IN MY LIBRARY

You never forget your first Tony. Broadway’s Scott Wittman, whose music and lyrics for “Hairspray,” written with his partner, Marc Shaiman, won in 2003, recalled how the couple’s good friends, Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, gave out the songwriting award that night. “I think they would have announced our names even if we lost,” Wittman confessed. “Sarah caught my eye, and we ran up . . . I think I kissed her longer than I kissed Marc that night!” Wittman and Shaiman wrote the songs for this season’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Here are four books that continue to inspire him.

The Plays of Tennessee Williams

Modern Library’s 2-volume set Williams was incapable of writing a dull scene. This is a great collection of his work. Even when he declined in popularity, he still got up at 5 a.m. and wrote with verve. I saw him do “Small Craft Warnings” — he played a drunken philosopher at a bar.

The Season

by William Goldman This is a fabulous book because it’s so crabby! It’s basically a postmortem of one Broadway season, 1977-78. That year I was going to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on Saturdays and seeing a matinee after. It cost $2, so I saw everything. Goldman has a great chapter on critics, how they kill the things they supposedly love. It’s timeless.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

by Roald Dahl I didn’t read Dahl’s books until I was a teenager. I loved the wordplay and his vast imagination. He wrote “Charlie” during the darkest part of his life: one of his children was hit by a taxi, another contracted measles and died. How he managed to conjure whimsy! “Charlie” has an important lesson for our times: Be good and be rewarded.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

by Julia Child This is the book I bonded with Nora Ephron over. It’s my go-tocan’t-sleep book, a dog-eared, butter-stained copy I keep on my nightstand. In the midst of doing a Broadway show or movie, reading about aspic can put me to sleep instantly.