Live performances have been sorely missed by New Yorkers and tourists alike. After well over a year with the lights dark, Broadway shows are finally preparing to resume next month. If Broadway's absence has made your heart grow fonder, we have some books to suggest—for kids and adults, fiction and nonfiction—to tide you over until you're able to get to a show.

Kids and Middle Grade

A is for Audra: Broadway's Leading Ladies from A to Z by John Robert Allman

Step into the spotlight and celebrate a cavalcade of Broadway's legendary ladies. Start with "A" for six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, then sing and dance your way through the alphabet with beloved entertainers like Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Lea Salonga, Kristin Chenoweth, Kelli O'Hara, and Liza Minnelli.

 

 

 

Lulu the Broadway Mouse by Jenna Gavigan

Wanting to be on Broadway more than anything in the world, a little mouse living in the Shubert Theatre becomes a guide to a young cast member who needs advice about understanding the theatrical world while pursuing one's dreams in unexpected ways.

 

 

 

 

Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle 

An eighth-grader who dreams of performing in a Broadway musical concocts a plan to run away to New York and audition for the role of Elliot in the musical version of "E.T."

 

 

 

 

 

Fearless by Mandy Gonzalez 

While rehearsing what may be the last show in the Ethel Merman Theater, twelve-year-old Monica Garcia and other cast members are locked in and must try to appease a ghost and reverse a curse.

 

 

 

 

Adult

Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way by Caseen Gaines 

The story of how Shuffle Along, the first Broadway show with an all-Black cast and creative team, became the musical sensation of 1921, paving the way for people of color on stage and screen.

 

 

 

 

Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda

The Tony Award-winning composer-lyricist-star takes readers behind the scenes of his groundbreaking hit musical, which is filled with romance, drama, violence, patriotism and adventure and details the many dramatic episodes in Alexander Hamilton's life.

 

 

 

Singular Sensation: The Triumph of Broadway by Michael Riedel 

The New York Post theater columnist draws on more than 150 insider interviews to celebrate the productions, artists and movements that shaped Broadway in the years spanning Sunset Boulevard through The Lion King.

 

 

 

 

The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America by Isaac Butler

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the show's Broadway premiere, an oral history of Angels in America, a generation-defining classic and moving account of the AIDS era, is told through nearly 200 voices in vibrant conversation and debate and is both a rollicking theater saga and an uplifting testament to one of the great works of art of the past century.

 

 

 

 

The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows are Built by Jack Viertel 

A Broadway veteran draws on a range of examples—from The Music Man to Wicked to The Book of Mormon—and personal encounters to paint a picture of how Broadway musicals are made, taking readers through all the phases of a typical musical-theater story, from opening numbers to finales. 

 

 

 

A Tender Thing by Emily Neuberger

Running away to New York City for an open-call Broadway audition, an aspiring musical actress lands a major role in a controversial new production that tests the cultural boundaries of the late 1950s.

 

 

 

 

Limelight by Amy Poeppel

Optimistically moving her family from suburban Dallas to Manhattan, Allison Brinkley finds New York unexpectedly bewildering, until an encounter with a famous pop star who has been cast in a Broadway musical provides her with a surprising opportunity.

 

 

 

 

Lives of the Circus Animals by Christopher Bram

A comedy of manners explores themes of love, work, and success in the world behind the scenes of contemporary New York theater.

 

 

 

 

 

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Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.