Learning about "The Book"

I keep hearing this term--"the book"--in reference to musicals.  This blog post is my experience of familiarizing myself with what that is, exactly. What does it look like? I watch "SMASH" (though I wonder if it's headed for the crapper), and I hear them refer to Debra Messing's character's "book" all the time--is it the script + the lyrics? Does it read like a novel? Follow me as I find out.

WHOA, check out this site! The Broadway Musical Home It's the first thing that came up when I Googled "What is the book in a musical." It didn't have the answer to my query, but it has a wealth of information on the musicals themselves. Onward.

Okay, well here's the definition from Musical Theatre/Definition and scope

"The three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book. The book or script of a musical refers to the story, character development, and dramatic structure, including the spoken dialogue and stage directions, but it can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics together, which are sometimes referred to as the libretto (Italian for “little book”)."

Aaaight, so kinda what I thought. Now, I want to see one so I can learn how extensive the story, character development, and dramatic structure are, typically.

And on Wikipedia's libretto page:

"In the context of a modern English-language musical theater piece, the libretto is often referred to as the book of the work, though this usage typically excludes sung lyrics...The libretto of a musical, on the other hand, is almost always written in prose (except for the song lyrics). The libretto of a musical, if the musical is adapted from a play (or even a novel), may even borrow their source's original dialogue liberally - much as Oklahoma! used dialogue from Lynn Riggs's Green Grow the Lilacs, Carousel used dialogue from Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, My Fair Lady took most of its dialogue word-for-word from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Man of La Mancha took most of its dialogue from the 1959 television play I, Don Quixote (from which it was adapted), and the 1954 musical version of Peter Pan used J.M. Barrie's dialogue. Even the musical Show Boat, which is greatly different from the Edna Ferber novel from which it was adapted uses some of Ferber's original dialogue, notably during the miscegenation scene. And Lionel Bart's Oliver! uses chunks of dialogue from Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist, although it bills itself as a "free adaptation" of the novel."

Heeeeyyyyyyyy, lookee here! Musicals 101!!!!!! That link takes you right to a page about The Book. I still want to see a Book, though, so I can have that "Ooooooooooooooh!" moment.

Well HECK, it seems like you can buy the book for just about any ol' musical on Amazon! I think "The Book of Mormon" is the one I should go with. I jist lurve them South Pork fellers!

So there it is. Thank you for taking this journal journey with me. When I get around to perusing an actual Book, I will post an update.