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Home » 20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List
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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List

staffstaffDecember 27, 20252 ViewsNo Comments
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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List

The weather outside might be frightful for a while, but what better time to stay in and snuggle up with a great Broadway read? This season, Broadway’s best have put pen to paper to turn out theatre page-turners of every kind. From theatre biographies to theatre fiction; theatre books for kids to theatre history; check out our collection of 20 new Broadway books for every theatre lover’s winter reading list.

Check out recent releases and view upcoming books for later this year!


Sign Language Interpreting for Theatre: A Collaborative Approach 

By Lynnette Taylor, Stephanie Feyne, Candace Broecker Penn 

Available Now

Written by three veteran interpreters with deep roots in the Deaf community and the performing arts, Sign Language Interpreting for Theatre is the first of its kind: a comprehensive guide to the art of sign language interpreting for the theatre as a collaborative practice. Drawing from their years of experience of interpreting On- and Off-Broadway and blending the theoretical with the practical, Lynnette Taylor, Stephanie Feyne, and Candace Broecker Penn provide guiding principles, best practices, processes, and strategies for creating dynamic, collaborative, culturally-grounded sign language translations for theatre performances. 

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageHistory Hiding Around Broadway: Backstage Lore, Secrets & Surprises from New York’s Famed Theater District

By Teale Dvornik

Available Now

Broadway is one of New York’s greatest treasures, and where there is treasure, there is a backstory. When it comes to Broadway, that backstory is fittingly juicy, dramatic, and unexpected. And no one knows these hidden histories like Teale Dvornik, who has been leading Broadway fans on tours of the theater district since 2017. With her immense knowledge and passion for the theater, Dvornik now takes readers on her one-of-a-kind tour of Broadway, “stopping” at each of the 41 theaters to tell us fun facts, lesser-known history, ghost tales, and interesting stories about actors, performances, stage flukes, blunders, and more, involving the biggest names and productions in theater history. 

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageThe Dramatic Life of Jonah Penrose: A Novel

By Robyn Green

Available Now

Red, White & Royal Blue meets the theater world of London’s dazzling West End in this nuanced, queer debut romance in which a fake dating publicity stunt between rival co-stars results in romantic sparks neither of them expected. After winning his first Olivier Award for his performance in the West End’s top musical, The Wooden Horse, fabulously talented Jonah Penrose is the new shining star of London’s theatre scene. But Jonah’s success can’t erase the pain of a recent breakup, fix his self-doubt, or remedy his father’s ailing mind.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageHell’s Kitchen: Behind the Dream

By Alicia Keys and Lise Funderburg

Available Now

Hell’s Kitchen debuted on Broadway in 2024—and the show has been electrifying audiences ever since. With plenty of awards attention, the musical has drawn sold-out crowds to the Shubert Theatre for Alicia Keys’ relatable, raw and refreshingly fun production that shows us where dreams begin. Based on Keys’ own experiences of growing up in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, your journey starts with Ali, a 17-year-old girl full of fire, searching for freedom, passion, and her place in the world. Along the way, you’ll meet the musical mentor who changes her life, her dynamic family, and the neighborhood that helps her grow. It’s a celebration of finding yourself, your purpose, and the people who lift you up.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageGod on Broadway: Revealing the Sacred in the Spectacle

By Charles A. Gillespie

Available Now

What has Broadway to do with Jerusalem? God on Broadway explores the theological questions cracked open by commercial theatre. It shows how the Great White Way–that apex of tourist consumerism and a synonym for the business of spectacle–can be a place for theophany and critical reflection on religion. God is ready to be part of the show. God takes the stage as the clowning Jesus Christ of Godspell and in the comedian of An Act of God; God seems to overhear Tevye’s soliloquy-prayers from the balcony; God gets invoked in Backstage traditions and superstitions, in the booming voice of a director calling cues with a “god mic” and in the mystifying rules about a Scottish King’s name. Broadway has a God “waiting in the wings.”

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageAustralian Musical Theatre: Never Been Better?

By Mara Davis Johnson

Available Now

Australian Musical Theatre: Never Been Better? is the first sustained scholarly analysis of the Australian musical in the twenty-first century. In the past, the Australian musical has been much maligned: plagued by the sceptre of ‘The Great Australian Musical,’ and dogged by recurring concerns about the content and quality of the genre. In this book, Mara Davis Johnson assesses these concerns and argues that they are unfounded.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageNewsies, Newsies–Read All About It!: Essays on the Film and Broadway Production

By Emily Hamilton-Honey

Available Now

Newsies has been a self-perpetuating cultural phenomenon for over three decades. Initially a box office flop, the 1992 film musical became a cult classic and created a legendary fandom. Members of that same fandom were instrumental in making the 2012 Broadway show a smash hit; the stage production ran for over 1,000 performances and won two Tony awards, had a two-year North American tour, and was filmed for Netflix. A successful second production was mounted in the 2022-23 season in London’s West End. Now, in the first ever collection of scholarly writing about Newsies, voices from across academia and fandom come together to consider why this beloved property means so much to so many, and how it continues to inspire and light the civic imaginations of people all around the world.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageSolo: The Everything Guide to Writing, Performing, and Producing Your One-Person Show

By Arlene Malinowski and Julie Ganey

Available Now

The art of solo performance has exploded in the last twenty years as an immediate and accessible art form. The number of solo festivals grows every year, and artists are hungry for the opportunity to center their own voices and experiences. Solo is designed to feed that hunger. Seasoned theater educators and performers Arlene Malinowski and Julie Ganey have compiled an invaluable guide for students and practitioners alike. Topics include high-stakes narratives, compelling characters, and the role of narrators, as well as practical exercises, interviews with performers at every stage of their careers, and examples from real one-person shows. Performers will also find advice on collaborating with directors, incorporating technical elements, and producing and marketing strategies. 

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageEggs I Have Laid

By Meredith Wilson

Available Now

Back in print: the playful and personal memoir of Meredith Willson’s creative tribulations and triumphs before The Music Man. Composer, musical director, writer, lecturer, and piccoloist Meredith Willson laid many eggs throughout his career—but not all those eggs would hatch quite so gloriously as his Broadway hit The Music Man. In Eggs I Have Laid, Willson genially chronicles the failures that he faced as he made his place in show business during the pivotal early 1950s, when radio was being overtaken by television. From Hollywood to New York, London, and Paris, and back to his hometown of Mason City, Iowa, Willson sets each scene vividly, bringing to life his encounters with zeitgeist stars, from collaborators Tallulah Bankhead and Fred Allen to Orson Welles and Carmen Miranda. His signature wit excels as he relates his tales of eggs dropped, notable among them the lavishly produced variety program The Big Show, his ill-fated attempt to be a radio bulwark against the encroaching tide of television.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageWicked: The Complete Screenplay 

By Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox

Available Now

Get your lines word-perfect with Wicked: The Complete Screenplay, which features the complete script of the first film and full-color stills, celebrating the movie magic that brought the story from page to screen. This stunning hardcover features the complete script to director Jon M. Chu’s smash-hit movie, including the full lyrics to each of the unforgettable songs, from “No One Mourns the Wicked” to “Defying Gravity.” Each spread has vivid stills showcasing the set design, amazafying costumes, and classic dialogue, making this book right at home on the shelves of film buffs and Wicked fans alike.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageStaying Gold: The Oral History of The Outsiders

By Danny Boy O’Connor and Jimmie Tramel

Avilable Now

When a story resonates with audiences generation after generation, it reaches “classic” status. Francis Ford Coppola saw that potential in S. E. Hinton’s novel about two rival groups in 1960s Tulsa and knew it was meant for the silver screen. Now, in this definitive oral history, we’re given a rare glimpse into the filmmaking process: How Coppola’s team recruited unknown actors destined to become household names. How a film that could have easily been shot in a Hollywood studio was instead produced on location where the original novel was set. How an author who could have stood in the shadows came to be a major influence on the film, the actors, and the director himself. This oral history explores the legacy of The Outsiders, defining its historic impact since first arriving on bookshelves sixty years ago. Over a series of fascinating interviews with actors, casting directors, and others close to the project, it swiftly becomes clear how The Outsiders has managed to—as the adage goes—stay gold.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageCoyote

By Robert M. Dowling

Available Now

Sam Shepard was a true American original. A theater and film icon who lived life on a mythic scale, Shepard became an embodiment of the fierce independence and wild freedom of the American West. Taking us from the creative explosion of downtown New York City in the 1960s to Bob Dylan’s legendary Rolling Thunder Revue tour, from Hollywood backlots and film shoots in the Mojave Desert to the horse ranches where Shepard went to escape it all, Robert M. Dowling’s biography reveals this playwright, actor, and filmmaker as we’ve never known him before. In this authoritative and gripping biography, acclaimed biographer Robert M. Dowling dives into Shepard’s psyche, his imagination and his soul, to craft the most comprehensive and revelatory account yet of Shepard’s enduring work and tumultuous life. Ranging from Shepard’s romances with icons like Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, and Jessica Lange, to his groundbreaking artistic contributions to theater and film like True West, Buried Child, The Right Stuff, Days of Heaven, and Paris, Texas, Dowling draws on previously untapped archival resources and the help of members of Shepard’s family, close friends, lovers, and collaborators to place this artistic legacy in the context of the historic upheavals that compelled this extraordinary writer to so vividly record the American zeitgeist. In this biography, we see Shepard’s life, and his era, in all its splendor and chaos, from the 1960s counterculture to the rise of Trumpism.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageBarbra Streisand The Music: Her Albums & Singles – Revised & Updated

By Matt Howe

Available Now

Experience a full color, oversized Hard cover book that contains all of Barbra Streisand’s albums from her first to her most recent with in depth analysis of every song and cover. A complete discography filled with photos of the greatest female vocalist of all-time. Updated for 2025. On February 25, 1963, Columbia Records released The Barbra Streisand Album. The first song was “Cry Me a River,” and with that a star was born. Barbra Joan Streisand had a zany personality backed by a talent that Stephen Sondheim once described as “one of the two or three best voices in the world of singing songs,” adding “It’s not just her voice but her intensity, her passion and control.” Harold Arlen, another of her favorite composers, commented, ”This young lady . . . has a stunning future.” With all-male rock groups like the Beatles, The Beach Boys, and the Four Seasons ruling the charts, no one expected a twenty-year-old female singer from Brooklyn to not just hit No. 1, but repeat that accomplishment every decade that followed all the way to the next millennium and become the best-selling female recording artist of all time.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageMaking Rent: The Story Behind the Music that Changed Broadway 

By Tim Weil

Available January 13, 2026

Thirty years after Rent, Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking rock opera, opened on Broadway, you would be hard-pressed to find a musical theater fan who doesn’t know at least some of the show’s iconic tunes by heart. “Take Me or Leave Me,” “Light My Candle,” “La Vie Boheme,” and the ubiquitous “Seasons of Love” revolutionized the kind of music heard on the Broadway stage. Much of the impact comes from the show’s musical style, a singular blend of grunge rock, power pop, gospel, and R & B that was brought to life by the show’s onstage band, headed by the legendary musical director Tim Weil. From his first day as audition accompanist through his elevation to musical director, Weil was a critical collaborator with Larson in developing Rent’s unique sound. And when, on the eve of the company’s first public performance, Larson died unexpectedly, Weil was there to finesse a still-unfinished show into the musical Larson had long dreamed of.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageOpening Doors: Reimagining the American Musical

By John Doyle

Available January 22, 2026

Director John Doyle is an unlikely revolutionary. Described by critics as ‘the saviour of the Broadway musical’, the ‘amazing Mr Musicals’ and ‘the man who changed the face of the American musical’, his name alone has become synonymous with a style of reinvention that has opened doors to what commercial musical theatre can be in the 21st century. In his first book Doyle reflects on the 50-year theatrical journey taken by a boy who never dreamt it could happen to him. Through simply working at his craft and trying to earn a living he gained a reputation for thinking outside of the box and is credited with helping create a new art form – that of actor-musician led musical theatre.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageNever Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner

By Marc Shaiman

Available January 27, 2026

In Never Mind the Happy, musical dynamo Marc Shaiman looks back on five decades of Broadway triumphs, Hollywood hijinks, and unforgettable collaborations. Along the way, he charts the personal highs and heartbreaks that have shaped him—spending his teenage years in community theater, starting a decades-long collaboration with Bette Midler in the’70s, surviving the AIDS crisis of the ’80s, his award-winning film music career in the Hollywood of the ’90s, right up to the highs (and lows) of creating Broadway musicals from 2000 on. Candid, hilarious, and deeply human, Shaiman’s story is a tribute to the power of music, the pull of the spotlight, and the beat that never stops.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageSound and Music for the Theatre: The Art and Technique of Design

By Deena Kaye and James Lebrecht

Available January 30, 2026

The fifth edition of Sound and Music for the Theatre traces the process of how to build a sound design to support a theatrical production, from initial concept through implementation in actual performances. The book discusses the early evolution of sound design and how it supports the play, from researching sources for music and effects to negotiating a contract. It explores how to organize the construction of the sound design elements, how the designer functions in a rehearsal, and how to set up and train an operator to run sound equipment. This instructive information is interspersed with ‘war stories’ describing real-life problems with solutions that readers can apply in their own work, whether they are a sound designer, composer, or sound operator. Also featured are numerous roundtable forums offering insights from theatre luminaries across all aspects of theatrical production.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageHow to Succeed in Musical Theatre Without Really Dying: The Actor’s Guide to Booking Work and Building a Career That Lasts

By Lindsay Mendez and Ryan Scott Oliver

Available March 3, 2026

When it comes to a career in musical theatre, forget the myth of an “it factor”—your success is in your hands. The path to excellence requires daily determination and savvy strategy to help you stand out from the rest. Acclaimed master teachers Lindsay Mendez and Ryan Scott Oliver are here to show you the way. Many musical theatre actors confuse competence with excellence. We mistake arriving in NYC with a well-trained voice, a pricy headshot, and general show biz acumen for being ready to work where Broadway happens. Then, when too many auditions end up no-gos, we assume it’s not meant to be and book a one-way ticket back home. If only a fairy godmother had told them the truth: Show business has more to do with business than show. Building a lucrative and lifelong career in musical theatre is far more in an actor’s control than not.

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageKids, Wait Till You Hear This!

By Liza Minnelli

Available March 10, 2026

Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! is the autobiography of EGOT icon Liza Minnelli. This fascinating, untold story reveals the intimate truth of the only child born to Hollywood legends Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland. For the first time, here is Liza up close: Raw, strong, sexy, hilarious and heartbreaking. Liza decided at the age of 16  that “sympathy is my mother’s business. I give people joy.” That veil of joy, however, masks a lifelong struggle with Substance Use Disorder (“SUD,” which Liza inherited from her mother’s branch of her family), boundless love to give and an equal need to receive it, broken marriages, multiple miscarriages, and hospitalizations—the highs and lows of unparalleled artistic success and lifelong friendships, as well as chronic anxiety and the threat of financial ruin.  

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20 Theater Books for Your Winter 2026 Reading List  ImageAdaptation in Musical Theatre

By Adam Rush

Available March 19, 2026

Adaptation in Musical Theatre positions musical theatre as part of a broader cultural trend of recycling, referencing, remixing and alluding to existing creative works and texts. Despite critics often dismissing stage adaptations as lazy and safe bet options for producers, this book argues that crafting an adaptation enables creative teams to take fresh and imaginative approaches to a source text, given the multitude of ways in which the structures and styles of two (or more) different media can be combined. From Les Misérables to Wicked, by way of Legally Blonde and Fun Home, this lively book addresses several modern musicals, each adapted from a different type of source – including fiction, film and graphic novels – and each offering a different approach to adapting existing work.

ORDER TODAY

 

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