You may have seen Jesse Green's piece in the NYT Theater last year about the animations our Theatre Curator made of negatives of Cabaret from the Friedman-Abeles collection. Thanks to recent donations, we now have color photos as well and new animations!

Here's an animation of color Friedman-Abeles photos of the choreography from the original 1954 production of The Boy Friend in which Julie Andrews (not pictured) made her Broadway debut.

Audiences might want Paris Hilton in the Apple Tree (HT: #HunterBell Jeff Bowen Bowen), but Barbara Harris's eyebrow game was on point in the 1966 original.

Back in 1968, Patience (or maybe Fortitude) seems to have danced with Eugene Troobnick in the Stratford, Connecticut production of Shaw's "Androcles and the Lion" // (animation of photos by Friedman-Abeles. The Lion was actually played by Ted Graeber)

Curator Doug Reside writes about his last correspondence with Stephen Sondheim in which they discussed the composer's interest in creating a video game adaptation of INTO THE WOODS: nypl.org/blog/2022/07/2…

In honor of Michael John LaChiusa's new musical, Los Otros (playing at A.R.T. New York until October 8 ), here's a look at work LaChiusa submitted for RAGTIME & SUNSET BLVD (and more!) nypl.org/blog/2022/09/1…

Looking forward to the release of the cast album for @shainataub's beautiful adaptation of As You Like It. Until then, here is a sample of some of the other Delacorte Shakespeare Musicals in our archives at NYPL: nypl.org/blog/2022/10/0…

Learn how to best preserve your work and how to keep it safe in the digital realm. Join DG Copyright Managment and The Library for Performing Arts's Doug Reside on 10/20. thedgcm.org/national-estat… #EstatePlanningAwarenessWeek #EstatePlanning #LetYourWorkLiveOn #Archives #Legacy

Is 1776 revolutionary? A recent revival has raised some questions about the effect of showing the 1969 musical today. Doug Reside looks at some of the materials at the Library for the Performing Arts to uncover the original intentions of the producers. nypl.org/blog/2022/11/0…

I enjoyed compiling this not-terribly-scientific survey the scenes that get cut most often from stage versions of A Christmas Carol. (Next year let's have the Christmas celebration in the Lighthouse and the mines!) nypl.org/blog/2022/12/2…

I'm going to assume I'm not the only person to have tried this, but I remember how we used to talk about how TEI could train AI. Seems like it did. "Tag Hamlet using SP, SPEAKER tags with the "who" attribute":

I recently published a short piece of the making of the original production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. You can read it here: nypl.org/blog/2023/04/1… Also, The Library for Performing Arts has digitized over 1000 photos of the original production. Here's Rita Moreno:

Did anybody here see the musical of Sweeney Todd that opened the Sullivan Street Playhouse in 1957 at the same time that West Side Story was opening on Broadway? I've written a little piece about it, but I'd love to know more: nypl.org/blog/2023/04/2…

#NoCutsToLibraries! Today you can help us send a clear, united message to City leaders: reverse the $36.2 million cut.

"Of course, I shouldn't tell you this but she advocates *dirty books*...Chaucer! Rabelais! Bal-zac!" ~The Music Man (1957) 📸 Friedman-Abeles investinlibraries.org #nocutstolibraries

May God bless you and grant you long lives. (May the Lord fulfill our Sabbath prayer for you.) Thanks, Mr. Harnick.

Book drop day! My book, Fixing the Musical (about the technologies that shaped what we think of when we think of musicals) is out as an eBook. Paper to come in the next week or two: amazon.com/Fixing-Musical…

I'm interviewing Betty Aberlin at the Library this Monday at 6pm. Many here may know her best from her long running role on Mr. Rogers, but she was also involved in many of the most interesting theatre pieces of the late 20th century. Tickets are free: eventbrite.com/e/a-conversati…

If you want to hear me talk about my new book in person, come to the Museum of Broadway on Tuesday at 5pm. It's free! eventbrite.com/e/the-work-wai…

From the mid-70s, the appearance of musical theatre on television helped to establish the musical as an important American art form worthy of critical attention. Discover more about this development in a chapter from Doug Reside’s “Fixing the Musical”: oxford.ly/3XdrJBx