Well, the Tony Awards are over for another year, and Hamilton was the big winner overall. Now you’d like to learn more, wouldn’t you? Here are two free sources on the Internet for information about theatre productions:
- The Internet Broadway Database is an archive of Broadway theatre information, with “records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre until today.” It has all kinds of information about particular shows, people, theatres, characters, awards, songs, and grosses. Don’t know how to spell someone’s last name? The first name will get you a list you can browse. What are the songs, and what characters sing them, in various shows? Who won Tony awards, and who were the other nominees? You can learn all kinds of tidbits, e.g., Hamilton is based on the book Alexander Hamilton by Chernow (available from Andersen Library’s 3rd-floor Main Collection, at E302.6.H2 C48 2004).
- See also the The Lortel Archives, the Internet Off-Broadway Database,about productions in Manhattan theatres with a seating capacity of 100-499 that were “intended to run a closed-ended or open-ended schedule of performances of more than one week” and were “offered to critics and general audiences alike.”
Enjoy.
And if you’d like to learn more about all different aspects of Broadway theatre, Andersen Library has resources. Search the Books, Media and more (UW Whitewater) segment of Research@UWW for books such as Showtime: A history of the Broadway musical theater (3rd-floor Main Collection, ML1711.8.N3 S73 2010), The performing set: The Broadway designs of William and Jean Eckart (3rd-floor Main OVERSIZE, PN2096.E23 H37 2006), The Broadway musical: A critical and musical survey (3rd-floor Main Collection, ML1711 .S95 1990), and Hamilton: The revolution: Being the complete libretto of the Broadway musical, with a true account of its creation, and concise remarks on hip-hop, the power of stories, and the new America (2nd-floor New Arrivals Island, ML50.M6733 H3 2016). There is music for various voices, such as Broadway repertoire for mezzo-soprano: A selection of Broadway’s best in their original keys for mezzo-soprano voice (3rd-floor Main OVERSIZE, M1507 .B762 1979). You also can find original Broadway cast recordings, including Sunday in the park with George: Original Broadway cast recording (2nd-floor Browsing CDs, SOU Son Son). Search article databases for articles such as “A Theatre Historian’s Perspective” (TDR: The Drama Review, 2001, vol.45:no.4, pp.125-128), “The history of the Broadway costume business” (TD&T: Theatre Design & Technology, 2011, vol.47:no.1, pp.10-19), “Megamusicals, spectacle and the postdramatic aesthetics of late capitalism” (Studies in Musical Theatre, 2011, vol.5:no.1, pp.13-34), and ‘Is this what it takes just to make it to Broadway?!’: Marketing In the Heights in the twenty-first century (Studies in Musical Theatre, 2011, vol.5:no.1, pp. 49-69).
Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding additional materials.
