biography theater

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. B&w photos, 185 pages. Twenty years after his death, George Balanchine still dominates the world of ballet. Not only have his works been danced by the New York City Ballet continuously since 1948, but they also have been performed by more than two dozen other companies throughout the world. In clear and elegant writing, Terry Teachout brings to life the dramatic story of George Balanchine, a Russian emigre who fell in love with American culture, married four times and kept a mistress on the side, and transformed the art of ballet forever. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Dent / Everyman's Library, reprint, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn blue dust jacket with fading to spine. 302 pages. The author was an actor, dramatist and theatrical manager and gives an account of the British stage in the first half of the Eighteenth century. First published in 1740. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Playbill/ Applause Thetre& Cinama Books, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 357 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, tight copy. Minor wear to dust jacket. Minor rubbing to top spine. Light soil on rear. 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.

Hardcover. New York, Century Co., 1st, 1890, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 501 pages. Hardcover. AUTHORS SIGNED INSCRIPTION PASTED ON TITLE PAGE. 3/4 Leather marbled sections, raised bands on spine. Gilt titles and highlights. Marbled endpapers. Gilt top edge. Light rubbing to cover edges. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Wynwood Press, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in an unclipped dust jacket with light fading to spine. Biography of the comedian from Toronto who married a Title in England, went on to become an international star as a comedienne on the stage and screen. She experienced the death of her only son in WWII. The author was a friend and confidant until Lillie's death at the age of 90. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Norton, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, pages. As both star and director of the acclaimed film Henry V, young Branagh has had his career compared to that of Lawrence Olivier. Full of charm, humor, and insight into an actor's craft, Branagh's intriguing autobiography tells of his childhood in Belfast, his training at the Royal Academy of Drama, and his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company.INSCRIBED BY BRANAGH on front fly leaf.

Softcover. Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1st pbk, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 376 pages, b&w illustrations. The personal history of Barney Josephson, proprietor of the legendary interracial New York City night clubs Cafe Society Downtown and Cafe Society Uptown and their successor, The Cookery. Famously known as 'the wrong place for the Right people', Cafe Society featured the cream of jazz and blues performers--among whom were Billie Holiday, Big Joe Turner, Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Big Sid Catlett, and Mary Lou Williams--as well as comedy stars Imogene Coca, Zero Mostel, and Jack Gilford, the boogie-woogie pianists, and legendary gospel and folk artists. Spanning half a century from the 1930s to the 1980s, Josephson's narrative depicts both the business and the artistic sides of Cafe Society while exposing the tensions between the club's own progressive interracial openness and the more restrictive social and political climate in which it evolved. Publisher's stamp on bottom edge otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1st, 2024, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 417 pages, color and b&w illustrations. The Warhol superstar and transgender icon Candy Darling was glamour personified, but she was without a real place in the world. Growing up on Long Island, lonely and quiet and queer, she was enchanted by Hollywood starlets like Kim Novak. She found her turn in New York's early Off-Off-Broadway theater scene, in Warhol's films Flesh and Women in Revolt, and at the famed nightclub Max's Kansas City. She inspired songs by Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones. She became friends with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, borrowed a dress from Lauren Hutton, posed for Richard Avedon, and performed alongside Tennessee Williams in his own play. Yet Candy lived on the edge, relying on the kindness of strangers, friends, and her quietly devoted mother, sleeping on couches and in cheap hotel rooms, keeping a part of herself hidden. She wanted to be a star, but mostly she wanted to be loved. Her last diary entry was: "I shall try to be grateful for life . . . Cannot imagine who would want me." Candy died at twenty-nine in 1974, just as conversations about gender and identity were beginning to enter the broader culture. She never knew it, but she changed the world. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, HarperOne, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 300 pages, b&w illustrations. The long-awaited and wildly entertaining memoir of the star of stage and screen, the legendary Chita Rivera-three-time Tony Award-winner, Kennedy Centers honoree, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.She was born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero-until the entertainment world renamed her. But Dolores-the irreverent side of the sensual, dark and ferocious Chita-was always present center stage, and was influential in creating some of Broadway most iconic and acclaimed roles, including Anita in West Side Story the part that made her a star-Rosie in Bye Bye, Birdie, Velma in Chicago, and Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Written in gratitude to her fans and with the hope that new generations may learn from her extraordinary experience, Chita takes us behind the curtain to reveal the highs and lows of one extraordinary show business career-the creative fermentation, the ego clashes, the miraculous discoveries, the exhilaration when it all went right, and the disappointment when it all went wrong. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 2nd pr., 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. George Schuyler, a renowned and controversial black journalist of the Harlem Renaissance, and Josephine Cogdell, a blond, blue-eyed Texas heiress and granddaughter of slave owners, believed that intermarriage would "invigorate" the races, thereby producing extraordinary offspring. Their daughter, Philippa Duke Schuyler, became the embodiment of this theory, and they hoped she would prove that interracial children represented the final solution to America's race problems. Able to read and write at the age of two and a half, a pianist at four, and a composer by five, Philippa was often compared to Mozart. During the 1930s and 40s she graced the pages of Time and Look magazines, the New York Herald Tribune, and The New Yorker. Philippa grew up under the adoring andinquisitive eyes of an entire nation and soon became the role model and inspiration for a generation of African-American children. But as an adult she mysteriously dropped out of sight, leaving America to wonder what had happened to the "little Harlem genius." Suffering the double sting of racismand gender bias, Philippa had been rejected by the elite classical music milieu in the United States and forced to find an audience abroad, where she flourished as a world-class performer and composer. She traveled throughout South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia performing for kings, queens, and presidents. By then Philippa had added a second career as an author and foreign correspondent reporting on events around the globe--from Albert Schweitzer's leper colony in Lamberene to the turbulent Asian theater of the 1960s. She would give a command performance for Queen Elisabeth of Belgium one day, and hide from the Viet Cong among the ancient graves of the Annam kings another.

Hardcover. Kent, OH, The Kent State University Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 348 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy still in publishers shrink-wrap. Conrad Wise Chapman (1842-1910) is unique among Civil War artists: he painted and sketched while on duty as a Confederate soldier who served in three theaters of the war. Chapman's first-hand knowledge is evident in his work. Ben Bassham has written both a critical study of Chapman's art and a biography, incorporating Chapman's correspondence and Civil War memoirs.

Hardcover. Boston, Little Brown , 1st, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 319 pages, b&w photos. In a bright, unclipped dust jacket with a couple closed tears, mild soil.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 480 pages, b&w photos. The first full-length biography of the 'Prince of Broadway' highlights the wit and sophistication of playwright and director Moss Hart as it describes his rise from poverty to success in the New York theatrical world, his remarkable contributions to the American theater, and his sometimes turbulent private life. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Milwaukee, WI, Applause, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 192 pages. Color/BW photographs and illustrations. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. William Travilla is one of the best costume designers of all time and Marilyn Monroe his most famous client. Dressing Marilyn: How a Hollywood Icon Was Styled by William Travilla focuses on the striking dresses that Travilla designed for Marilyn, from his early work on the thriller Don't Bother to Knock and the gorgeous pink dress in which Marilyn sang "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" to the legendary white dress from The Seven Year Itch , which arguably contributed to the collapse of Marilyn's marriage to Joe DiMaggio. Featuring Travilla's original sketches, rare costume test shots, dress patterns, photographs of Marilyn wearing the dresses, plus exclusive and never-before-seen extracts from interviews with Travilla, this book offers a fresh insight into the golden age of Hollywood.

Softcover. London, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 128 pages. Softcover. Very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to wrapper edges. 90 color plates, 10 black and white illustrations. This definitive and lavishly illustrated biography is the first to trace Kauffer's life and showcase his best work-posters, book illustrations, and theater designs.

Hardcover. US, VH1 Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 160 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to covers. Color and Black and white pictures throughout.

Hardcover. NY, Frederick A. Stokes , 1st, 1900, Hardcover, red cloth with bright gilt stamping, 150 pages. Top edge gilt. Ribbon marker, photographic frontispiece portrait of actress Terry, as well as numerous photographs of her in various dramatic productions. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Clarkson N. Potter, inc, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 236 pages. b&w and color illustrations and photographs. Red cloth spine. Dust jacket edgewear, otherwise in good shape. Everett Shinn (1876 - 1953) was an American realist painter and member of the Ashcan School. He also exhibited with the short-lived group known as "The Eight," who protested the restrictive exhibition policies of the powerful, conservative National Academy of Design. He is best known for his robust paintings of urban life in New York and London, a hallmark of Ashcan art, and for his theater and residential murals and interior-design projects. His style varied considerably over the years, from gritty and realistic to decorative and rococo.

Softcover. McKinleyville CA, Fithian Press/, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 238 pages, b&w illustrations. INSCRIBED BY COHEN on the front fly leaf. Robert Cohen is the founding Chair of Drama a the University of California, Irvine, and has written 20 book on theatre. In this memoir, he recounts the "lucky breaks" that took him from being a college student preparing for law school to a long career as a man of the theatre. The first lucky break took place in his junior year of high school when Judy Berkenbilt asked him to be in "Belles On Their Toes," a play she was directing. She wanted to cast him as a policeman but after reading the script, Cohen asked for the role as the family handyman, which she agreed to. He identifies Lucky Break #2, in the same year, as ending up in a Vocational Typing class when he transferred out of the Mechanical Drawing class to escape a creepy instructor. He became a fabulous typist and was able to earn lunch money in college by typing papers for other students. Lucky Break #3 was getting into the 12th grade Advanced English class taught by Miss Casey, which advanced his intellectual development and reading "like crazy." Lucky Break #6 was being asked to take over as coach of the swimming program at the camp where he was a counselor. When Cohen did not have the $20 needed to to get a Water Safety Instructor certification, the camp owner asked him take over the drama program instead. And so on.

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. Boston, Little, Brown & Co, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 242 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Light edge wear, rubbing to dust jacket. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Dutton, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 516 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on front fly leaf. The enduring appeal of the music of George and Ira Gershwin has spawned several biographies of the talented brothers who created more than 700 popular songs before George's untimely death at age 39 in 1937--Ira died in 1983 at age 87. But never before has the collaboration itself been the subject of such intelligent and fruitful scrutiny as in this intriguing study. Rosenberg, chair of the musical theater program of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, has a gift for making scholarly points in accessible, albeit mundane language. Readers require no particular musical background in order to enjoy and respond to her original theories about the connections between George's music and Ira's lyrics. Points of comparison are frequently illustrated with side-by-side measures of music, and the striking thematic relationships between such songs as Embraceable You and The Man I Love are also compared dramatically to George's orchestral composition, including the well-known Rhapsody in Blue. This is a rich feast for music historians, musicians and connoisseurs of musical theater as well as inveterate hummers who like a Gershwin tune. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn, tape-repaired dust jacket. 343 pages plus index, b&w photos. An intimate no-holds-barred light and dark portrait of the Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad from her first Metropolitan operas house performance through her career and retirement and more. Written by her accompanist- and often her orchestral conductor. Front fly leaf clipped, otherwise clean, tight 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.