A diary of Metro, Poland's sensational hit musical, chronicles the early struggles of its creator, his funding of his own theater in Poland, and the creation and success of the musical.

Metro

Viagas, Robert

Putnam Pub. Group

Original cast members share the stories they did not tell onstage about how the longest-running Broadway show changed their lives forever

On the Line: The Creation of a Chorus Line

Lee, Baayork

Walsh, Thommie

Humor & Entertainment

William Morrow & Co.

Recounts the origins of the show, describes the difficulties in casting and staging the original production, and suggests reasons for its longevity

The Amazing Story of the Fantasticks: America's Longest Running Play

Arts & Photography

Farber, Donald C.

Performing Arts

Citadel Pr

Book by Farber, Donald C., Viagas, Robert

The Fantasticks: America's Longest-Running Play

Reference

Carol Pub. Group

Geared toward tourists traveling to New York, but appropriate for residents as well, this book is an easy-to-use, nuts-and-bolts guide to enjoying theater in New York City. Lively and far more in-depth than a general tour book, it tells travelers how to pick a show, how to buy tickets, the best times to see shows, how to get tickets for shows that are sold out, how to get refunds in the event a trip is canceled, how to spot scalpers, and what to do if the show closes before a show date. Entire sections are devoted to discount tickets, how to use the subway and stay safe in New York City, where to eat, where to stay, and much more. • A brief history of theater in New York • A foldout map of the theater district • A glossary of theater terminology • Seating charts for all the Broadway theaters • How to meet your favorite Broadway star • Where to find discount tickets • Best times of year to see theater in NYC • Best times of the week to see theater in NYC • How to get tickets for shows that are sold out • How to get refunds in the event your trip is cancelled • What to do if the show closes before your show date • Where to eat (more than 60 restaurants reviewed) • Where to stay (more than 20 hotels reviewed) • How to use the subway • Other things to see and do in the theater district

The Back Stage Guide Broadway

Travel

United States

Back Stage Books

Frequently called the “Miracle on Sullivan Street” (in New York's Greenwich Village), The Fantasticks has been the most-often performed musical around the world, setting more national and international longevity records than any musical in theater history. With the advent of the show's New York closing, Donald C. Farber and Robert Viagras have completely updated the 1991 edition of their best-selling book. The Amazing Story is the detailed history of how this fabulously successful show by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt came into being, and how and why it succeeded. In tracing the evolution of the show from an idea to a cultural phenomenon, the book takes readers through the countless auditions to attract backers, the search for theaters to hold tryouts (which indicated disaster), and eventual popular success. Among the actors who have performed in the musical are Anna Maria Alberghetti, Richard Chamberlain, Elliott Gould, Bert Lahr, Liza Minnelli, Robert Goulet, and Glenn Close. This updated edition includes new photos of the show's many productions and stars, recent interviews with performers, writers, and others associated with the musical, and suprising revelations that could not be told until the show's closing on Off Broadway.

The Amazing Story of The Fantasticks: America's Longest-Running Play (Limelight)

Limelight

A Chorus Line, the biggest Broadway hit of its generation, is returning to Times Square in a major fall 2006 revival. The show is based on a remarkable series of taped discussions made in the mid 1970s with some of the top “gypsies” (veteran Broadway dancers), many of whom went on to play characters based on themselves in the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical. In many ways, On the Line: The Creation of “A Chorus Line” is a continuation of the show itself. In this collective oral history, the 19 original cast members tell how they got involved with the project, how they labored through the months of workshops that shaped it, and what its success has meant for their lives and careers. They paint intimate and frank portraits of co-creators Michael Bennett, Joseph Papp, Ed Kleban – and each other. Originally published in 1990, the book has been updated to continue telling their stories over the past 16 years. Wayne Cilento (“I Can Do That”) has become a Tony-winning choreographer of shows like Wicked and Aida; Kelly Bishop (“Can the adults smoke?”) has become a TV star; Trish Garland has become a California fitness guru, and so forth.

On the Line - The Creation of A Chorus Line

Hamlet calls death "that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns." 
But he's wrong. Some do return. 
Each night after the applause dies, the curtain falls, the audience vanishes, the cleaners dust, and the lights are killed, great theatres become dark and silent places. But not always quite empty. 
That's when the theatre ghosts make their entrance and strut and fret their hour upon the shadowed boards, illuminated only by the ghost light, the solitary lamp that is required to burn through the night on every Broadway stage. 
Many of Broadway's busiest theatres continue to be just as busily haunted by spirits, some with well-known names and histories. 
Good Morning, Olive (named for one of the most beautiful and temperamental of Broadway's ghosts) is about the ghosts that haunt theatres in New York and around the world. 
Broadway is the playground of stars, so it's probably not surprising to learn that even its ghosts are stars. Meet some of Broadway's best known—and most active—celebrity ghosts. Don't worry: like Casper, they tend to be friendly. For the most part. 
There's something special about theatres, something especially conducive and welcoming to ghosts. Charles J. Adams III wrote, "By its very nature, a theatre is a vault within which every human emotion is at once imprisoned, impersonated, imitated, and elicited. Tangles of cords and ropes…tall curtains and backdrops which fade into high darkness…cubicles and trap doors and passageways." 
Good Morning, Olive takes readers on a tour of that world.

Good Morning, Olive: Haunted Theatres of Broadway and Beyond

Applause

Right This Way: A History of the Audience

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

(Playbill Broadway Yearbook). This is the ultimate backstage tour of Broadway! AT THIS THEATRE tells the complete history of Broadway in the 20th century, theatre by theatre. This gorgeous book is now updated, revised and with a larger format, covering 1900 to 2001. PLAYBILL's columnist, Louis Botto, along with Robert Viagas, opens the doors and lets readers explore the 40 active Broadway theatres in New York. From the conception and design of the buildings, to their original creators, and on to the theatres' transformation, often under duress, from legitimate houses to vaudeville and Burlesque, to movie houses and then back to their original purpose, this book captures the magical world of Broadway. It is a complete and authoritative history that only Botto, the curator of PLAYBILL's incomparable 116-year-old archives, can tell. Expanded from his popular column in PLAYBILL magazine, AT THIS THEATRE is the biography of those living, breathing buildings we call theatres. In this substantially updated version, Botto includes the histories of all the theatres rescued from the wrecker in the last ten years, including the American Airlines Theatre, Disney's New Amsterdam, and the Lyric and the Apollo, now combined into the Ford Center. AT THIS THEATRE is filled with great stories featuring a cast of characters including Ethel Merman, David Merrick, Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy. And it's also a theatrical spectacle boasting lavish illustrations of posters, programs, and photographs throughout. This is the gift book for every theatre lover on your list, including yourself!

At This Theatre: 100 Years of Broadway Shows, Stories and Stars

Botto, Louis

History

Applause Theatre & Cinema Books

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Books by Viagas, Robert