Best of
Musicals

2016

The Band's Visit


Itamar Moses - 2016
    

The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 3


Jennifer Ashley Tepper - 2016
    From secret passageways to ghostly encounters. From Broadway debuts to landmark productions. Score a front row seat to read hundreds of stories about the most important stages in the world, seen through the eyes of the producers, actors, stagehands, writers, musicians, company managers, dressers, designers, directors, ushers, and door men and women who bring The Great White Way to life each night. You'll never look at Broadway the same way again.This is the third book in the multi-volume series that tells the stories of all of the Broadway theaters. This volume includes the Broadhurst, the Belasco, the Edison, the Lyric, the Majestic, the Schoenfeld, the St. James and the Walter Kerr: eight Broadway theaters that light up New York City.

Bright Star: Vocal Selections


Steve Martin - 2016
    This 2016 Broadway musical was inspired by the collaboration of Steve Martin and Edie Brickell on their 2013 Grammy-winning bluegrass album Love Has Come for You. The vocal selections in this songbook include piano/vocal arrangements of 15 songs: Always Will * Another Round * Asheville * At Long Last * Bright Star * Heartbreaker * I Can't Wait * I Had a Vision * If You Knew My Story * A Man's Gotta Do * She's Gone * Sun Is Gonna Shine * Way Back in the Day * What Could Be Better * Whoa, Mama.

King of Jazz: Paul Whiteman's Technicolor Revue


James Layton - 2016
    Authors James Layton and David Pierce have uncovered original artwork, studio production files, behind-the-scenes photographs, personal papers, unpublished interviews, and a host of other previously unseen documentation. The book offers a richly illustrated narrative of the film's production, with broader context on its diverse musical and theatrical influences. The story concludes with an in-depth look at the challenges Universal overcame in restoring the film in 2016. Additionally, the book's appendix provides a comprehensive guide to all of the film's performers, music, alternate versions, and deleted scenes. "King of Jazz" was one of the most ambitious films ever to emerge from Hollywood. Just as movie musicals were being invented in 1929, Universal Pictures brought together Paul Whiteman, leader of the country s top dance orchestra; John Murray Anderson, director of spectacular Broadway revues; a top ensemble of dancers and singers; early Technicolor; and a near unlimited budget.The film's highlights include a dazzling interpretation of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which Whiteman had introduced to the public in 1924; Walter Lantz's A Fable in Jazz, the first cartoon in Technicolor; and Anderson's grand finale The Melting Pot of Music, a visualization of popular music's many influences and styles.The film is not only a unique document of Anderson's theatrical vision and Whiteman's band at its peak, but also of several of America s leading performers of the late 1920s, including Bing Crosby in his first screen appearance, and the Russell Markert Dancers, who would soon become Radio City Music Hall's famous Rockettes

Rodgers & Hammerstein's the King and I: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical


Richard Rodgers - 2016
    The musical is based on a 1944 novel by Margaret Landon, Anna and the King of Siam, which in turn was adapted from the real-life reminiscences of Anna Leonowens, as recounted in her own books, The English Governess at the Siamese Court and The Romance of the Harem. It is 1862 in Siam when an English widow, Anna Leonowens, arrives with her young son at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, having been summoned by the King to serve as tutor to his many children and wives. The King is largely considered to be a barbarian by those in the West, and he seeks Anna's assistance in changing his image, if not his ways. With both keeping a firm grip on their respective traditions and values, Anna and the King grow to understand and, eventually, respect one another in a truly unique love story. Along with the dazzling score, the incomparable Jerome Robbins ballet The Small House of Uncle Thomas is one of the all-time marvels of the musical stage.