Alexis Soloski's 6 favorite works about music, theater and the performing arts

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Alexis Soloski is a culture reporter at The New York Times and a former theater critic. "Here in the Dark," her debut novel, is a psychological thriller about a young critic who uses her own acting skills to investigate the murder of an industry acquaintance.

'Theatre' by W. Somerset Maugham (1937)

Delectable and wicked, this high-drama novel follows Julia Lambert, a celebrated actress who destroys her ingenue rival. Julia’s chief weapon? A sinuous silver dress. The book is also a meditation on the very fine line between make-believe and reality. Buy it here. 

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'The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway' by William Goldman (1969)

Not all the opinions of the novelist and screenwriter have aged well, but no other book offers such a detailed account of one tumultuous year of the New York theater scene. Gossipy and crabby, Goldman’s book is an attempt to understand why some shows work and some shows don’t. Buy it here. 

'Voyage in the Dark' by Jean Rhys (1934)

In her early 20s, Jean Rhys, best remembered today for her Jane Eyre prequel, Wide Sargasso Sea, worked briefly as a chorus girl. That experience informs this moody, atmospheric novel about Anna Morgan, a young woman who moves from the West Indies to London and joins a traveling musical hall show. Buy it here. 

'Run Towards the Danger' by Sarah Polley (2022)

While this brilliant essay collection by the actress, director, and Oscar-winning screenwriter Sarah Polley ranges widely, the first essay, "Alice Collapsing," provides a wry, devastating description of stage fright. As a teenager, Polley decided that she would rather have elective spinal surgery than go on performing. Buy it here. 

'Mansfield Park' by Jane Austen (1814)

Priggish Fanny Price has never been as popular an Austen heroine as Elizabeth Bennet or the Dashwood sisters. But Austen’s novel includes a delicious subplot in which Mansfield’s younger set put on a play. If it seems innocent, it isn’t: Amateur theatrics are a site of moral peril. Buy it here. 

'We Play Ourselves' by Jen Silverman (2021)

Dreamy, seductive, and darkly funny, this novel dilates on Cass, a playwright who moves to Los Angeles after a disaster of her own making. It is also a meditation on the demands that art makes. As one character muses: "Theater only feels like an accomplishment if you’re part of the cult." Buy it here. 

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