There’s No Business Like Show Business: 11 Books that Celebrate the Great White Way

When people think of Broadway or dance, one name comes to mind: Fosse. Armed with a jaunty black hat, slinky movements, and spread fingers, Bob Fosse created some of the most iconic numbers in Broadway history, including Cabaret, Pippin, and Chicago. He is the only person ever to win an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award in the same year, and remains a legend onstage and off.

Described as “The Greatest Showbiz Book Ever Written” by New York Magazine this is the ultimate Broadway memoir, penned by a show-business legend who wrote two of the most successful shows in theater history, You Can't Take It With You and The Man Who Came to Dinner; directed the original production of My Fair Lady; and wrote the Judy Garland classic, A Star is Born.

Starting in the 1700s and extending through the present day, Anything Goes is a complete history of American musical theater. Hopping from an Oklahoma! rehearsal room to opening night of The Red Mill, Mordden examines not only the importance of song, dance, and music, but also the cultural impacts of shows beloved and forgotten.

Known more for dramatic headlines than the soundtrack it produced, the 2011 Broadway adaptation of Spider-Man will go down in history as of the craziest theater stories of the twenty-first century. The show was one of the most mind-blowingly expensive New York had ever seen, but when people started getting hurt, money started disappearing, and rumors started flying, it became an international story.

In this amazing biography, the choreographer behind the masterful West Side Story is revealed from childhood to critical success. Born Jerome Rabinowitz in New York in 1918, Robbins burst onto the dance scene with Fancy Free at the age of twenty-five. His own work and collaborations with Leonard Bernstein, George Balanchine, Robert Wilson, and Robert Graves cemented his legacy as one of the greatest showmen in theater.

Whether they’re gun-toting cowgirls, sparkling ingénues, or green-skinned witches, Broadway was given us some memorable leading ladies. Moving from decade to decade and looking at these classic shows through a gendered lens, Wolf explores how women are portrayed in theater and how they shaped it.

With a career spanning over half a century, Stephen Sondheim has created some of the best shows in modern theater. In this collection, he not only provides detailed annotations of the lyrics he wrote for shows like West Side Story, Company, A Little Night Music, and Sweeney Todd, but also gives a rare and personal look into his life.

When people are asked to sing from their favorite musical, chances are they’ll begin to hum a Richard Rodgers tune. His partnership with Oscar Hammerstein II produced some of the most well-known musicals of all time, including The Sound of Music, The King and I, and South Pacific. In this autobiography, Rodgers shares his favorite memories and backstage tales of the golden years of Broadway.

Oscar Hammerstein had a long, celebrated career as a librettist, lyricist, director, playwright, and producer: his words shaped the American songbook. Away from the piano, he was a loving husband, father, and mentor to a number of aspiring writers—including a young lyricist named Stephen Sondheim. Fordin was granted total access to Hammerstein’s archives, making this the definitive biography of this giant of American theater.

The autobiography of the theater legend Alan Jay Lerner, told through the stories of the three shows that defined his career: My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Gigi. Filled with humor, wit, and affection for the stage, this isn’t so much Lerner’s memoir as it is a tribute to the people who shaped it, from Julie Andrews and Richard Burton to Vincente Minnelli and Cecil Beaton.

With its powerful and controversial subject matter, memorable songs, and tragic backstory, RENT became a worldwide phenomenon before it even hit Broadway. In this memoir, Anthony Rapp, the actor who played Mark Cohen, remembers the early years of his career and how RENT helped him overcome personal hardships.