Below is a list of theater books to read in 2019, most of which were published in 2018. Click on the titles to find more information and to purchase these books, grouped under four categories: 1. Scripts, including all the plays that are scheduled to be produced on Broadway in Spring, 2019. 2. Coffee Table Books. 3. Theater History, Criticism, Memoir/Biography. 4. For Fans, For Fun, For Kids
There’s nothing requiring you to read new books in 2019. Check out: The 50 Best Plays of The Past 100 Years (all available to read) and 15 Great Books About The Theater
My personal preferences: Of those I’ve already read, I most enjoyed “The Band’s Visit,” and “The Detroit Project” (scripts); and “Playing to the Gods” followed by Something Wonderful.” (history.) I’m most looking forward to reading the books about Theatre of the Ridiculous, Lorraine Hansberry, and Ivo van Hove.
1. Scripts
The following are either the scripts of plays and musical coming to Broadway in Spring, 2019, listed alphabetically. If no scripts are publicly available, I list the books that serve as the main source.
Aint Too Proud: Ain’t Too Proud to Beg: The Troubled Lives and Enduring Soul of the Temptations
All My Sons by Arthur Miller
Beetlejuice. An inside joke for fans of the movie: Beetlejuice: Handbook for the Recently Deceased Hardcover Ruled Journal
Be More Chill: Be More Chill, the novel by Ned Vizzini plus
Be More Chill: Piano/Vocal Selections
Burn This: A Play by Lanford Wilson
Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Hillary and Clinton by Lucas Hnath
King Lear by William Shakespeare
Kiss Me, Kate: Vocal Selections by Cole Porter
Oklahoma! The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein
True West by Sam Shepard
New and Notable scripts:
Cost of Living by Martyna Majok (winner 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Drama)
The Detroit Project: Three Plays by Dominique Morisseau: Paradise Blue, Detroit ’67 and Skeleton Crew.
100 Plays for the First Hundred Days by Suzan-Lori Parks
Mary Jane by Amy Herzog
Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deavere Smith
2. Coffee Table Books
American Theatre Wing, An Oral History: 100 Years, 100 Voices, 100 Million Miracles
Leonard Bernstein 100: The Masters Photograph the Maestro
Fraver by Design: Five Decades of Theatre Poster Art from Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Beyond
3. History, Criticism, Memoir/Biography
Playing to the Gods: Sarah Bernhardt, Eleonora Duse, and the Rivalry that Changed Acting Forever
Theatre of the Ridiculous: A Critical History
Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution
Rise Up! Broadway and American Society from Angels in America to Hamilton
Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry
Ivo van Hove: From Shakespeare to David Bowie
Off Sites: Contemporary Performance beyond Site-Specific (Theater in the Americas)
Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance (Jewish Lives)
Take You Wherever You Go a memoir by the director Kenny Leon
4. For Fans, For Fun, For Kids
(Click on the book covers to find out more, and to purchase.)
Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You