Welcome to Writes & Bites — a series where creative writing MFA student Arianna Gundlach reviews a cool writing spot in New York City and tackles a writing topic that’s been weighing on your mind. This week, we look at The Drama Book Shop located at 266 W. 39th St. on the edge of Manhattan’s Theater District.
Hello, scintillating readers and writers. I’ve been expecting you.
Writes & Bites is back for another semester — and sadly its last. But save your tears for the last installment; I still have words and wisdom left in me yet!
It’s bitterly cold in New York City, so it’s the perfect time to bundle up and hunker down with your writing. While Times Square is usually the last place I’d like to be, if there’s a writing spot worth going to, I’m there. Plus, a change of scenery can only help alleviate that seasonal depression.
Near the Times Square-42nd Street Station on the edge of the Theater District, you’ll find The Drama Book Shop — its gold lettering peeking out from green awnings. This is one of the few places where you can spend quality time with your favorite plays and musicals. It’s also one of the select bookstores that intentionally caters to readers and writers with sections dedicated to writing as a craft and career.
The shop’s legacy is astounding with over a hundred years of history, first opened in 1917 by the Drama League and becoming an independent bookstore in 1923, according to the store’s website.
Lin-Manuel Miranda spent his high school years on The Drama Book Shop’s floor, sitting and reading plays when he didn’t have the money to buy them. He wrote and workshopped In the Heights at the shop’s basement piano, and this is also where he met Thomas Kail, who ended up directing In the Heights, according to The New York Times. Miranda is just one of many famous theater and film figures who have enjoyed the establishment. In 2011, the store even received a Tony Award Honor for Excellence in Theatre.
So your reputation precedes you? Indeed.
Now, you may be wondering, “didn’t that place close?” Well, yes it did — but that was the location on West 40th Street. The store has bounced around a couple locations before settling on West 40th Street in 2001 (and now West 39th Street since 2020). The Drama Book Shop was under threat of permanent closure in 2019 after its monthly rent was set to go up by 50%. Thankfully, Miranda and three of his Hamilton collaborators purchased the store and found a new home for it.
The day I visited The Drama Book Shop, I was meeting my friend and fellow writer Christine Ro, who happens to live only 10 minutes from the store (lucky!). So she had the advantage of arriving right before opening at 10 a.m. and witnessing the thrill of someone coming from the depths of the store to open the door for the first set of eager customers.
Stepping into the store a few minutes later, I was immediately captivated by the interior. Detailed on the store’s website, this location was “designed by ‘Hamilton’ scenic designer David Korins and his team [and] pays homage to twentieth century European cafes and reading rooms.” With the weathered paint texture, gold crown molding, vintage theater posters in ornate frames, and intimate bookshelves — The Drama Book Shop delivers on this description.
To the right of the entrance are five circular white tables with deep plum tufted leather couch seating on one side and chairs on the other. At the front window are four high top chairs with counter seating. But you’ll probably be ducking out of view here, as many people take pictures from outside this window. So depending on your level of self-consciousness, choose your seat wisely.
All the front seats were taken by around 11:30 a.m., at least on the Friday I visited. So my standing advice remains: get there early, at opening if you can.
Front seating seems conducive to light catching up over coffee, but if you want more privacy for deep conversation or getting deep into your work, I’d recommend the back.
At the far end of the store, among the back shelves, are two leather couches, two leather armchairs with a table, one large circular table with four chairs, and one long wooden bench. Outlets can be found here and in the front. The Wi-Fi password is printed on your café receipt (and I assume if you purchase a book), and it changes every day. They take web security seriously at The Drama Book Shop.
The café offers caffeinated staples, hot and iced tea, hot chocolate, and seasonal specialty drinks. When I was there, the winter specialty drinks included a peppermint mocha (white or dark chocolate), sugar cookie chai, s’mores latte, and Carolee Carmello latte, like the Broadway actress. They also have a multitude of add-in flavors beyond vanilla. The two-tiered case of neatly arranged baked goods included cookies, croissants, palmiers, scones, Danish pastries, brownies, and monkey bread.
The café is open daily until 6 p.m.
I can’t resist anything s’mores flavored — especially after the hickory smoked s’mores latte debacle at Felix Roasting Co. — so I ordered the s’mores latte and a brownie. Christine originally ordered a yuzu peach green tea, but due to an allergy, the café staff happily switched it out for turmeric ginger tea.
For her pastry, Christine opted for something classic. “Let’s just call it what it is. It’s a fat sticky bun,” she said. This is the best kind of sticky bun in Christine’s opinion; small is less satisfying. Being an editor at The Inquisitive Eater, she should know. Though the sticky bun had a few surprises Christine wasn’t so keen on — raisins!
My brownie was shaped like a mini quiche, and with its notably large size, Christine pointed out that The Drama Book Shop seems to have a trend of serving chunky pastries. It tasted moist and chocolatey but had a slightly strange aftertaste (perhaps nutty?) and was a little too dense for my preference.
The s’mores latte had hints of graham cracker, marshmallow, and chocolate when I concentrated on the flavor profile. I don’t know if I’d be able to guess this was s’mores from a blind taste test, however you can tell it’s a flavored latte of some sort, and it’s of decent quality overall.
While the café is a nice touch to this location, it’s the books that draw the real attention.
The shelves toward the front are similar to those in a library — closed in, more intimate lighting, where you can have some private time with the books. These sections focus more on the art of creating: film and business, film and television, writing and directing, voice and movement, acting and design. The shelves in the back contain plays alphabetized by author, monologues and scenes, songbooks, libretti, and musical theater anthologies. And the lights are motion-sensor activated, so there’s some magic when you walk by.
The plays, though thin, stand out with bright cardstock-like covers and bolded titles. Fat Ham by James Ijames, I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire by Samantha Hurley, and Bite Me by Eliana Pipes all got a chuckle out of me. You can also find cute journals, pocket-sized games, cards, stickers, and stationery.
And you can never guess who you might bump into while you browse. I swear I saw Bob Odenkirk from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul while I was visiting — which wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility since he’s starring in the Broadway show Glengarry Glen Ross with Kieran Culkin and Bill Burr, beginning on March 10.
The shop hums with words, and while there are some chatty customers, I’m referring to the books themselves. Plays, musicals, scripts, monologues — dialogue lives in the air. You can almost hear whispering from the stack of books swirling from the front table, snaking up, around, and through the store. The display embodies books coming alive, and who doesn’t want to live in that reality?
Even when not writing for the stage, writers should treat dialogue like it’s the only thing in the spotlight. What is the reader absorbing from that craft element alone? With strong dialogue, you won’t have to buffer as much with tags, attributes, or context. It can stand on its own and make an impact.
For a refresher, dialogue tags are how the words are being spoken (said, asked, replied). Attributes are actions or descriptions that directly follow dialogue or are in between lines. However, they cannot be attached to dialogue with a comma without a dialogue tag. “I’m really happy for you.” She smiled. Context can be exposition, narrative, physicality, or interiority that surrounds dialogue or bookends it in preceding or following paragraphs.
But if you’re not relying on those aspects, what should you rely on? Inflection, emphasis, and vocabulary — what’s in the dialogue, instead of around it.
Inflection can come from punctuation and formatting. We’ll start with the simple line, “The bar is cool.”
An ellipsis adds hesitation. “The bar is…cool.”
Extra O’s add personality. “The bar is coooool.”
All-caps add volume. “The bar is COOL.”
If you’re adding a question mark to something that would usually be a statement to change the inflection (“The bar is cool?” — uncertainty), I recommend not using asked as the dialogue tag. A question mark implies the ask, so adding it as a tag is redundant. Just like with all-caps, which replaces the need for a shouted or yelled tag. And with exclamation points — as I’ve said many times — the more times you use them, the less effect they have. So use them intentionally and sparingly (and definitely not back to back, if you can help it).
Emphasis can overlap with inflection but usually adds conviction and intent that can be demonstrated with italics, bold, and standalone words or lines.
Italics add certainty. “The bar is cool.”
Standalone words add firmness. “The. Bar. Is. Cool.”
Vocabulary is your choice of words. Supplementing bar for pub, tavern, or saloon. Supplementing cool for snazzy, sophisticated, or classy. Sometimes you’re looking for a synonym, and other times you’re looking for a whole other word. I recommend checking out the Writers Helping Writers series, which has a range of thesauruses specific to creative writing (emotion, trait, setting, conflict). Vocabulary changes context and tone. Just make sure it’s in keeping for your character.
The motive behind these three elements is the same: how you want your character to sound, based on who they are or how they react in certain situations. But these little changes can do so much work, without even considering tags, attributes, or surrounding paragraphs. So make them work for you!
When you find yourself at The Drama Book Shop, enjoy a chunky pastry and a seasonal drink. Immerse yourself in the ideas and imagination, taking in the gravity-defying book display in all its glory. Listen for the whispers and let them guide you to the page. See how dialogue emulates characters — you know it’s them speaking without their tag. Soon the whispers will turn to your own characters’ voices. Hurry and write them down before they disappear. Good lines are fleeting, dear readers; don’t let them get away.
The Drama Book Shop
266 W. 39th St.
(212) 944-0595
| Commute 25 minutes from the UC via subway (N/R/Q) | Hours Mon-Sat: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sun: 12-7 p.m. Café closes at 6 p.m. |
| Tech Private Wi-Fi; password on café receipt. Outlets among front and back seating. Tappable pay accepted. | Layout Front: Seating, book displays, books about writing and theater, book check-out. Middle: Café, merch, table with “fun” books. Back: Seating, alphabetized plays, bathroom. |
| Gems 8,000 plays regularly in stock;100-year history; gravity-defying book display; theater-related events; potential celebrity sightings; Lin-Manuel Miranda is an owner. | Noise Level Conversational. |
| Atmosphere Intimate space for theater lovers, bibliophiles, and writers — brimming with history. A touch of magic with gravity defying book display | Rating 3.5/4 Stars – based on The New York Times star system: “ratings range from zero to four stars. Zero is poor, fair or satisfactory. One star, good. Two stars, very good. Three stars, excellent. Four stars, extraordinary.” |
| Be Aware Wi-Fi password changes every day. Seating in the café is limited to 90 minutes. Bathroom is in the back. |
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