Author and musical theatre librettist Stephen Cole has taken his real-life friendships with Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, the two undisputed queens of Broadway, tossed them into a blender and come up with a fantasy about a nerdy super-fan in the early 1980s who, while visiting his dying idol Ethel Merman, stumbles into a time portal in her closet and exits on the other side in Sophie Tucker's star dressing room at the Imperial Theatre in 1939.

The inspiring story of Max Britsky, who grew up in the slums of New York and became one of the most powerful men in the American movie industry. Max tells the story of the rise of Max Britsky, entwined with the film industry’s beginnings near the turn of the twentieth century. When he was twelve, Max's father died, leaving him to scrape out a living in Manhattan's Lower East Side slums to provide for his mother and siblings. But Max was a natural entrepreneur, and he followed his business instincts and love of the theater to become one of the first film moguls in the history of American moviemaking.

Do you want to know more about the fascinating history of Broadway musicals, the stars of yesterday and today, and what goes on behind the curtain of a musical production? In Musical Theatre For Dummies, Broadway insider Seth Rudetsky takes you backstage and reveals everything you want to know about life in the theatre.

Seven years ago, a letter left inside a tree brought Laura Bradshaw an anonymous friend who helped her navigate the tragic loss of her mother and gave her something to look forward to despite the overbearing hand of her father. Life would be far bleaker, if not for her beloved Letter Tree, her dear friend, and her secret trips to the Buffalo Zoo. But even these rays of light are threatened when her father decides to play matchmaker in order to further his business goals.

Angeline Sims is no shrinking violet. She’s tough, opinionated, bossy, and she’s got a bone to pick with nearly everyone in her life. Set in the fictitious Eastern North Carolina small town of Shelbington, Angeline has been given a terminal diagnosis, with mere months left to live. Upon learning of this news, her adult children and grandchildren come home for one last visit.

The Music Man stands as one of the greatest achievements in American musical theatre, but few know about its rocky beginnings and the against-all-odds success story of its creator, Meredith Willson. Mark Cabaniss steps back into the Golden Age of Broadway and brings to life the origins of this classic show, the music behind it, and the unlikely story of its creator. Interweaving behind-the-scenes accounts of people who worked with Willson, Cabaniss looks at his long and unusual career as a composer, conductor, radio personality, and flutist.

New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks knows she should be happy. Her high school sweetheart is about to propose and sweep her off to the life everyone has always expected they’d have together: a quiet house in the suburbs, Marion staying home to raise their future children. But instead, Marion finds herself feeling trapped. So when she comes across an opportunity to audition for the famous Radio City Rockettes—the glamorous precision-dancing troupe—she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer.

Seventy-nine-year-old wealthy Jewish widow Esther Kellerman lives in a small suburb outside of Columbus, Ohio. Esther thinks she has a pretty good life. She plays bridge, reads for her book club, and routinely drives her Cadillac DeVille into the mailboxes of her neighbors. Her latest mailbox mishap leads her to the doorstep of some mysterious new residents of her neighborhood. As she introduces herself to Sarah, the elderly woman who answers the door, Esther soon realizes that there’s something wrong with her. 

Twenty years ago, his Chicago political column was syndicated in two hundred papers, but he had an affair—and a son—with his intern, and lost it all. Now he writes a local column and drives for Uber to pay his bills. Jake is playing out the string when his tranquil world is turned upside down. His biracial son—an ambitious entrepreneur—is marked for death by a street gangster, his alcoholic daughter is pregnant and wants an abortion.

Some genres were never meant to cross. Joe Slade is a detective with a hot lead and a warm gun. He no longer believes in happy ever afters, but his faith in plot twists is devout. Good thing. He is about to discover the biggest twist of all. Joe Slade is not real. He is a character in a series of mystery novels. And when he discovers all his pain has been in the name of book sales, there will be hell to pay. Vowing revenge on his author, he will set off for the World Where the Books Are Written.

Growing up torn between her single Pan Am-stewardess mom and brothel-owning grandmother in 1960s New York City, Robin F. Schepper never imagined that she’d one day have an office in the East Wing of the White House. Her childhood in a German American neighborhood on the Upper East Side was peppered with half-truths, from the family secrets surrounding her grandmother’s immigration to deceptions about her biological father.

Holding the faded postcard in her trembling hands, Mia begins to read the one story her grandmother could never tell her, revealing a secret that will change her own life forever....

Mabel Beaumont’s husband Arthur loved lists. He’d leave them for her everywhere. ‘Remember: eggs, butter, sugar’. ‘I love you: today, tomorrow, always’. But now Arthur is gone. He died: softly, gently, not making a fuss. But he’s still left her a list. This one has just one item on it though: ‘Find D’. Mabel feels sure she knows what it means. She must track down her best friend Dot, who she hasn’t seen since the fateful day she left more than sixty years ago.

From a working-class family, Scotsman Andrew Cunningham stewards for wealthy travelers aboard elegant cruise ships of the early 20th century, but he resents those who flaunt their inherited wealth. New Yorkers Florence and Bradley Cumings, first-class passengers traveling aboard Titanic, are the exception, and the three discover an ancestral connection. As the ship sinks on the fateful morning of April 15, 1912, Florence watches in horror from her lifeboat.

Veteran motion picture, television, and Broadway producer Julian Schlossberg grew up in New York City with an early love of entertainment. As a child, he was an avid fan of radio, film, and the new art of television, and harbored ambitions of meeting his favorite stars one day. Little did he know that in the course of his career, he would not only meet many of them, but also become their producer, representative, and friend.