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Let’s Talk: Theatreathon TBR

Honestly, I still can’t believe it’s September and that we’re now in the “ber” months. Something I’m really excited about this month is the Theatreathon (find out more here) and I thought it would be fun to share my TBR with y’all! I’ve finished a few books already, and I’m really excited to see how many I get to this month.

Best Musical – A classic or a retelling of a classic

Back in April, when I was working on my Shakespeare month posts, I had been looking for retellings of Shakespeare plays. While I ultimately ended up reading a Much Ado About Nothing retelling, Speak Easy, Speak Love, one of the books that I had found was The Last True Poets of the Sea, which happens to be a retelling of my favorite Shakespeare comedy, Twelfth Night. I’ve been wanting to read it since April, but it, unfortunately, has fallen by the wayside. When I was choosing my books for the theatreathon I thought of it again and knew it would be the perfect choice for this prompt.

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Best Revival of a Musical – A reread of a favorite

Earlier this year I got an ARC of Our Violent Ends and immediately proceeded to lose my mind. I love the These Violent Delights series, and when I was thinking of rereading a favorite, this was the first one to pop into my head as I’ve been planning on rereading it for a while now.

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Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical – A book with your favorite male character

I honestly don’t think anyone is surprised that I’m going with If We Were Villains for this one. Oliver Marks, James Farrow, and Alexander Vass my beloved theatre children (and none for Richard Stirling, bye). I recently saw someone say that reading IWWV feels like coming home, and honestly, I feel that. This book is my comfort book (yes I know, a comfort read being a book about murder is odd, just go with it) and I’m so excited to revisit my favorite characters.

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Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical – A strong female character

I’d had Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From on my TBR for a while now but hadn’t gotten around to it. I actually finished this book yesterday, and while I do think that Liliana had a lot of strength, the book itself was a little bit lacking for me, but I’m so glad that I finally got around to reading it!

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Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical – A book with more than one pov

Truthfully, I’m not a huge Sci-Fi reader. I don’t dislike it, but it’s not a go-to genre for me. However, I’ve heard so many amazing things about Legend by Marie Lu that I just had to add it to my TBR!

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Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical – A book by two or more authors

I’ve recently gotten into reading anthologies (if you’ve got recs, hook me up!) and when Cossette wrote a review on the A Universe of Wishes anthology I thought it sounded so cool and was really looking forward to reading it. I figured that this was a great time to read it!

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Best Book of a Musical – A popular book you haven’t read

Honestly, I am ashamed that I haven’t read Down Comes the Night yet because of how hyped I have been for it. I think I mostly just haven’t been in the mood to read it yet, and we know how much of a mood reader I can be. But, once we had picked prompts for the theatreathon I knew that this would be the perfect time to read it, and it just so happens to be the September choice for a book club I’m a member of!

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Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for Theatre – A book with beautiful prose

This Is How You Lose the Time War was the first book that I finished this month and the first book I read for the theatreathon. I had tried to read it last year and couldn’t get into it but this time around I listened to the audiobook and finished it in a couple hours. The writing is definitely beautiful, but I had a hard time getting into the story. I think this one just wasn’t for me, but I completely understand why people love it. 

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Best Scenic Design of a Musical – A book that takes place in a country outside your own

I would 100% be lying if I said that I’ve never thought about how I would react to finding out that I’m secretly a princess, it’s maybe been a life-long dream of mine. As Tokyo Ever After applies to that personal dream of mine, it’s been on my tbr for a while, and a chunk of the story takes place in Japan, this seemed like the right choice.

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Best Costume Design of a Musical – A book with a gorgeous cover

There are so many books I could’ve picked for this one, but I decided to go with Luck of the Titanic because of my obsession with the Titanic. I mean, really, how gorgeous is the cover? I’m really excited to read this one!

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Best Lighting Design of a Musical – Read a dark/scary book

From the title alone, Black Water Sister sounds like it’ll be a dark and atmospheric read. I absolutely love paranormal stories and this one has definitely piqued my interest and sounds like something I’m just going to love, so I may be starting it very soon!

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Best Direction of a Musical – A character-driven book

A little while ago I heard about A Wish in the Dark and when I heard that it was a Les Misérables retelling set in a Thai-inspired fantasy world I was instantly intrigued. We know how much I love Les Mis so I would be reading this one no matter what, but I figured it would be a great choice for this prompt as I see the original as an extremely character-driven story.

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Best Choreography – A book about performing arts

Mandy Gonzalez is an absolute powerhouse on Broadway and I’ve been a fan for a very long time. When I heard that she was releasing a book I was so excited! Then, it was announced that it was a theatre-themed mystery and as those are my two favorite things, I couldn’t wait to read it. I actually read it a few hours ago and really enjoyed it! It was so cute and fun – I really love a good old theatre mystery. I’m really looking forward to the second book in the series that’ll be released in April of next year!

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Best Orchestrations – A book written in verse

I heard about Solo randomly one day while looking for a new book to read and I was instantly interested in the story. After seeing some reviews, a lot of them mentioned that the book is told in conversations written in verse, text messages, and poetry, which just sounds so cool and I think fits the prompt really well.

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Best Sound Design of a Musical – Read an audiobook

Audiobooks my beloved. I really could’ve gone with anything here, but I’ve found that I really like reading books about music or that involve music through audiobooks, so I decided to go with XOXO by Axie Oh. I love a secret relationship storyline, so I’m really looking forward to this one.

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Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre – Free Space

A bunch of my friends have read Hang the Moon and have enjoyed it, so I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while now. I enjoyed Bellefleur’s Written in the Stars, and many people I know who have read both said they enjoyed Hang the Moon even more. Plus, the idea of a guy convincing his childhood crush that romance isn’t dead by recreating iconic dates from his favorite films? Please, that’s the cutest thing ever. I am so ready.

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Isabelle Stevens Award – A book over 450 pages

So, you know how we all have those books that we’re like “Oh, yeah, yeah I’ve totally read that one!” and we’re very clearly lying? Jane Eyre is one of those books for me. Now that’s not to say that I don’t know the story, because I do. I’ve read some parts of the book and actually used a monologue from the musical in my college audition for my theatre conservatory. I also bought a really gorgeous copy of it a few months ago and figured I might as well get around to reading it! 

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Special Tony Award (lifetime) – A non-fiction book centered around a subject you’re passionate about

Earlier this year, I read Caseen Gaines Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way and it really affected me. While I’ve been aware of how much of Broadway’s history (and just history in general) has been whitewashed and how the work of BIPOC creators has been brushed under the rug, reading Footnotes really emphasized and highlighted this fact. Black artists have had so much influence on theatre and it really upsets me that it is not recognized. I’m so excited to read Black Broadway: African Americans on the Great White Way and expand my knowledge on the history of Broadway and the voices that have unfortunately been forgotten.

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Best Newcomer – A 2021 debut

I love ballet and dance, and since reading Chloe Angyal’s Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself, I’ve been wanting to read more books about ballet, both fiction and non-fiction. Then I heard about The Ballerinas and lost my mind at the fact that it’s a ballet themed mystery. I’m also going to be buddy reading it with Cossette, so I’m very excited!

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Best Author – A book written by your favorite author

There were a lot of books that I could’ve gone with as I have a lot of favorite authors, but I decided to go with good old Jane Austen! Emma is my favorite Austen book, and while I could’ve gone with any of her other books and it would’ve been a good choice, I couldn’t resist a reread of a favorite.

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Best Special Theatrical Event – A book with an adaptation

I’ve known the story of The Color Purple since I was a kid and I saw the touring production of the Tony Award winning 2015 Revival, but I haven’t read the book all the way through. As this book has a musical adaptation, I thought it was a fitting choice for our theatreathon.

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We have a lot of really fun things planned for the Theatreathon, so I hope that you’ll join us! If you are, let us know what you’ll be reading, and check out our Twitter @ theatreathons to keep updated and connect with everyone!

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