Below is a list of theater books that were published in 2024, most of which I read and enjoyed (with caveats), several I hope to get to in the new year.
Beneath that is a list of 10 scripts or librettos of Broadway plays or musicals produced in 2024 or slated for Spring 2025, most of which were published in previous years.
If you have time to read just one theater book published in 2024, I recommend Richard Schoch’s idiosyncratic analysis of Sondheim.
(And if you haven’t read them yet, here are two more recommended books published in previous years – James Shapiro’s 2020 Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future (My review.) And, the 2022 Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers published in 2022 (My review.) These are two in my list of the 12 Best Theater Books in the Past 10 Years)
Click on the titles to find more information and to purchase these books*
Biography and Memoir
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench
As much an incisive work of criticism as a memoir, Dame Judi Dench opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra. In a series of intimate conversations with actor and director Brendan O’Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare’s plays. My review.
The Spamalot Diaries by Eric Idle
Published twenty years after Idle wrote it, this is a sometimes hilarious take on the roughly 14-month journey from first read-through to Chicago try-out to Broadway opening night to the Tony Awards, where “Spamalot” won Best Musical. My review.
Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words by Michael Owen
The first full biography of George Gershwin’s older brother, the first lyricist to win the Pulitzer Prize,. ra Gershwin (1896–1983) has been hailed as one of the masters of the Great American Songbook, a period which covers songs written largely for Broadway and Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Christopher Isherwood Inside Out by Katherine Bucknell
A long (850 pages) comprehensive biography of the novelist, playwright and screenwriter whose “Goodbye to Berlin” inspired the musical Cabaret, and who eventually became a pioneer and role model for the gay rights movement.
Theatre Kids: A True Tale of Off-Off Broadway by John DeVore
This is a memoir of an actor and critic involved in New York’s downtown theater scene in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Affective Memories: How Chance and the Theater Saved My Life by Laurence Luckenbill
An overstuffed autobiography by the now 90 year old actor whose best passages are the few about his mother-in-law Lucille Ball and the many about his experiences for three years on stage and screen in the cast of “The Boys in the Band,” the landmark gay play that “improbably” became a smash hit “and put me on the map.” (my review)
History and Criticism
How Sondheim Can Change Your Life by Richard Schoch
Composer Stephen Sondheim’s greatness lies “beyond the clever lyrics, beyond the complex music.” Sondheim can make you a better person. That’s the premise of this book by a long-time drama professor who extrapolates the life lesson he contends is central to each of a dozen Sondheim musicals. If the promise of the catchy title seems dubious, this turned out to be my favorite theater book of the year, given the care and sophistication with which Schoch guides us through the musicals, providing basic plot, context, critical analysis and more. My review.
Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Philip Gefter
Picked as a New York Times Notable Book of 2024, Gefter’s account devotes ten of its thirteen chapters to the making of the movie, and only the first three to the playwright and the play. Those three chapters, however, are rich enough in detail, and revelation – or at least speculation — to intrigue most theater lovers. My review.
The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro.
Acclaimed Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro, whose book about Shakespeare in America I recommend above, turns his attention to another theater-related chapter in American history — the glories and the destruction of the Federal Theater Project of the 1930s. This is a story that has been told frequently, but has not lost its relevance with each retelling.
The American Musical: Evolution of an Art Form by Ben West
The historian who put together the history panels at the Museum of Broadcasting traces the evolution over the course of seven distinct, newly defined eras
Fiction
Broadway Melody by Jack Viertel
This first novel by Viertel is an entertaining read that focuses on the (fictional) lives, perspectives and intermingled destinies of three main Broadway characters — an actress, a trumpet player, and a stagehand — but is full of side trips into theater lore. Given Viertel’s illustrious and varied career in the theater, including his immensely informative “The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built,” theater lovers need be cautioned not to consider this work of fiction to be an authoritative source of authentic Broadway history or even just reliable dish. I made frequent side trips to Google and IBDB and YouTube for verification or correction or, at the very least, elaboration. My review.
On Stage
Yellow Face by David Henry Huang (Closed November 24
Hills of California by Jez Butterworth (Closed December 22)
Stereophonic by David Adjmi (Closing January 12, 2025)
Our Town by Thornton Wilder (Closing January 19)
Spring 2025
English by Sanaz Toossi (opening January 23)
Othello by William Shakespeare (Opening March 23)
The Picture of Dorian Gray adapted by Kip Williams (Opening March 27)
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet (Opening March 31)
The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown (Opening April 6)
Floyd Collins by Adam Guettel (Opining April 21
*The scripts and novels were mostly published in previous years. Your purchase through some of the links above may generate a small commission, which helps support my work. Many of these books are available to borrow at the New York Public Library and other local libraries.
