O haven of all things staged, how dost thou edify me? Enter the doors of the Drama Book Shop and be surrounded by a compilation of centuries of plays, critical writings, and music scores. Classical Greek tragedies, Shakespearean comedies, Beckett’s absurdist works, and a host of modern scripts line the shelves and even spiral overhead in a massive, winding sculpture known as the resident “bookworm.”
The establishment began as a card table in the lobby of a New York theater. Many moves, upgrades, and historical epochs later, it has expanded its purview from books and plays into periodicals, accent CDs, headshot envelopes, listings of agents and managers, and whatever else a zealous thespian might find useful.
Though the shop fell into bankruptcy, it was revived in 2020 by actor and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton director Thomas Kail, Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller, and theater owner James Nederlander. Miranda’s In the Heights, his Tony Award–winning musical about the Latinx community in Washington Heights, was conceived and rehearsed in the original Drama Book Shop’s tiny black box theater. Upon learning of the shop’s imminent demise, he and his theatrical cohorts were compelled to rescue this New York institution, relocate it, and reimagine the space.
Today, one can leaf through scripts while surrounded by the elegant, dark wood shelves reminiscent of an old-world reading room and nibble at the provisions in the shop’s small cafe. Of course, the basement will once again foster the talents of new artists by holding regular workshops and public programs. Even for those of us who are amateur actors, it is well worth a visit, lest we forget that all the world’s a stage.
