American Theatre

Broadway’s most esteemed visionaries tell all - how they got started in the business, how they chose projects, how they raise money, why some of their shows were huge hits and others flopped, and much more. From Flo Ziegfeld and David Merrick, from Joseph Papp, from Cameron Mackintosh, from today’s up-and-coming new generation of producers - here are priceless words of wisdom.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A Times and Waterstones Book of the Year ‘The messy, dirty, bloody reality of Operation Overlord comes alive in Sword, Hastings’s portrait of the individual soldiers who risked their lives on the beaches of Normandy. He brings these men to life with sensitivity...

The mythical legends and historical allure of the old west come galloping onward with The Old West Collection: Amazing Legends and Incredible Tales of the American West. This thundering audio compendium celebrates the epic events of America's frontier, whether rediscovering the California gold rush at Sutter's Mill in '49 or recreating the outsize personalities of John Jacob Astor to Belle Starr and Billy the Kid. From racing on horseback for Oklahoma land in '89 to Dodge and Last Chance Gulch.

The Provincetown Players created a revolution in American theatre, making room for truly modern approaches to playwriting, stage production, and performance. In Staging America, Jeffery Kennedy gives the unabridged story in a meticulously researched and comprehensive narrative that sheds new light on the history of the Provincetown Players. At the center of the study is an extensive account of the career of George Cram Cook, the Players' leader and artistic conscience, as well as one of the most significant facilitators of modernist writing in early twentieth-century American literature.

Lively, sophisticated, and filled with first-person tributes and glorious images, Sondheim: His Life, His Shows, His Legacy lifts the curtain on a Broadway legend. "Aside from Sondheim's own exceptional books...this may be the best coffee-table volume devoted to his work."(Shelf Awareness)...

Chronicling the lives and times of a cast of characters both courageous and cold-blooded, American Mobsters takes the listener on an evocative journey through the lawless days of Prohibition, providing an earful of Tommy guns and terror; speakeasies and St. Valentine’s Day.

As author Ethan Mordden looks back at Chicago's various moving parts - including the original 1926 play that started it all, a sexy silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, a talkie remake with Ginger Rogers, the musical itself, and at last the movie of the musical - we learn how the American theater serves as a kind of alternative news medium, a town crier warning the public about the racy, devious interior contradictions of American society. Opinionated, witty, and rich in backstage anecdotes, All That Jazz brings the American musical to life in all its artistry and excitement.

Distinguished theater critic John Lahr brings unique perspective to the life of Arthur Miller, the playwright who almost single-handedly propelled twentieth-century American theater into a new level of cultural sophistication. Organized around the fault lines of Miller’s life—his family, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Elia Kazan and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Marilyn Monroe, Vietnam, and the rise and fall of Miller’s role as a public intellectual—this book demonstrates the synergy between Arthur Miller’s psychology and his plays.

For young dance lovers, a picture book about a young boy whose father has the unique position as a ballet dancer. Written by American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Thomas Forster. Ben and his friends are playing in their favorite part of the classroom-- the dress-up corner! They are talking...

The idea of American musical theater often conjures up images of bright lights and big city, but its lifeblood is found in amateur productions at high schools, community theaters, after-school programs, summer camps, and dinner theaters. In Beyond Broadway, author Stacy Wolf looks at the widespread presence and persistence of musical theater in US culture and examines it as a social practice - a live, visceral experience of creating, watching, and listening.  

"Telling Tales of Civil Warriors" has been adapted and expanded from the Audie Award-winning production of The Civil War Tales of Ambrose Bierce and has been selected by AudioFile magazine as a recipient of it's prestigious Earphone Award.

Telling Tales of Civil Warriors was recorded by Joel Block at The Production Block Studios.

William Shakespeare est considéré comme l'un des plus grands poètes, dramaturges et écrivains de la culture anglaise. Il est réputé pour sa maîtrise des formes poétiques et littéraires, ainsi que sa capacité à représenter les aspects de la nature humaine. Figure éminente de la culture occidentale, Shakespeare continue d'influencer les artistes d'aujourd’hui. Ses pièces sont régulièrement jouées partout dans le monde. Shakespeare est l'un des rares dramaturges à avoir pratiqué aussi bien la comédie que la tragédie.

Here's a unique twist on the Cinderella story. This is an amusing, wry tale of a king's son, a neighboring king's daughter, a sulky dragon - and the wise Greenman.

The American cowboy came into the west to begin after a bloody civil war had ended. He worked long hours in lonely cow camps and his pay was meager, but he had grit and determination. He faced constant danger; he fought Indians and rustlers and braved swollen rivers and stampedes. And, finally, when the days of the open range were over, he rode off into the sunset. But his legacy lives on.

With "Buckshot Cheney's Last Train Ride" and "A Mysterious Visit", a Magical Reality Chatauqua Show celebrates the comic genius of Americana's premier folk humorist. Mark Twain has been making us laugh for generations and, with "Buckshot Cheney's Last Train Ride" and the preposterous income tax insights of "A Mysterious Visit," American Listener's Theatre presents us with the greatest known antidote to the waves of fear that grip the nation: some belly shaking laughter at the expense of our tormentors.

It is hard to imagine Christmas season without the rich and fanciful Yuletide tales of Charles Dickens. Indeed, late 19th century newspapers in both England and the United States hailed him as "The man who invented Christmas". This Magical Reality Chautauqua Show Presentation illustrates why. Dickens guides us through scenes of merriment, redemption and poignant joy.