So the impresario's diminutive assistant blacks up and goes on as Otello. The tenor awakens, dons his costume, and thence follows a hilarious comedy involving two Otellos, a volatile Italian wife, an outrageous bellhop and a cynical impresario.

    Gathered here are three of his latest works: Faster, in which two young grifters try to strike a deal with the devil during the hottest summer on record; Finer Noble Gases, a lament for a band of arrested thirty-year-olds slouching toward adulthood amid East Village decay; and the Off-Broadway hit Stone Cold Dead Serious. An honest, strange, and humorous look at a blue-collar family struggling to survive in the face of disability and addiction, and the seemingly surreal lengths their teenage son will go to save them from themselves, the play prompted Bruce Weber to rave in The New York Times: "Rapp is very gifted, and, even rarer, he has something to say . . . Stone Cold Dead Serious [is] brave, compassionate, and . . . breathtakingly moving. It is the work of a playwright who is forging a real voice . . . Its rendering of the shared language of loved ones illustrates how families can remain intimate even when they are in shards. Its depiction of a working-class America that is unable to dream of anything beyond enduring is as sincerely sad a commentary on our culture as I've seen in recent memory. And its fear for young people is, unfortunately, deeply convincing."

    Fans of Selena Gomez, the star of Disney Channel's wildly popular Wizards of Waverly Place, are given a backstage pass to Gomez's career, in this All Access title.

    The RockAteers are born. It must work, and not just for Burt’s sake. Egg has spent his life on the outside looking in, Tea needs to evade a tough future and Clipper wants more than a fast track to football academy. When Egg reveals his song-writing genius, the only way is up… But can they function as a band?Who will win the race to sign them? And who will win the girl?

    

    With Steffy, his sometime paramour, at his side, Herb decides to take another stab at fatherhood and hopefully this time, get it right.

    McGill methodically explains the frequently misunderstood "Tabuteau number system" and its relationship to note grouping-the lifeblood of music. The controversial issue of baroque performance practice is also addressed. Instrumentalists and vocalists alike will find that many of the ideas presented in this book will help develop their musicianship as well as their understanding of what makes a performance "musical."

    6 easy piano arrangements of songs from this Broadway classic, including: Many a New Day * Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' * Oklahoma * Out of My Dreams * People Will Say We're in Love * The Surrey with the Fringe on Top.

    It was a fertile era for new genres, from alt-rock to Afropop, hip hop to techno. Rock critic Robert Christgau's obsessive ear and authoritative pen have covered it all-over 3,800 albums graded and classified, from A+s to his celebrated turkeys and duds. A rich appendix section ensures that nothing's been left out-from "subjects for further research" to "everything rocks but nothing ever dies." Christgau's Consumer Guide is essential reading and reference for any dedicated listener.

    King James commissions Shakespeare to write a play about the Gunpowder Plot.

    . . Set in the highest ranks of the music industry’s fame machine, Diamond Life is an intoxicating story of love, sex, ambition, money, betrayal, and the surprising realities of making it big. Alex Maxwell’s career as a journalist and celebrity ghost writer is taking off, despite the slightly embarrassing authorship of hip-hop super-groupie Cleo Wright’s memoir. And while Alex’s star is on the rise, it pales in comparison to her husband Birdie’s multiplatinum debut and world tour. Slowly but surely, everything they swore would never happen begins to come true, like leaving Brooklyn for a mansion in suburban Jersey and letting a reality TV crew into their home. Birdie is confronted time and again by the sexy groupies who pursue famous rappers like heat-seeking missiles and he’s forced to make some life-changing choices. Meanwhile, aging rapper Z, in recovery from drug addiction, is too busy trying to repair his marriage to leave much time for his son Zander, newly signed to Z’s label and struggling to maintain his appeal in the wake of a domestic violence scandal with his diva girlfriend Bunny. Record label president Jake is trying to deal with the death of his wife, multiplatinum R&B artist Kipenzi Hill, by drowning his sorrows in alcohol and women. When he meets Lily, a beautiful, quiet waitress, he can’t get her out of his head. But Lily has her own problems to handle and she wants nothing to do with the fame, drama, and baggage that Jake carries with him. This juicy follow-up to Aliya S. King’s Platinum is a scintillating roman à clef that takes readers behind the curtain once again for the real scoop on the biggest players in the hip-hop game—and the first ladies who hold them together.

    Funny and bleak in equal measure, Boys offers a startling glimpse into a lost generation, following four new graduates who celebrate their impending adulthood with one hell of a party.

    Together with the band, he achieved an incredible 14 No.1 singles (a record beaten only by the Beatles) sold 44 million records and was adored by fans the world over.Everything he touched turned to gold, or so it seemed. Like many others, he had piled his fortunes into the Irish property boom and when the bubble burst, Shane struggled with mounting debt. Just ten days after Westlife’s final farewell concert, in front of a sold-out crowd of 80,000 fans, Shane was declared bankrupt with debts of €23 million – losing everything.But this wasn’t the end for Shane Filan – a devoted singer and family man, Shane circled back to his roots and a year later he launched his solo career. In My Side of Life Shane shares his story for the first time – his early years growing up as part of a large Irish family in Co. Sligo, the phenomenal success of Westlife and the ups and downs of their time together, the breakup of the band, his financial devastation, and finally going it alone as a solo artist.This is Shane’s side of the story.

    

    With her performances, music mixes and surprises,she has made the club number one on the busy downtown Club Row. Cashe is the CEO of Bounce, Inc., a lucrative business that supplies bouncers to the clubs in the row. He has built the business from the ground up, starting off as a bouncer himself, but has long since taken a desk job and he prefers it that way. But when recent fights in the club have Jamie's boss Mickey concerned for her safety, he persuades Cashe to protect her in exchange for business expansion. The deal sounds easy enough, until Jamie and Cashe meet. The immediate and intense attraction between them can not be ignored, and leads to hostility. Although Cashe is in awe of the DJ extraordinaire, his past has left him broken, and barricaded against relationships. When Jamie tries to break through to Cashe, his confusing and hurtful behavior breaks her heart, and she gets fed up. But when threats to Jamie hit dangerous levels, the two are forced together. Will Cashe be able to let himself open to Jamie and find the love he never thought he could have? Or will the threats take their fate out of their hands?