Course Guide: TH235 - Musical Theatre History

An absolutely essential site for theatre lovers, the Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) has listings for every Broadway show that ever happened. Want to know who was in the original production of “Porgy and Bess” in 1935 or who replaced Patti Lupone in “Evita?” IBDB.com is the place to find out. Search by Show to find performance dates and details.

The "Vault" section of Playbill.com allows you to view which shows opened during the theater seasons back to 1945.

Triton Gallery is the only art gallery in the world devoted solely to Broadway posters, known as window cards. While it has all the latest posters from current hits, it also has hundreds of window cards from seasons past. You can also get high-quality reproductions of classic hits, such as the original “Oklahoma!” or “My Fair Lady” posters, and some of the biggest flops, such as the musical version of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” It also sells signed posters, frames and even three-sheets (giant-sized posters like the ones in Shubert Alley). It’s a great site to go shopping or just spend hours browsing!

The sheet music in this digital collection has been selected from the Sheet Music Collection at the John Hay Library at Brown University. The full collection consists of approximately 500,000 items, of which perhaps 250,000 are currently available for use. It is one of the largest collections of sheet music in any library in the United States. The sheet music, primarily vocal music of American imprint, dates from the 18th century to the present day, with the largest concentration of titles in the period 1840-1950. Use the SEARCH/BROWSE link on the left to find music.

With over 29,000 pieces of music relating to American popular culture, this collection offers an important glimpse into the values, events and struggles of the past 200+ years. Teachers, lecturers and students can search the collection via the website's homepage, using a simple text search. The "Subject" filter can then be used to narrow results to specific subjects, like the American Civil War or historical depictions of African-American life. On each song page, images of the song--including often vibrant cover images--can be viewed and downloaded. Educators focusing on young audiences should note that some artifacts contain historical language which may not be appropriate for certain audiences.

The Library of Congress has over 30 separate collections of digital sheet music from Early American Sheet music to collections of individual composers such as Aaron Copland.