Broadway Books

A Tony Awards Reading List

The 2023 Tony Awards, hosted by celebrated actress Ariana DeBose, will take place on Saturday, June 11! To get ready, we're boning up on our Broadway history, reading memoirs by some of the industry's biggest stars, and checking out the source material. If this sounds like your cup of tea, we've put together a handy reading list.

From this year's nominations 

Kimberly Akimbo
Author David Lindsay-Abaire and composer Jeanine Tesori teamed up to create this moving musical about a young girl suffering from a rare disease that causes her to age four times faster than her peers. When she meets fellow misfit Seth, the two find an unlikely bond amidst their social alienation.

Between Riverside and Crazy
As ex-cop and recent widower Walter Pops Washington struggles to hold on to one of the last rent-stabilized apartments on Riverside Drive, he contends with old wounds, new houseguests, and a final ultimatum. Humor, tenderness, grit, and wonderment fuel this dark comedy by Stephen Adly Guirgis.

Cost of Living
Already a Pulitzer Prize-winner, this play by Martyna Majok deftly challenges the typical perceptions of those living with disabilities and delves deep into the ways class, race, nationality, and wealth can create gulfs between people, even as they long for the ability to connect.

Fat Ham
Another Pulitzer Prize-winner, this play by James Ijames reinvents Shakespeare's Hamlet in startling and hilarious ways amidst a family barbecue in the American South. Juicy, a young, queer Southern man, grapples with questions of identity as his mother remarries and the ghost of his father demands retribution.

Leopoldstadt
Set in the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna, a city humming with artistic and intellectual excitement, Tom Stoppard's epic yet intimate drama centers on Hermann Merz, a baptized Jew married to Catholic Gretl. As the family gathers to celebrate Christmas in 1899, they can't fathom what lies ahead.

The Piano Lesson
Nominated for best revival, August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play is about family and the legacy of slavery in America. A brother and sister struggle over their family legacy and whether to sacrifice the symbols of their past in order to grab hold of opportunities ahead. 

Biographies/memoirs 

Live vicariously through the stories of these stage stars.

Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life
Whether starring in Younger or dazzling audiences on the Broadway stage, Sutton Foster manages to make it all look easy. How? Crafting. From the moment she picked up a cross stitch needle to escape the bullying chorus girls in her early performing days, she was hooked.

Patti Lupone: A Memoir
The legendary Patti LuPone is one of the theater's most beloved leading ladies. Now she lays it all bare, sharing the intimate story of her life both onstage and off—through the dizzying highs and darkest lows—with the humor and outspokenness that have become her trademarks.

Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent
As the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent opened to thunderous acclaim, the theater world was mourning the sudden death of its creator, Jonathan Larson. During his exhilarating journey leading the cast, star Anthony Rapp was also watching his mother succumb to cancer.

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years
From her difficult upbringing in war-torn Britain to the brink of international stardom in America, Julie Andrews Edwards takes readers on a warm, moving, and often humorous journey. For more about her film career, read Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years.

Broadway history

The rollicking history behind Broadway offers its own drama and entertainment in these histories about the world of theater.

Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution
Oklahoma. Carousel. South Pacific. The King and I. The Sound of Music. The revelatory partnership of Rodgers and Hammerstein transformed musical theater. Todd S. Purdum offers a captivating portrait of these two men, their creative process, and their groundbreaking innovations.

Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way
If Hamilton, Rent, or West Side Story captured your heart, you'll love this in-depth look into the rise of 1921's Shuffle Along, the first all-Black musical to succeed on Broadway. Author and pop culture expert Caseen Gaines reveals the revolutionary impact of the show, and how its legacy continues to resonate today.

Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway
In the mid 1970s, Times Square was the seedy symbol of New York's economic decline. Michael Riedel tells the story of the city's rehabilitation, with the success of Broadway shows like Cats, A Chorus Line, and Mamma Mia! digging into the backstage drama that often rivaled what transpired onstage.

Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops
Highlighting almost 200 musicals created between 1950 and 1990, Ken Mandelbaum's brilliant survey of Broadway's biggest flops examines the reasons for their failure. "Essential and hilarious," raves The New Yorker , and The New York Times calls the book "A must-read."

Behind-the-scenes

Get a glimpse behind the curtains at the inner workings of the theater.

A Wonderful Guy: Conversations with the Great Men of Musical Theater
In his follow up to Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater, theater journalist Eddie Shapiro sits down for intimate, career-encompassing conversations with nineteen of Broadway's most prolific and fascinating leading men.

Jagged Little Pill
The official behind-the-scenes look at Diablo Cody's powerful Grammy-award winning musical based on Alanis Morissette's cult classic album Jagged Little Pill. Rachel Syme takes you behind the scenes with stunning photography, original in-depth interviews with the cast, crew, Cody, and Morissette herself.

Wicked: The Grimmerie, a Behind-The-Scenes Look at the Hit Broadway Musical
This whimsical book is designed to resemble Elphaba's ancient book of spells. Stephen Schwartz offers fans a behind-the-curtains peek at the musical adaptation of Gregory Maguire's bestselling novel, profiles of the cast and creative team, and inside stories, with full-color photographs throughout.

The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows are Built
Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical? Jack Viertel takes them apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings.

Miscellany

Here are just a few more tidbits for diehard theater lovers.

Waiting in the Wings: How to Launch Your Performing Career on Broadway and Beyond
Tiffany Haas knows how to make it on Broadway. After 72 rejections in a row she finally landed a role in Broadway's long-running smash hit Wicked eventually playing Glinda. Now she shares her advice for starting and nurturing a career in the theater, whether you're a complete newbie or on your way up.

Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway: The Broadway Lover's Cookbook
Good food and trivia and authors who sing—these are a few of our favorite things! Tony-nominated actor Gideon Glick and food writer Adam Roberts have teamed up on this collection of musical-inspired recipes, including Yolklahoma!, Clafoutis and the Beast, Yam Yankees, and more.

Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning
Since breaking out in 2015, Leslie Odom Jr. has performed for sold-out audiences, sung at the White House, and won a Tony Award. But it didn't happen overnight. With personal stories from his life, Odom asks the questions to help you unlock your true potential and live your dreams.

The Music

While you read, listen to some of the nominated musical soundtracks.

• Almost Famous
• Kimberly Akimbo
• KPOP
• Shucked
• Some Like it Hot

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Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon