(Part 2) Best broadway & musicals books according to redditors

Don’t read directly off the page. Look down as often as you need, but look back up to deliver the lines.

Don’t let the page in your hands prevent you from incorporating physical action into your audition. If your character is dancing or exercising or cooking dinner, go ahead and play that out instead of using the script as an excuse to stand planted in one place.

Don’t forget to respond to what you hear and what actually happens, not what you read. Make sure that you are taking the cues for your own lines and emotions from your partners, just as you would with a memorized text. Their tone and energy should be incorporated into your audition, not suppressed and reimagined as whatever you first thought when you read it on your own. The cold read part of an audition is often a chance for the director to see how two partners work together in the roles, so make sure to play the partnership.

Finally, if you know the show you are auditioning for, or if the sides are available, then it’s doesn’t have to be a cold read at all. Familiarize yourself with it to the greatest degree possible. If you are “cold reading” Arthur Miller, you should not be reading those lines for the first time in your life. If you are “cold reading” Shakespeare, you should have a very good sense of the characters, relationships, and story at least. In this case (Peter and the Starcatcher) the script is readily available. Hie thee to a library and do as much prep as you can.

I’m reading Michael Riedel’s Razzle Dazzle right now. It’s an in depth look into broadway in the mid to late 1900s, featuring the Schubert Organization, Jacobs, and Schoenfeld. Peter Filicia who works for Broadway World and is usually on the This Week on Broadway podcast (highly recommended as well) has also written several Broadway books.

Luckily Hamilton is one of the few musicals that has no dialogue in between. So listening to the whole album from beginning to end is like going to the actual musical with your eyes closed. So you aren't missing anything.

As for advice in listening to musicals in the future, I would suggest looking for the "Book" of the musical online. The Book of Mormon Cast Recording only has the songs, so much of the funny dialogue and some context gets missed. This is when you would try to find a copy of the Book, either to purchase or downloadable online.

Additionally, there are a decent amount of recordings of classic musicals or revivals that do include the dialogue. A lot of the Stephen Sondheim musicals have this, like Sweeney Todd or Assassins.

I am sure plenty of other people on this sub can provide suggestions. Just ask us, and enjoy your dive into Broadway music.

Maybe sheet music books for those shows, if she doesn't already have them?

Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen also both have really beautiful coffee tables books that would make great gifts. Or the DK book about musicals in general.

There's Hamilton: The Revolution, which is the book written about the production of the musical. There's also the biography that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda to create the musical.

I would recommend this book. I used it for a class on Broadway's entire history, and it's pretty in-depth. It covers the entire 20th century, up until ~2009. And while it's technically a companion book to the PBS documentary, you don't really need to watch it to get the amount of information the book gives you. Anything that might require a video could be found on YouTube anyway.

Hope this helps!

There's a number of good books out there, with the Woolford being the best I've read to date:

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Broadway-Musical-Aaron-Frankel/dp/0306809435

http://www.amazon.com/Musical-Theatre-Writers-Survival-Guide/dp/0325007861/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HYJ16TZG6J6MQMR2J5K

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Musical-Theater-Allen-Cohen/dp/1403963959/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HYJ16TZG6J6MQMR2J5K

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Musicals-Informal-Introduction-Musical/dp/0879100958/ref=pd_sim_b_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HYJ16TZG6J6MQMR2J5K

http://www.amazon.com/How-Musicals-Work-Write-Theatrebook/dp/1848421753/ref=pd_sim_b_10?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HYJ16TZG6J6MQMR2J5K

:)

There are several great books out there. There's an outdated book from about ten years ago that catalogs just about every cast recording and gives them ratings (it only goes up to about 2004, but it's fantastic for everything before that).

https://www.amazon.com/Theatermania-Guide-Musical-Theater-Recordings/dp/0823084353

Also, The Secret Life of the American Musical is an AMAZING guide to the structures of musical, and comes with recommendations for shows at the back.

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-American-Musical-Broadway/dp/0374536899/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492386029&sr=8-1&keywords=jack+viertel

Read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-American-Musical-Broadway/dp/0374256926

Each chapter discusses a different stock song type.

https://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-2017-Calendar-Universe-Publishing/dp/0789332183

Is it this one? I'd love to get it for you when it's back in stock.

It's so good!

If you're at into the musicology stuff, I recommend How Sondheim Found His Sound. It has elements of biography, loads of stuff about his influences as the title would suggest, and lots of very detailed score analysis if you're into that. If not, there's also lots of overview of technique in broader terms which is really interesting.

A friend of mine recommended this book for me a few months back, and I found it to be incredibly informative and entertaining: Black Broadway: African Americans on the Great White Way by Stewart F. Lane. It has a lot of fascinating information and includes a lot of really cool pictures.

Other recommendations I have (which are great for anyone who wants to learn more about the Theater history in New York City) include: Lost Broadway Theaters by Nicholas van Hoogstraten, Music in German Immigrant Theater: New York City, 1840-1940 by John Koegel, It Happened on Broadway: An Oral History of the Great White Way by Myrna Katz Frommer, and Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway by Michael Riedel.

I hope some of those recommendations pique your interest. I’m curious, what books would you recommend?

I love used books! There's just something magical about them. I would love to have this one - $4.99 used with prime shipping! Thanks for the contest. :)

The DVD has a short documentary on Jonathan Larson that may be helpful, and there's this book if you can find it
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0688154379?pc_redir=1409144762&robot_redir=1

Edit: just saw where you said 2008, I'm a moron. Sorry!

Come From Away: Welcome to the Rock: An Inside Look at the Hit Musical https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316422223/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_BsZLDb1P4A821

Linkin park one more light if I'm on a desert island I want a track that will keep me sane without becoming worn out. I would feel like that one more light and this song could give me hope. I care about the one more light, or I am the one more light for someone else.

Jean Michel Jarre oxygene parts 1-6 technically 6 songs I guess but if pink floyd can compress with you were here's many parts into a single piece then I can too right? It also warped my 12 year old mind as to what music could be. Easily in my top three ablums of all time

Godspeed you Black Emperor storm no limit on size of proper songs, and it has a massive sense of scale and soaring positivity to it, in a similar vein to oxygene but on a grander scale. Part of a bigger picture but it contains a few individual parts in itself.

Bookwise this version of Sweeney Todd. You could substitute this with any musical annotated script/prompt book really. Learn a part or all of them, learn the songs, imagine how you would direct it. I think musical scripts are fantastic boredom killers.

And then a luxuary would probably be my favorite childhood toy. Something homely to fall asleep with. Small and familar.

That or a large stainless steel blade, preferably in the bushwhacker/machette zone. Not unwieldy, not impractial for hunting or defense, or cutting trees/plants for pathing and shelter. A parachute or large waterproof tarp might be a good choice here if I was going for practicality over sentiment (but that's boring and no fun)

This is an awesome book on how musicals are made.
https://www.amazon.com/Defying-Gravity-Creative-Schwartz-Godspell/dp/1557837457