Ever imagined your favorite literary class come to life? Some of the world’s most beloved stories have been transformed into stunning stage adaptations, offering an immediate and fresh perspective on iconic stories. From an enduring masterpiece like The Great Gatsby to the contemporary phenomenon Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, these plays capture and enhance the spirit of these famous novels.
Join us this National Book Month as we explore the magic of books brought to life on stage.
Broadway Book Club Specialty Box: Stage Frights
Celebrate spooky season with these delightfully scary and eerie plays. From an unsettling stage adaptation of The Birds by Conor McPherson to the modern-day noir of BLOODSHOT, these stories from Rajiv Joseph, Joe DiPietro, and more are not for the faint of heart!
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, adapted for the stage by Simon Levy
2006 Guthrie Theater production
Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, passionately pursues the elusive Daisy Buchanan. Nick Carraway, a young newcomer to Long Island, is drawn into their world of obsession, greed and danger. The breathtaking glamour and decadent excess of the Jazz Age come to the stage in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, and in Simon Levy’s adaptation, approved by the Fitzgerald Estate.
I am a Camera by John Van Druten, adapted from The Berlin Stories of Christopher Isherwood
The basis of the hit Broadway musical Cabaret
In the words of the New York Herald-Tribune, the play “looks at life in a tawdry Berlin rooming house of 1930 with a stringently photographic eye. For the most part, it concerns itself with the mercurial and irresponsible moods of a girl called Sally Bowles. When we first meet her, she is a creature of extravagant attitudes, given to parading her vices, enormously confident that she is going to take life in her stride. She is fond of describing herself as an ‘extraordinary interesting person,’ and she is vaguely disturbing. As we get to know her, as we watch her make frightened arrangements for an illegal operation, seize at the tinseled escape offered by a rich and worthless American playboy, attempt to rehabilitate herself and fail ludicrously, we are more and more moved, more and more caught up in the complete and almost unbearable reality of this girl. [The author has] placed a character named Mr. Isherwood on the stage…He serves both as narrator and as principal confidant to Sally Bowles. He is the camera eye of the title, attracted to Sally, yet dispassionate about her.” Though Sally is the chief point of interest, the plight of the Jew in Germany in the early thirties is brought within focus in a few touching scenes.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: High School Edition, based on an original story by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne
2024 Hoboken High School pilot production
Nineteen years after Harry, Ron, and Hermione saved the wizarding world, they’re back on a most extraordinary new adventure–this time, joined by a brave new generation that has only just arrived at the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Harry Potter’s head-strong son Albus befriends the son of his fiercest rival, Draco Malfoy, it sparks an unbelievable new journey for them all—with the power to change the past and future forever. Prepare for spectacular spells, a mind-blowing race through time, and an epic battle to stop mysterious forces, all while the future hangs in the balance. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (High School Edition) is a special adaptation of the beloved worldwide hit. Tailored for high school theatre productions, it provides young actors the opportunity to play Harry, Hermione, Ron, and all of their favorite characters on their very own stage and bring the wizarding world to life for their communities. Your students will be empowered to conjure the magic through their own creativity, making it a truly exciting and engaging experience for students and audiences alike.
Love, Loss and What I Wore by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, based on the book by Ilene Beckerman
A play of monologues and ensemble pieces about women, clothes and memory covering all the important subjects—mothers, prom dresses, mothers, buying bras, mothers, hating purses and why we only wear black. Based on the bestselling book by Ilene Beckerman.
The Princess and the Pea adapted by John O’Hara
King Pendleton and Queen Pandora are in search of the perfect match for their son Prince Pete. With the help of wisecracking Granny Primrose, uptight Lord Pendragon, and sweet Lady Jean, the kingdom has summoned a plethora of princesses to compete for their son’s affection. Add a stack of mattresses, switched identities, and a mysterious late night visitor, and you end up with the wackiest (and probably first) fairy tale dating game. The princesses may be fierce competitors, but who will win the Prince’s heart?
Ah, Eurydice! by
The place is the Underworld, and the first characters we meet are Pluto, who is snoozing in a beach chair before the gates of his palace, and Orpheus, who has come in search of his lost bride, Eurydice. Orpheus, who happens to be a bit paunchy, and from Yonkers, has been told that Pluto will be able to restore Eurydice to him, despite the fact that she choked on a chicken bone at their wedding reception—before they could even fly off on their Bermuda honeymoon. Pluto is glad to oblige, but makes the proviso that Orpheus must not look back at Eurydice as he leads her out of the Underworld. The condition is accepted, but Eurydice, a bleached blonde who is not amused by the situation, presses Orpheus so urgently to give her a kiss that at last he does—with the results foretold in legend. In the end Pluto can only suggest that Orpheus find himself another bride—after which he delivers an hilarious accounting of what really happened to Orpheus after his misadventures in the nether regions.
