English Theater

The work of Mike Nichols pervades American cultural consciousness - from The Graduate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to Angels in America, The Birdcage, Working Girl, and Primary Colors, not to mention his string of hit plays, including Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple. Over a career that spanned half a century, Mike Nichols changed Hollywood, Broadway, and comedy forever. Here, for the first time, Ash Carter and Sam Kashner offer an intimate look behind the scenes of Nichols' life.

Sam Meeko never thought that he’d ever get a superpower, especially one that allows him to smell everything. Everything. With his unconventional power, Sam joins forces with a group of women hellbent on getting to the bottom of a countrywide conspiracy. It’s going to take some thinking outside the box, and when that doesn’t work, Sam and his group might need to tear the walls down.

All the Ways to Say I Love You by Neil LaBute, directed by Leigh Silverman, is a thoughtful, psychological solo play centered around the character Faye Johnson, performed by multi-award-winning actress Judith Light (Transparent, American Crime Story, Who's the Boss?). Reflecting on an event from her past, Johnson confronts the defining question of her life: What is the weight of a lie?

All the Ways to Say I Love You received its World Premiere production at the MCC Theater in September of 2016. MCC is under the leadership of Artistic Directors Robert Lupone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, and Executive Director Blake West.

Bonus content includes an Audible-exclusive conversation between director Leigh Silverman and actress Judith Light.

Before "Fred and Ginger" there was "Fred and Adele", a show-business partnership and cultural sensation like no other. In our celebrity-saturated era, it's hard to comprehend what a genuine phenomenon these two siblings from Omaha were. At the height of their success in the mid-1920s, the Astaires seemed to define the Jazz Age. They were Gershwin's music in motion, a fascinating pair who wove spellbinding rhythms in song and dance. In this book, the first comprehensive study of their theatrical career together, Kathleen Riley traces the Astaires' rise to fame from humble midwestern origins.

In How You Get Famous, journalist Nicole Pasulka raucously documents the rebirth of the New York drag scene, following a group of iconoclastic performers with undeniable charisma, talent, and a hell of a lot to prove. In the past decade, drag has become a place where edgy, competitive showoffs can find security in a callous and over priced city, a shot at real money, and a level of recognition queer people rarely achieve. But can drag keep its edge as it travels from the backroom to the main stage?

In his first work for the theater, James Baldwin brought all the fervor and majestic rhetoric of the storefront churches of his childhood along with an unwavering awareness of the price those churches exacted from their worshipers. For years Sister Margaret Alexander has moved her Harlem congregation with a mixture of personal charisma and ferocious piety. But when Margaret's estranged husband, a scapegrace jazz musician, comes home to die, she is in danger of losing both her standing in the church and the son she has tried to keep on the godly path.

"It's The End" is a comedy-monologue about a woman who is supposedly in her last moments, and therefore makes some radical decisions. "The Beast" is about an elderly woman who moves into the refrigerator in protest at the neglect of her caregivers.

Portraits While Portraits takes place in a modern law firm with recognizable surroundings, its collection of characters are just as tragic as those vagabonds, kings, prostitutes, puppets, and clowns who search for meaning in an absurd world. It questions our values and illusions as it forces us to ask who are the real winners and losers as we pass through an existence none of us understand. Portraits peels away the masks of conventionality through a quirky host that invites us to attend Bernie Geldmann's birthday party. The party is in the firm's conference room which has two portraits ...

True's theatrical skills land her in hot water as she and Michael pursue a serial killer who calls himself The Ring Master.

Informative and entertaining to older and young adults alike, this biography of Giuseppe Verdi, translated from the original Italian, was written by a contemporary of Verdi one year after the great composer’s death. Filled with anecdotes about the maestro, the book presents not only the details of Verdi’s life and accomplishments, but also lessons to be learned by young people from his example of diligence, hard work, humility and simplicity. More than 30 pictures have been added throughout the original work to help bring this inspiring story to life.

Michael B. Druxman’s one-person play, Ronald Reagan: Movie Star, joins the actor in 1949, when he has just lost a major film role to Errol Flynn. Indeed, not much in his life seems to be going well at this time. Divorced from actress Jane Wyman, his recent romance with Patricia Neal has also taken a wrong turn after she discovered Gary Cooper.

Burlesque: A Living History captures the spirit of this unique art form through hundreds of photographs and stories from many who were a part of America's most colorful past. This audiobook highlights the careers and contributions of selected artists, many of whom were the nuts and bolts of burlesque. It also acknowledges just some of the young performers of today who are diligently working to remember the days of old. When burlesque theatres and clubs went dark, a whole world went dark with them.

Step inside the The Wardrobe Dinner Theater and experience the backstage diva drama as these performers embark on a faith-filled journey to find what matters most in life. The complete series includes Dance over Me, Focus on Love, Sing a New Song, A Picture Perfect Christmas, and Home for Christmas.

The queen of British comedy brings her fantastically funny mix of observations on life, jokes, and songs to audio, taken from the award-winning Victoria Wood - as Seen on TV.

When Margaret Thursday lands a role as a child actress at a well-known London theatre, becoming famous almost overnight, news of her success reaches her bitter enemy, the matron of her old orphanage. Margaret knows that Matron is set on revenge, but she keeps her head held high, focusing on the play. But Matron’s evil plans are well prepared and Margaret is going to need her wits about her – and the help of her friends – if she is to escape unharmed.

China-Burma-India is one of the most forgotten theaters of World War 2. As the United States entered the war after Pearl Harbor, it looked to China as a source of manpower as well as a base for bombers and a way to eventually invade Japan. The Japanese, British, Americans, and Chinese each had their own motivations and policies in the Pacific that would ultimately lead to the involvement of Burma in the Pacific War. The conflict in Burma was an intricate affair that may be best understood through the story of the first Yunnan Expedition into Burma.

Johnny is a Spanish guitar player with a mysterious past. At a party, he meets the beautiful songstress Aphrodite who is enthralled with his flamenco guitar skills. Later, she learns they have a connection, a particular song they both appear to know. Aphrodite discovers the connection, and through dreams, the two fall in love. The question is whether they will ever be together.

Charles Paris has landed a dual role in a lavish West End musical: onstage as a bit player, offstage as an undercover sleuth. The production's nervous backers fear that someone is trying to kill the play. The ultimate showstopper would be to eliminate the star.

Pierce has his mission: survive by killing and getting nasty, doing whatever it takes to find his lost wife and others who were abducted and forced to participate in the barbarity that is Planet Kill. In a galaxy where the only way to rise up in society and make it to the paradise planets is through this insanity, he will be up against the most desperate, the most ruthless, and the sexiest fighters alive. Because it's not just a planet - it's the highest rated show around.

All seems well in the city on Pinchester, but trouble is brewing at the Varmint Theater. Before he knows it, Hermux is hired not only to investigate a mysterious blackmailer, but to design the set for an upcoming show. As Hermux enters the dizzying world of the theater he finds himself in a whirlwind of distractions, among them an accidental foray into reality theater and trying to fight off sexy film director Brinx Lotelle's shameless interest in Hermux's girlfriend Linka.