Can’t make it to Broadway? Come to the Library

The Tony Awards nominations were announced a short while ago. While you can’t see the performances here, you can come pretty close. For example, Two of the nominees for Best Play are based upon a book. Why not read one? Click on “read more” to see some of the ways you can enjoy Broadway at home. 

Each of the links below will take you to the WLS catalog where you can put holds on items that interest you.

Best Play

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Simon Stephens is based upon a book of the same name by Mark Haddon. Besides the regular old print for reading, you can listen to it, download it to listen to, download it to read, read it in large print. You can even read it in Japanese.
• Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel and Mike Poulton is derived from Mantel’s Booker Prize winner. It is available in all the formats as Haddon’s book except that, instead of Japanese, you’ll have to settle for a DVD of a Masterpiece Theater Production.
• Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. Read the play itself.
• Hand to God, by Robert Askins… Er, um, we’ll wait and see if it wins a Tony.

Best Musical

• An American in Paris is all over the Westchester Library System (WLS). Here at Larchmont we’ve got two orchestral versions and even a George Gershwin piano roll recording. Of course there’s the Gene Kelly movie too.
• Fun Home is based upon Alison Bechdel’s graphic-format memoir. If you don’t feel like reading, you can listen to the cast recording.
• Something Rotten! does not appear anywhere in the Library System. Perhaps something really is rotten in Denmark.
• The Visit‘s book was written by Terrence McNally, the music by John Kander and the lyrics by Fred Ebb. You might have heard of an earlier work by the trio, Kiss of the Spider Woman. If you’re looking for just Kander and Ebb, here at Larchmont we have their flops Chicago and Cabaret. Overall, there are over 60 items in WLS that reference Kander and Ebb.

Best Revival

• The Elephant Man – ’nuff said.
• Skylight, by David Hare, is available in the County as well as a bunch of other works.
• This Is Our Youth was written by Kenneth Lonergan. Besides the play, Lonnergan has been involved in many other projects, ranging from The Gangs of New York to The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (don’t laugh, DeNiro was in it too).
• You Can’t Take It With You is one of seven plays George Kaufman and Moss Hart wrote together.

Best Revival of a Musical

• The King and I – We’ve got the movie and a cd of the original Broadway cast (the one with Gertrude Lawrence) here at Larchmont. Or you can read the book which started the whole thing, Anna Harriette Leonowens’ The English Governess at the Siamese Court.
• On the Town – Knock yourself out.
• On the Twentieth Century – You can get a cd and some scores of this musical, but that is only a smattering of all the Comden and Green materials available in the County.

These are only some of the Tony Award categories. You can do creative catalog searches on your own. For example, one way to check out someone’s acting chops is to listen to them read a book. Just put their name and the word “audiobook” in the search box and see what comes up. For example, Bill Nighy reads the downloadable audiobook of Ian Fleming’s Moonraker, the cd audiobook Clapton, the autobiography, and appears in a performance of The Merchant of Venice. What range!