Scott’s summer reading list
When it’s too hot to stand in line at the TKTS booth, and the smell from Raising Cane’s Chicken Finger emporium on the corner is making you want to pass out, it’s time to head to the beach. And if you’re like me, you can’t even think about going to the beach or, for that matter, leaving the house without knowing what book you’re bringing.
The past few years have seen a noticeable uptick in fiction about actors, acting, and life upon the wicked stage. It’s surprising it was an untapped market for so long, considering how rife with drama those dramatic people can be. So, whether you’re hiding inside in the air conditioning or on your way to the Hamptons, here are some theatre-themed reads.
Let’s start with the big one of this past year, and the one I am very excited to get to:
Audition by Katie Kitamura
A seasoned, middle-aged actress in rehearsals for a Broadway premiere finds herself grappling with what is real and what is not after lunch in a Manhattan restaurant with a man who could be her son causes her to begin to unravel. A psychological thriller that critics call “slick, sharp, and propulsive.”
Flashout by Alexi Soloski
In 1970’s New York, a college student attends a performance by an experimental theatre troupe. Changed forever, she leaves school behind and travels with them. In present-day LA, now an adult theatre professor, she grapples with her youthful decisions when a mysterious letter brings her past crashing into the present. A taut, suspenseful novel of art, seduction, and the deadly limits of liberation. The New York Times called it “a deep dive into the theatre world.”
Playworld by Adam Ross
A bildungsroman! How long have we waited to use that word? Too long. (It means coming of age or spiritual education.) 1980s New York—a fourteen-year-old boy who is the star of a very popular TV series begins an affair with his friend’s mom. Hot! The novel has been praised up and down for its “tragicomic, dazzling, ambitious prose” about coming of age, life in the TV business, and, in particular, New York in the 1980s. “Ross offers surprising narrative flights, stunning passages, and a nostalgia-soaked setting in so-real-you’re-there, bygone New York City.”
And finally, some non-fiction:
Theatre Kid by Jeffrey Seller
One of the most successful Broadway producers of his generation—from Rent to Hamilton—Seller offers an insider’s glimpse into making his way up in NYC as a producer. Reads like a who’s who, with candid stories about Jonathan Larson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Darren Criss, and too many others to mention.
And just maybe my favorite…
Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History by Glen Berger
This book is nuts. A front-row seat to the great disaster that was Julie Taymor’s musical about, yes, Spider-Man. Bono, The Edge, and Ms. Taymor are the main characters, as playwright Glen Berger himself tells all about those harrowing couple of years weathering rewrites, injured dancers, one of the worst and loudest scores of all time, and a very, very big budget. There’s a laugh on nearly every page as you watch this thing unravel—especially if you’ve worked on any size production.
