Blog Posts by Subject: Performing Arts

While Ellison is inextricably linked to his novel 'The Invisible Man,' his involvement with songwriting seems to have been neglected by the scholarly community.

Lynn Nottage's play, recently adapted into an opera, has become an essential part of the American repertory.

One of the most influential ballet choreographers of the 20th century, Balanchine was also a cat lover.

Scholar, archivist, and librarian Arianne Johnson Quinn has received the inaugural Noël Coward Fellowship. She plans to explore and bring to light the Coward archive at the Library through new essays, programs, and research guides.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts holds the papers of George Furth including his early drafts of the musical 'Company' which came in useful in the new revival on Broadway.

The musical is documented in several collections of the Library for the Performing Arts, including iterations of some of the promotional materials which are interesting both for what they reveal about the design process and as representations of what the team viewed as important themes in the show.

The Library recently acquired a number of works in a range of instrumental and vocal combinations for circulation by composers from traditionally underrepresented groups.

Interest in Sherlock Holmes is as high as ever, with movies, television adaptations, and pastiche novels proliferating each year including the new off-Broadway show 'A Sherlock Carol'. The Theatre Division at New York Public Library has documented many adaptations of the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle starring his famous detective—here are some of the highlights of Holmes on stage as represented in our collections. 

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is honoring the legacy of late American composer Stephen Sondheim with a moving display of letters and other objects from the archives of the colleagues and friends of the legendary artist. 

Curator Doug Resides shares some of his favorite items in the Library's holdings related to Stephen Sondheim and his body of work.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s musical 'Tick, Tick...Boom!' premiered this month on Netflix and in select theatres. At the Library for the Performing Arts, we have fascinating documentation of various theatre productions of the show over the past 28 years.

Over the past half-century The New York Public Library has preserved the history of the production, and we are thrilled it is at last on a Broadway stage.

Work was an African American composer and arranger working independently and for CBS Radio in New York City. Many of his arrangements are held in the CBS Collection of the Library of Performing Art's Music Division.

This series of short videos will explore composer and sound artist Amacher’s work through conversations as a shared engagement across social time and distance.

As part of our preparation for the Harold Prince exhibition that opened last September, The New York Public Library digitized a large number of photographic negatives of production shots from several of Prince’s musicals. As a result it is possible to virtually reconstruct the staging of these original productions by arranging the hundreds of digitized photographs in the order of the show.

Today, we present eight performances from our Across a Crowded Room initiative for the world to see. It was a difficult year in many respects, but the quality of the work created this year is among the best I have seen in the seven years of the program. Enjoy the 2020 Across A Crowded Room Playlist!

For every writer, there is a distinctive moment in which the crossroads of music and the written arts surfaces into a singular and synonymous condition.

This list was part of the free brochure available at the gallery, but now, as the exhibition is closed and coming down, we wanted to ensure the list was still available for those who want to read more about this icon of theatre history.

These production photos (many put together as gifs) have been arranged in the order of the show and may be the closest you'll get to viewing the original production.