Best of
Musicals

2008

Spring Awakening: In the Flesh


David Cote - 2008
    A heartrending story. A barrier-breaking fusion of morality, sexuality, and rock&roll. No wonder "Spring Awakening" has awakened audiences like no other musical in years.Based on the infamous 1891 Frank Wedekind play and featuring an original score by Grammy-nominated recording star Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, "Spring Awakening" is a story of uncontrollable emotions and undeniable passions, of first loves and lasting regrets. Haunting and electrifying, the show celebrates the unforgettable journey into adulthood with a power and a poignancy that you will never forget."Spring Awakening: In the Flesh" is more than just a companion book -- it's a new opportunity to experience the show. Designed to resemble a vandalized book, this beautiful volume offers more than one hundred photographs, handwritten drafts of hit songs, original sketches of costumes and sets, an annotated, unabridged libretto, and unprecedented access to the hit show, making "Spring Awakening: In the Flesh" a must-have for fans of all ages.

In the Heights: Vocal Selections


Lin-Manuel Miranda - 2008
    The 2008 Broadway musical In the Heights explores three days in the characters' lives in the New York City Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights, with an infectious score featuring hip-hop, salsa, merengue and soul music. Our piano/vocal selections songbook features 14 tunes from the production, which won the Tony for Best Musical and Best Original Score, plus awards from the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theatre World and more! Songs: Breathe * Enough * Everything I Know * Hundreds of Stories * In the Heights * Inutil * It Won't Be Long Now * 96,000 * No Me Diga * Paciencia Y Fe * Piragua * Sunrise * When the Sun Goes Down * When You're Home. Includes a bio of composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, and his Tony acceptance speech. 2008 Tony Winner 4 Awards, Including Best Musical and Best Original Score!

Passing Strange: The Stew Musical


Stew - 2008
    This innovative new musical won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Book and is soon to be a Spike Lee film. Singer-songwriter and performance artist Stew brings to the stage the story of a young black musician traveling from L.A. to Amsterdam to Berlin and back, all in search of "the real." Heartfelt and hilarious, the soulful songs "pass" from gospel, punk, blues, jazz, and rock. The 15 songs are arranged in standard piano/vocal format with the melody in the piano part. Includes: Amsterdam * The Black One * Love like That * Mom Song * Must Have Been High * Work the Wound * Youth's Unfinished Song * and more.

The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations


Steven Suskin - 2008
    Lang, Jonathan Tunick - are names well known to musical theatre fans, but few people understand precisely what the orchestrator does. The Sound of Broadway Music is the first book ever written about these unsung stars of the Broadway musical whose work is so vital to each show's success. The book examines the careers of Broadway's major orchestrators and follows the song as it travels from the composer's piano to the orchestra pit. Steven Suskin has meticulously tracked down thousands of original orchestral scores, piecing together enigmatic notes and notations with long-forgotten documents and current interviews with dozens of composers, producers, conductors and arrangers. The information is separated into three main parts: a biographical section which gives a sense of the life and world of twelve major theatre orchestrators, as well as incorporating briefer sections on another thirty arrangers and conductors; a lively discussion of the art of orchestration, written for musical theatre enthusiasts (including those who do not read music); a biographical section which gives a sense of the life and world of twelve major theatre orchestrators, as well as incorporating briefer sections on another thirty arrangers and conductors; and an impressive show-by-show listing of more than seven hundred musicals, in many cases including a song-by-song listing of precisely who orchestrated what along with relevant comments from people involved with the productions. Stocked with intriguing facts and juicy anecdotes, many of which have never before appeared in print, The Sound of Broadway Music brings fascinating and often surprising new insight into the world of musical theatre.

The Little Mermaid: From the Deep Blue Sea to the Great White Way


Michael Lassell - 2008
    In 1989, Disney put little Ariel on film, gave her flaming red hair and an Oscar-winning musical score, and, in the process, reinvented the animated feature as a viable art form. Now the creative powers at Disney have reimagined the mermaid and her friends again, bringing one of Disney's most beloved princesses to the stage. The Little Mermaid:The Story of a Tale is a look at the process of morphing a 19th-century story and a 20th-century film into a stage event for the 21st century. This oversized, profusely illustrated book traces the evolution of The Little Mermaid from its inception in Denmark, through its triumphant animation, to the hit Broadway stage version now playing in New York. In addition to photographs of the show and its rehearsals, the book will explore the creative process with extensive looks behind the scenes. Writer Michael Lassell interviews Francesca Zambello and choreographer Steven Mear, writer Doug Wright and composer Alan Menken, designers George Tsypin and Tanya Noginova as well as all the stars in the show's extraordinarily talented cast. This is a grown-up book for children of all ages.

Acting the Song: Performance Skills for the Musical Theatre


Tracey Moore - 2008
    This book guides readers through musical theater elements, classroom workshops, and the world of professional auditions and performances.Chapters cover vocal and physical warm-ups, body movement, finding subtext, creating a character, song structure, interpreting text of music and lyrics, risks and spontaneity, memorization, collaboration, keeping a performance fresh, and much more. Both teachers and students will appreciate the sections for beginning, intermediate, and advanced performers. Everyone involved in musical theater, from new students to working professionals, will benefit from this rich resource.

The South Pacific Companion


Laurence Maslon - 2008
    Published to coincide with South Pacific's 2008 return to Broadway, this essential authorized companion to the beloved musical is a lavishly illustrated collection of memorabilia and historical detail, spanning nearly six decades of productions on stage and screen.

Curtains


John Kander - 2008
    Our vocal selections book features 13 great songs from the Kander & Ebb musical comedy/murder mystery: Coffee Shop Nights * He Did It * I Miss the Music * In the Same Boat * It's a Business * Kansasland * Show People * Thataway! * Thinking of Him * A Tough Act to Follow * What Kind of Man * Wide Open Spaces * The Woman's Dead. Includes seven pages of color photos.