Used, Rare & Antiquarian Theater Books

Hardcover. NY, Praeger, 1st, 1956, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Cloth spine and border of boards faded, otherwise very clean, tight.

Softcover. NY, New York Theatre Program Corp., 1938, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 48 page playbill program for the Shubert revue "Hooray for What!" starring Ed Wynn (featured on the cover) and Vivian Vance ( of The Lucy Show). Great ads feature night spots like Sardi's and The Cotton Club. Light wear, stapled, clean. 6 3/4 X 9 1/4".

Hardcover. NY, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1st thus, 1895, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 204 pages. b/w illustrations throughout by F.C. Gordon. All edges gilt. Beautiful binding, cover boards bound in blue cloth, extensive gilt decoration on spine and front cover board. Previous owner's signature on front flyleaf. Spine has a little fraying at bottom. Binding tight. Pages clean. Page 112 hinge split at gutter. Comedy in five acts.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1963, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth covers stamped in orange, yellow and white, 474 pages. The memoirs of a major American playwright, Pulitzer Prize winner for Street Scene. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott, 1st US, 1937, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light green cloth with gilt stamping, spine faded. The prolific author's study of marriage and, controversially at the time, endorsing a journey from polygamy to monogamy. Frontis. portrait of author. Bookplate on inside cover, otherwise clean. Uncommon.

Hardcover. NY, Bantam Books, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover ina bright, unclipped dust jacket. Conceived by Mikhail Baryshnikov. Written and directed by Peter Anastos. Photographs by Arthur Elgort. Introduction by Jean Poniatowski. A humorous takeoff of the classical ballet conceived by a classical ballet dancer. 80 unnumbered pages. Clean copy.

Softcover. West LafayetteIN, Bordighera, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 224 pages, b&w illustrations. The biography of an Italian actress, playwright, and lecturer. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Hodder & Stoughton, nd (1913), Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, purple cloth covers with elaborate gilt design featuring 3 ladies drinking tea, 197 pages. 17 color illustrations plus frontispiece by Hugh Thomson, all tipped in and with tissue guards. Previous owner's inscription front end paper. Corners lightly rubbed, spine wear, light stain to rear cover. No date but assumed 1920s and first illustrated thus.

Hardcover. NY, Henry Holt, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. 249 pages. Black and red striped dust jacket with light edgewear. A clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. London, Beaumont Press, 1st, 1919, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, Cloth-backed patterned paper boards designed by Michel Sevier. The sixth book published by the Press. Paper label on spine is chipped and tanned. Cover edges and corners worn, there is a small splash of red color to middle of sine cloth on front. Interior is bright and clean. #192 of 250 copies. One Day More' is a reworking of Conrad's short story 'Tomorrow'. It centers on a family which have structured their lives around the hope and promise of their son returning from a long stint at sea. Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to ever write in the English language.

Softcover. NY, Praeger, reprint, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 189 pages, b&w illustrations. This ground-breaking work brings dance into current discussions of the African presence in American culture. Dixon Gottschild argues that the Africanist aesthetic has been invisibilized by the pervasive force of racism. This book provides evidence to correct and balance the record, investigating the Africanist presence as a conditioning factor in shaping American performance, onstage and in everyday life. She examines the Africanist presence in American dance forms particularly in George Balanchine's Americanized style of ballet, (post)modern dance, and blackface minstrelsy. Hip hop culture and rap are related to contemporary performance, showing how a disenfranchised culture affects the culture in power. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Dodd Mead, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn, chipped dust jacket, 84 pages with index. B&w photos. Ex-lib with minimal signs, light reside to rear endpapers. Beryl Grey was the first Western ballerina to dance in Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre and she tells of her experiences on tour. Clean internally.

Hardcover. NY, Random House, 2nd pr., 1943, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, putty cloth with blue and red stamping, 146 pages, b&w photos from the 1943 production directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Top edge stained blue. Stated second printing, a tight, clean copy with a mild musty odor. No dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY , Harper Brothers, 1st, 1904, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover light gray boards stamped with a white and gilt design, gray cloth spine. Top edge gilt. Originally published in France in 1902, this is the first US edition of a play set in Italy at the end of the fifteenth century. B&w frontis of the author with a tissue guard. Previous owner's name on the front fly leaf, otherwise an exceptionally clean, bright copy.

Softcover. NY, Theatre Communications Group, 2nd printing, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 58 pages. SIGNED BY ACTRESS CHERRY JONES on title page. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to wrappers.

Softcover. Louisville KY, Cole Brothers Circus, 1st, 1949, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, softcover, 20 page circus promotional brochure. 16 pages with 60 b&w photographs featuring behind the scenes circus activity- setting up the big top, loading the train, daily life of performers, etc. Light edgewear.

Hardcover. New York, William Morrow and Company, 1st, 1978, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 225 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Gutter cracked in three places. Dust jacket shows edgewear and small tears at corners. Fading to top cover boards.

Hardcover. Chapel Hill NC, University of North Carolina , 1st, 1938, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, decorated yellow cloth covers with light soil, 227 pages. Illustrated with 7 b&w photos. These five one-act plays, originally produced by the Carolina Playmakers at Chapel Hill and on various tours, offer an unusual combination of brilliant local color and truth about human nature everywhere. Well written, with skillful stage directions and notes on Mexican costume and Spanish pronunciation, they are highly practical for production. Internally clean, no dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1st, 1896, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth stamped in gilt and black, 399 pages. Forty-one chapters, each on a different actor, with a portrait of each. Each of the mini-biographies was written by a different writer or critic. The editors include such actors as John Drew, Edwin Booth, Rose Coughlan, James O'Neill, Edward Harrigan, Joseph Jefferson. Very good copy of the first edition. The book has brighttop edge gilt. Previous owner's bookplate, inscription on front endpapers.

Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, "A Random House Play", 131 pages illustrated with photographs from the stage production featuring Kaye Ballard and Jerry Stiller. Cover label illustration by Hirschfeld. John Latouche's Introduction is his unusual expository curtain speech recounting the circumstances of the plays inception and history. Front end paper tanned. No dust jacket.

Hardcover. London, George Routledge & Sons, ist thus, 1905, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, The Photogravure Series. Attractive green cloth covers with gilt titles and gilt embossed design. 12 b/w tissue-guarded photogravures after drawings by Gilbert James. 91 pages. Top edge gilt. Small scar to cloth on rear cover, spine gilt faded. Previous owner's inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Softcover. Los Angeles, Augustan Reprint Society, reprint, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 40 pages. A facsimile reprint of a scandalous pamphlet published in 1772. Kendrick was a notorious literary libeler who had a grudge against David Garrick, manager of Drury Lane, imagining he sabotaged his theatrical career. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Paris, Garnier, 1911, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 625 pages, original blue paper wrappers here bound in half leather and marbled boards, spines with raised ribs and gilt design, floral end papers. Top edge gilt, 4 color plates.

Hardcover. New York, Grove Press, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 3 hardcovers ( Voyage, Shipwreck, Salvage) in pictorial slipcase - Still in original shrinkwrap. A three part play by the author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Hardcover. US, Turner, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 254 pages includes index. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. The history of theater in New York is captured in the images of the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. From this valuable archive, author Leonard Jacobs spotlights the evolution of the world's most storied dramatic community. Reaching from the 1850s to the recent past, these images give insight into the passion and character of the theaters, the performers, and the performances that have made Broadway the iconic cultural capital of theater. With hundreds of images, many never before published, Historic Photos of Broadway provides an intriguing look behind the scenes at the Booths and the Barrymores and every subject from the Alvin Theatre to the Ziegfeld Follies, giving those passionate about theater an irreplaceable glimpse into its humble beginnings and rise to greatness over the last two centuries.

Hardcover. Koln GR, Taschen, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, larger slipcased edition of this title and measures 15.5 x 10.5" and weighs approx. 11.8 lbs. Slipcase, book and jacket in very good condition. With photographic gems of early circus performers, as well as original posters, lithographs, sideshow banners and engravings from the 16th to 19th centuries illustrating the worldwide roots of the circus, readers are transported to a world of thrill and skill, grit and glamor. Highlights include iconic circus photographs by Mathew Brady, Cornell Capa, Walker Evans, Weegee, and Lisette Model, and little-known circus images by Stanley Kubrick and Charles and Ray Eames. 670 pages. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. London, George Routledge and Sons, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in maroon cloth with bright gilt lettering on spine. 439 pages + 8 pages of publisher's ads in rear.

London, Faber & Faber, 1st, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in red cloth with gilt title on spine minus the dust jacket. 44 pages. This volume includes the texts of Eh Joe, which was produced by BBC Television in July 1966, plus Act Without Words II and Film. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Columbia, University of Missouri, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 274 pages, b&w photos. 1942: Americans suddenly found themselves at war but were not about to be distracted from the National Pastime. The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees were looking to continue their World Series rivalry from the 1941 season, and a youthful team from St. Louis was determined to stop them. With only one player older than thirty, the St. Louis Cardinals were the youngest team to win the National League pennant and World Series. Built on good pitching and tremendous speed on the base paths and in the field, the team featured rookie Stan Musial, future Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter, and ace pitcher Mort Cooper, the National League's Most Valuable Player of 1942. With their winningest season ever, posting 106 victories, the 1942 Redbirds have been called the greatest Cardinal team of all time. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Stein and Day , 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, blue dust jacket, 311 pages with index. Color frontis, b&w illustrations. "In Grimaldi's lifetime (1779-1837) he won fame and affection for his pantomines;" Dickens reordered the memoirs into a straight narrative of Grimaldi's life." Clean copy.

Softcover. Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 215 pages, b&w illustrations. A history of the diaspora of Neapolitan musicians in New York. This book reviews the period from the unification of Italy to the fascist era through significant Neapolitan performers such as Gilda Mignonette and Enrico Caruso. It traces the transformation of a popular tradition written in dialect into a popular tradition, written in Italian, that contributed to the production of 'American' identity. PLEASE NOTE: ITALIAN TEXT. Simona Frasca is a lecturer on early sound reproduction and Italian migration, and a freelance music journalist. She hold a doctorate in History and Analysis of Musical Culture from La Sapienza University in Rome. Mild sunning to wraps, clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1st, 1941, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Introduction by Morgan, her superb photographs reproduced in black & white photogravure. Essays by George Beiswanger and Louis Horst as well as a statement by Graham. 160 pages. Corners worn, some chipping of cloth at ends of spine. Light age tanning to cover and page edges.

Hardcover. Gainesville FL, University Press of Florida, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 267 pages, b&w photos. Biography of the Russian ballet dancer and teacher Agrippina Vaganova (1879-1951).

Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 765 pages, b&w illustrations. John Lahr has produced a theater biography like no other. Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh gives intimate access to the mind of one of the most brilliant dramatists of his century, whose plays reshaped the American theater and the nation's sense of itself. This astute, deeply researched biography sheds a light on Tennessee Williams's warring family, his guilt, his creative triumphs and failures, his sexuality and numerous affairs, his misreported death, even the shenanigans surrounding his estate. With vivid cameos of the formative influences in Williams's life-his fierce, belittling father Cornelius; his puritanical, domineering mother Edwina; his demented sister Rose, who was lobotomized at the age of thirty-three; his beloved grandfather, the Reverend Walter Dakin-Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh is as much a biography of the man who created A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as it is a trenchant exploration of Williams's plays and the tortured process of bringing them to stage and screen. The portrait of Williams himself is unforgettable: a virgin until he was twenty-six, he had serial homosexual affairs thereafter as well as long-time, bruising relationships with Pancho Gonzalez and Frank Merlo. With compassion and verve, Lahr explores how Williams's relationships informed his work and how the resulting success brought turmoil to his personal life. Lahr captures not just Williams's tempestuous public persona but also his backstage life, where his agent Audrey Wood and the director Elia Kazan play major roles, and Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Bette Davis, Maureen Stapleton, Diana Barrymore, and Tallulah Bankhead have scintillating walk-on parts. This is a biography of the highest order: a book about the major American playwright of his time written by the major American drama critic of his time.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A critical biography of the comic genius who, as both a writer and a director, dominated the Broadway comedy theater during the twenties, thirties, and forties. Detailed accounts of GSK plays and how they came together -- or did not. Kaufman is captured as a man of the theatre who compulsively was involved in a show a year for decades, as writer or director. 503 pages, b&w photos. Clean copy.

Softcover. Durham NC, Duke University Press , 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 312 pages, b&w illustrations. In People Get Ready, musicians, scholars, and journalists write about jazz since 1965, the year that Curtis Mayfield composed the famous civil rights anthem that gives this collection its title. The contributors emphasize how the political consciousness that infused jazz in the 1960s and early 1970s has informed jazz in the years since then. They bring nuance to historical accounts of the avant-garde, the New Thing, Free Jazz, "non-idiomatic" improvisation, fusion, and other forms of jazz that have flourished since the 1960s, and they reveal the contemporary relevance of those musical practices. Many of the participants in the jazz scenes discussed are still active performers. A photographic essay captures some of them in candid moments before performances. Clean copy. like new.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, paper-covered boards quarter-bound in cream cloth with gilt lettering to spine, top edge tinted blue, halftone photos of the production, Directed by and starring Anthony Perkins, this play was produced way off-Broadway and revealed that God is a Puerto Rican steambath attendant. Name, date on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Macmillan Company, 1st, 1914, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Poor, Hardcover, maroon cloth with gilt lettering on spine. 164 pages plus 5 pages of publisher's ads. Remnants of torn dust jacket laid in at rear. From reviews on flap: "An effective presentation of modern life in New York City" ... "One of the most sparkling comedies of recent years, depicting life among the artists in Manhattan..." One of only two plays written by this poet. Clean copy.

softcover. New York, Theatre Communications Group, reprint, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 127 pages. Softcover. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to wrappers.

Hardcover. Ireland, Gallery Books, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 100 pages. Light shelf-wear to dust jacket, previous owner's signature on prelim page, else a clean, tight copy. This Irish edition precedes all others..

Softcover. NY, Skyhorse, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 361 pages, b&w illustrations. Burlesque was one of America's most popular forms of live entertainment in the first half of the 20th century. Gaudy, bawdy, and spectacular, the shows entertained thousands of paying customers every night of the week. And yet the legacy of burlesque is often vilified and misunderstood, left out of the history books.By telling the intimate and surprising stories from its golden age through the women (and men!) who lived it, Behind the Burly Q reveals the true story of burlesque, even as it experiences a new renaissance. Lovingly interviewed by burlesque enthusiast Leslie Zemeckis who produced the hit documentary of the same name, are former musicians, strippers, novelty acts, club owners, authors, and historians--assembled here for the first time ever to tell you just what really happened in a burlesque show. From Jack Ruby and Robert Kennedy to Abbott and Costello--burlesque touched every corner of American life. The sexy shows often poked fun at the upper classes, at sex, and at what people were willing to do in the pursuit of sex. Sadly, many of the performers have since passed away, making this their last, and often only interview. Behind the Burly Q is the definitive history of burlesque during its heyday and an invaluable oral history of an American art form. Funny, shocking, unbelievable, and heartbreaking, their stories will touch your hearts. We invite you to peek behind the curtain at the burly show.

Hardcover. NY, Samuel French, 1st, 1932, Book: Very Good, Hardcover, blue cloth with paper label on spine. 131 pages. covers slightly splayed, clean copy. Robert Caplan and his wife are entertaining her brother and sister-in-law. Because Robert insists on uncovering the truth about his brother Martin's 'suicide', many unpalatable revelations ensue which cause Robert to shoot himself. At this point, the opening scene is repeated, but this time they bypass the dangerous corner at which the truth is demanded, thus averting the disaster.Written in 1932 this forms one of the three 'time plays'.

London, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 292 pages. Maps on the endpapers. Black and white illustrations by Timothy Birdsall. A illustrated guide to the major theatres in London along with a brief history of each. No dust jacket. A bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 166 pages. Lardner was one of the most remarkable satirists in American literature and one of the sharpest cultural historians of his time but is better known to many people as a successful journalist and popular entertainer. Geismar examines the development of this distinguished writer, a biographical and critical account. Clean copy.

Softcover. Los Angeles, Augustan Reprint Society, reprint, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, facsimile reprint from 1717, 56 pages. with an introduction by Jack M. Armistead and Debbie K. Davis. The Augustan Reprint Society Pub. No. 253-254. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York , Random House , 1st, 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 122 pages, b&w photographs from the 1953 play. In a very good dust jacket that's unclipped. Bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. Milano, Skira, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 320 pages. Hardcover. Profusely illustrated in full color. Clean, tight copy. This catalog of over three hundred artworks related to the Saisons Russes between 1909 and 1929 is the official companion to an exhibition in Monte Carlo. The legendary productions are brought to life through stage designs, costumes, paintings, sculptures, photographs, and programs. The artwork comes from a wide variety of public and private collections, including the Fokine collection in the St. Petersburg Theatre Museum.

Hardcover. New York, Monacelli Press , 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 320 pages. Hardcover without dust jacket. Extensive b&w and color photography throughout. Illustrated end papers and fly leafs. Includes extensive bibliography and chronology. Clean, tight copy. In early October 1959, thirty-two-year-old Allan Kaprow presented a performance piece entitled "18 Happenings in 6 Parts." This unique conjunction of visual, aural, and physical events, performed for an intimate art world audience by his friends and colleagues, would change the course of art history. The genre of artwork that evolved from this debut would become known as Happenings. This new volume provides a comprehensive look at this revolutionary art form. Prepared in conjunction with an exhibition at the Pace Gallery in New York, it focuses on the years that saw the movement's birth in New York and Provincetown, Mass., and the artists who made the genre a legend: Red Grooms, Allan Kaprow, Robert Whitman, Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, Simone Forti, Carolee Schneemann. Together, they created a new and outrageous art form with an "anything goes" attitude, one whose influence is still felt within the contemporary art world.

Hardcover. Koln GR, Taschen, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, folio trade edition. With photographic gems of early circus performers, as well as original posters, lithographs, sideshow banners and engravings from the 16th to 19th centuries illustrating the worldwide roots of the circus, readers are transported to a world of thrill and skill, grit and glamor. Highlights include iconic circus photographs by Mathew Brady, Cornell Capa, Walker Evans, Weegee, and Lisette Model, and little-known circus images by Stanley Kubrick and Charles and Ray Eames. 670 pages.

Hardcover. Detroit MI, Wayne State University Press, 1st, 1978, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 263 pages, b&w illustrations. The author traces the origins of humor to primitive drama, folk ritual, and carnival play. from antiquity to the era of Laurel and Hardy. Light making to about 16 pages.