disney's AIDA- The Making of the Broadway Musical by Michael Lassell The Lion King- Pride Rock on Broadway by Julie Taymor Disney's The Little Mermaid- A Broadway Musical by Michael Lassell The Producers- The Book and Story behind the Biggest Hit in Broadway History- How We Did It by Mel Brooks and Tom Meeham Wicked-The Grimmerie Les Miserables-From Stage to Screen
Art isn't Easy- The Theatre of Stephen Sondheim by Joanne Gordon Everything Was Possible- The Birth of the Musical Follies by Ted Chaplin Michael Crawford; Parcel Arrived Safely: Tied With String Stephen Sondheim- A Life by Maryle Secrest Sondheim and Lloyd-Webber by Stephen Citron Reading Stephen Sondheim- A Collection of Critical Essays- Edited by Sandor Goodhart Stephen Sondheim- A Casebook- Edited by Joanne Gordon Andrew Lloyd-Webber- His Life an Works by Michael Walsh Sondheim by Martin Gottfried From ABBA to Mamma Mia!-The Official Book by Anders Hansen & Carl Magnus Palm
The Making of Gypsy The Making of West Side Story The Making of The Fantacticks
The Sound of Music- The Making of America's Favourite Musical The Sound of Music- The Family Scrapbook Forever Liesel
The Rocky Horror Show Book 1973- 1987 by James Harding "Creatures of the Night" The Ricky Horror Picture Show Experience by Sal Piro The Official Rocky Horror Picture Show-Audience Par-Tic-- Pation Guide The Rocky Horror Treasury-A Tribute to the Ultimate Cult Classic Musical Rocky Horror- From Concept to Cult by Scott Michaels & David Evans
Wicked- The novel by Gregory Maguire Aspects of Love by David Garnett
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Post by JJShaw on Oct 14, 2016 22:36:18 GMT
if you're a les mis fan LES MISERABLES: HISTORY IN THE MAKING is a really great one and is quite uncommon (although Amazon have it for a penny so what do I know!) remember seeing it in my Library years ago, it was a great read.
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Post by 49thand8th on Oct 15, 2016 17:36:19 GMT
After over 20 years, have they finally fixed "Philip Cross" to read "Philip Quast?"
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Dec 6, 2016 20:35:44 GMT
The National Theatre Story by Daniel Rosenthal (thought I would dip in and out of this as it was so big, but ended up reading it cover to cover. Unputdownable!) On your recommendation have got this from the library, took me a while to get into it with all the pre start up bits but once it pretty hooked so thanks for the tip off, I do have to put it down as it's so large that really have to read it resting on my knees, at night I fear I might fall asleep and get smacked in the face by it.
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Post by Tibidabo on Dec 6, 2016 21:44:04 GMT
I can't see this already in the thread - I thoroughly recommend Antony Sher's 'Year of the King.' I haven't read it for years and have had to replace 2 copies so far that I 'lent' to people, but it sticks in my memory as a wonderful account of Sher's angst from start to finish of how he approached playing Richard III in the 1980s. I remember being in hysterics as he described an ASM's horror at being given the dubious task of finding out the weight of a human head!
Sher writes well and all his actor's insecurities are laid bare as he goes through the rehearsal period to opening night.
One already mentioned up-thread, that I'd like to second, is Michael Crawford's autobiography 'Parcel Arrived Safely: Tied with String.' Because he was illegitimate, the message to let the close family know the baby had arrived was to announce safe arrival of the 'parcel' by sending a postcard. The 'string' bit was the code for a boy. How Crawford got into acting, almost by accident, and learnt his craft the old-fashioned way, makes for interesting reading.
Dame Julie of Walters has also done a cracking autobiography. Enjoy!
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Post by emicardiff on Dec 7, 2016 10:10:05 GMT
A fun read with a more American slant are Marc Acito's (fictional) books "How I paid for college" and "Attack of the Theater People", both set in the 80s. I love both of these books so much!
I did come home from NY with a very shiny coffee table book of The Great Comet - half price in Barnes and Noble and with bonus CD of la Groban's songs from the show...
I have a huge shelf of theatre books mainly procured for work...I'll post a list when I'm at home (as I keep meaning to on this thread)
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Post by CG on the loose on Dec 12, 2017 11:31:24 GMT
Two big glossy coffee-table books arrived courtesy of the birthday fairy, I don't think either have been mentioned previously:
Curtain Call - A Year Backstage in London Theatre (2016) by Matt Humphrey (photography) and John Schwab, with a foreward by David Suchet. Curtain Call's inaugural book features backstage photographs and interviews from a number of London productions in 2015, including full credits for each production featured at the time it was covered.
London Theatres (2017) by Michael Coveney and Peter Dazeley (photography), with a foreward by Mark Rylance. A tour of 46 of London's theatres, from the Royal Opera House to the Hackney Empire, with stories of the architecture, productions and personalities that have defined each, and photographs of front of house, auditorium and backstage areas.
I've had only the briefest flick through them so far but they look beautiful and having watched many of the productions featured in the first and visited almost all of the theatres featured in the second, I fully expect to lose many, many hours over the holidays delving deeper.
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Post by CG on the loose on Dec 12, 2017 12:35:20 GMT
The latter has been, several times on the book club page. The former is interesting. It was intended as an annual project, but alas didn't happen. A wonderful book, but extraordinarily expensive and of limited appeal, I guess. Ah - didn't cross-reference there! Thanks
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Post by TallPaul on Dec 12, 2017 13:13:12 GMT
My Christmas present to myself is the above mentioned London Theatres. I've got 12 days to clear all the clutter from the coffee table!
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Post by peggs on Dec 15, 2017 13:14:59 GMT
The former is interesting. It was intended as an annual project, but alas didn't happen. A wonderful book, but extraordinarily expensive and of limited appeal, I guess. Oh is that the case, that's a pity though not surprising I guess, I did have to wait until it was severally reduced before buying it. I suppose it's just as well as I don't have any shelf space for the theatre books I've already bought.
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Post by karloscar on Dec 15, 2017 15:21:30 GMT
Ethan Mordden writes entertainingly and knowledgeably in his series covering each decade of Broadway musicals from the 20s onwards. The Happiest Corpse I've Ever Seen covering the 80 and 90s is probably the best. His views are quite controversial, but I tend to agree when he is critical of some huge hits, and affectionate about some minor shows that deserved a bigger audience.
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Post by Jan on Dec 15, 2017 19:25:03 GMT
Depends doesn’t it. If you remember Bill Bryden’s wonderful NT Cottesloe company then “Impossible Plays” by Jack Shepherd is interesting. If you don’t, it isn’t.
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Post by Stephen on Dec 22, 2017 22:11:48 GMT
My Christmas present to myself is the above mentioned London Theatres. I've got 12 days to clear all the clutter from the coffee table! What a smashing treat! It looks like a wonderful book. Do let us know how you find it.
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Post by TallPaul on Dec 23, 2017 12:21:26 GMT
Do let us know how you find it. Trust me, it's that big, it wont take any finding.
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Post by dani on Dec 24, 2017 19:28:08 GMT
Mention of the London Theatres book, which I'm hoping someone will have got me for Christmas, makes me think of Michael Coveney. If you can get a copy of his book The Aisle is Full of Noises, it's pretty interesting. It's not that widely available, though, as I think it had to be taken out of circulation because another critic threatened him with a libel suit. I used to enjoy his waspish writing and think he had a good eye for new talent and no fear of putting people's noses out of joint.
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Post by Mark on Dec 24, 2017 23:31:56 GMT
I got my sister "Through the window" for Christmas, the Dear Evan Hansen coffee table book. Hope I can get a look in too!
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Dec 25, 2017 0:53:17 GMT
Ethan Mordden writes entertainingly and knowledgeably in his series covering each decade of Broadway musicals from the 20s onwards. The Happiest Corpse I've Ever Seen covering the 80 and 90s is probably the best. His views are quite controversial, but I tend to agree when he is critical of some huge hits, and affectionate about some minor shows that deserved a bigger audience. Mordden’s books are fine until he reaches recent decades when his politics destroys any critical acumen. For musicals fans who loved ‘Not Since Carrie’ about Broadway and Broadway bound flops there is now a British counterpart ‘Must Close Saturday’ by Adrian Wright.
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Post by Snciole on Jan 2, 2018 15:02:05 GMT
I don't know if this is of interest but Theatre Book Prize long and short lists are good for the previous year's books str.org.uk/events/bookprize/index.htmlThough my money is on Balancing Acts for 2018's prize
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2018 9:08:02 GMT
I got my sister "Through the window" for Christmas, the Dear Evan Hansen coffee table book. Hope I can get a look in too! Its great! Not got far into it because I've been distractd by the London Theatres book, but what I have flicked through is good.
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Post by anita on Jan 3, 2018 10:25:55 GMT
{As I posted on a different thread} You can now get an actual paper copy of Jeremy Sandford's book "Year of the Queen: the making of Priscilla Queen of the Desert the musical" from Amazon.- out tomorrow. Awaiting my copy.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2018 13:15:54 GMT
Like many on here, I received the London Theatres book for Christmas. Its beautiful. I'm slowly making my way through it, taking a theatre-a-day approach.
Just been reading some reviews on Amazon and a couple allude to the notion that some of the accounts per theatre may bend the truth some what. I was surprised to read that -apparently- Andrew Lloyd Webber, after purchasing the Palace Theatre, took residence of the accommodation above the theatre where he wrote much of the score of Phantom. Just wondering the legitimacy of this. It's quite an interesting fact, if he really did write the score for a musical about a love sick musical genius who lives in a theatre, whilst himself living about the corridors of the Palace.
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Post by loureviews on Jan 8, 2018 7:38:34 GMT
I wondered that too - it could have been his office if he didn't actually live there. Would have definitely given him inspiration!
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Post by confessor on Jan 11, 2018 20:31:07 GMT
For anybody who may be interested, the Dorling Kindersley Musicals: Definitive Illustrated Story is on sale in some branches of The Works for just £5 (currently on Amazon for just over £20). If you happen to be near Witham in Essex they had 2 copies when I was in there earlier this week.
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Post by justfran on Mar 8, 2018 9:44:30 GMT
Thanks to the recommendations on here I’ve just finished reading Places Please by Daniel Robert Sullivan. It did take me a little while to get into it but a really enjoyable book by the end. Particularly liked the stories in the apendix by Jersey Boys fans.
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Post by Stephen on Mar 13, 2018 1:21:21 GMT
Is anybody reading Lord Lloyd Webber's book at the moment? Opinions on it?
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Post by viserys on Mar 13, 2018 7:20:03 GMT
I've only just begun and as I manage about ten minutes' reading time in bed before falling asleep, it'll be slow going!
I haven't moved beyond him being 13 yrs or something, but I'm liking it so far. I tend to pick up on little things, like a casual mention that the South Pacific cast recording was on top of the charts for a year and thinking how musicals used to be such a mainstream thing and are so niche today.
Will report back whenever I manage to finish it.
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Post by crowblack on Mar 13, 2018 9:57:27 GMT
Not strictly theatre but closely related: I recently picked up a copy of The Craft of the Screenwriter from a second hand bookshop (glad they still exist) - it's a series of in-depth, frank and fascinating interviews by John Brady with the leading American screenwriters of the mid to late 20thc, Neil Simon, Ernest Lehman, William Goldman, Paddy Chayefsky etc.. It's a really great read - the interviewees are, of course, great story-tellers and their voice comes off the page. I'm interested in the writing process and it's good on frantic overnight rewrites and struggles, screenwriters looking wistfully at playwrights who have the chance to reshape and rescue their work.
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Post by anita on Mar 13, 2018 10:18:41 GMT
Is anybody reading Lord Lloyd Webber's book at the moment? Opinions on it? I have a copy but not started yet as finishing another book first. I'm a quick reader & will probably read it next week.
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Post by loureviews on Mar 13, 2018 11:58:20 GMT
Some titles round my house:
John Gielgud - An Actor and his Time The Guys and Dolls Book Antony Sher - Year of the King Frederick Nolan - The Sound of their Music (Rodgers and Hammerstein) Oliver Ford Davies - Playing Lear Noel and Cole: the Sophisticates Britain's National Theatre MacQueen Pope - The Footlights Flickered Alan Jay Lerner - The Musical Theatre The Lost Theatres of London
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Xanderl
Member
Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Mar 21, 2018 12:06:25 GMT
I just finished reading "At Freddie's" by Penelope Fitzgerald - kindle version is currently £1.49It was written in the early 80s, set in the early 60s, based around a stage school in Covent Garden. Penelope Fitzgerald taught English at Italia Conti at one point so presumably that formed some of the basis of it. Anyway, some interesting stuff about the Old Vic (the owner of the school worked with Lillian Baylis in the 20s), the National (which is being built during the period of the novel), employment practices for child actors in the 60s, and a lot about the backstage goings on during a production of King John at the "Nonesuch Theatre" which judging by the location is the Duchess or the Lyceum. Introduction to the current edition is by Simon Callow who was trying to get a film of the novel off the ground at one point.
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