CurtainUp is a site designed, coded, and written
by magazine editor, author's agent, book packager, and author Elyse
Sommer. This is not a site that will win awards for beauty: the images
are small and almost afterthoughts. There are typos galore, and you'll occasionally
stumble across broken or missing links. But she can't spend the time on
the visuals (and we wouldn't want her to); she's too busy out seeing what
seems to be every show debuting in the New York City area, as well as closed
rehearsals, open rehearsal, readings, invited dresses, backers' auditions.
And commenting or reviewing -- basically documenting -- everything.
Hundreds and hundreds of pages. Although she hasn't reviewed in any high-profile
publications, I find her criticism to be exactly what the embattled theatre
world needs. It is both nurturing and caring, written with all of the love
of a true devotee.
The site also contains tips
on getting more enjoyment from the theatre-going experience and saving money, list
of shows currently playing on
and off-Broadway
with links to sites regarding the plays, quotes
from the famous speaking on theatre, reviews of theatrical books, and
a smattering of gossip
and rumor.
The Better Living Through Show Tunes site of Bill Jennings is devoted to the music of the theatre. A beautifully designed site -- in faux-frame format -- chock full of images of CD and record covers. Mr. Jennings offers opinions about who the great composers of the theatre are in his Totally Biased Guide To Songwriters pages, with accompanying discussions about each along with some short discographies. He provides an overview and short catalogs for the Varese Sarabande, Painted Smiles, and Rhino Records labels, while promoting his favorites from among them. You'll also find a short list of recording releases -- forthcoming or rumored to be (mostly culled from other sources), and direct links to Playbill Online columns of his fav writers, Ken Mandelbaum and Peter Filichia.
But if we're talking bias, look no further than Talkin' Broadway. What you'll find in these pages is not much short of an autobiography of Vegas John, self-professed storyteller, as told in a series of short sketches and longer essays of his childhood. This is an utterly ravishing site (beautifully produced by the folks at hijinks), which means very lengthy load times. These are not simply "graphics" that are being
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