It's been a week of small updates and housekeeping with the Charts of the 2001 Theatrical Awards. We've added Chicago's Jeff Citations for non-Union productions and the Connecticut Critics Circle Awards. And since there's absolutely no word on the FANY's (the Friends of New York Theatre awards), they've been stripped from the charts; we're still looking for info on the presumed shuttering of the organization, if you've got it.
So while we await the final set of awards (the oobr awards), here forthwith is:
Neither is it Theater.com, and therein lay the problem. Because of spelling confusion ("re" vs. "er") and the fact that Theatre.com neglected to register "Theater.com," which is, in fact, registered to Broadway.com, the owners of the site made the decision to clear up the confusion with a name change: the site is now BroadwayOnline.com. (Oh, and also due to the fact that Theatre.com was borged by BroadwayOnline.com -- the internet division of the Broadway Television Network, the group that brings "live" theatre to pay-per-view cable.)
We contend that this does not, however, actually clear up the confusion -- those of us who type URLs in while find ourselves doing a lot more typing waiting for the auto-complete, what with BroadwayOnline.com, Broadway.com, BroadwayArchive.com (Broadway Digital Entertainment's site for sales of videos of plays adapted for television), BroadwayStars.com (perhaps the web's best theatre resource which synopsizes and links to articles on major theatre and news sites), Broadway.org (the site of the League of American Theatres and Producers), BroadwayTheatre.com (the official website of the Westchester Broadway Theatre), not to mention On-Broadway.com (which, actually, has been assimilated by BroadwayOnline.com). (Down below you'll find a bunch of less related sites you can stumble on by typing http://www.broadway....)
Along with the name change comes a facelift -- a facelift for which many believe the patient should demand his money back. Yes, they still have the same resources as in the good ol' Theatre.com days; in fact there are many improvements. But it's all buried under an inscrutable, arcane interface, made plodding by gobs of javascript, java, and Shockwave. They'll even resize your browser window as they see fit! There have been many reports of people being entirely unable to access the site due to browser crashes and few people, myself included, actually see the site as BO conceived it because of browser/operating system incompatibilities.
If any site deserves a "text only" version, it's this one. There are wonders there -- if you can find them. Aside from timely news articles from one of the best reporting staffs online, where else can you find the likes of the brilliant and occasionally absurdist ramblings of Peter Filichia, or the comprehensive interviews of Michael Buckley. Plus a fabulous reference section and an internal search engine that actually works.
Back in the days when they were still BuyBroadway.com, I took them to task for designing a site that was far too strict in its browser and OS requirements. I refused to put them in my Top 5 Sites list for that reason. Things improved for awhile, but some things never change: they now actually stream several entire shows, but require the use of custom decoder and RealPlayer. On the Mac side, the decoder requires Netscape (although I cannot get it to work even with Netscape). They remain in the list -- for their substance, if not their style.
Manhattan's got no monopoly on the word "Broadway," as the following proves:
Broadway.net (owned by Hollywood.com,
the people who bring you Broadway.com; oddly, it bounces to Hollywood.com
instead of Broadway.com)
Broadway.org.uk (the Broadway Cinema & Media Centre of
Nottingham)
Broadway-Church.org
(the Broadway Church of Christ, Lubbock, TX)
Broadway.cs.nott.ac.uk
(the Electronic Publishing Research Group)
Broadway-jp.com (beats
me; it's in Japanese)
Broadway.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
(the Saskatoon Free-Net: Saskatoon's Community Network)
Broadway-Cotswolds.com.uk
(the villages of Broadway and Cotswolds in the UK)
Best-of-Broadway.org
(a presenter of national tours, based in Charlotte, NC)
Broadway-Theater-Tickets.com
(group ticket discounts for Broadway and off-Broadway)
Broadway.pennsyrr.com
(Mark D. Bej's (?) home page)
Broadway-Windrush.com.uk
(Cotswolds accomodation at the Windrush House in Broadway, Worchester)
Broadway.or.jp (a Japanese
ISP)
Millenium-Broadway.com
(brings you to the main Millennium/Copthorne Hotels site)
Broadway-Travel.com
(aka Broadway-Tour.com, a California travel agency)
CMC-Broadway.com (China
National Machinery Import and Export Corporation )
Broadway-Terrace.com
(MIA, but it's for something in Bakers, CO)
Broadway-Yamaha-Suzuki.com
(dirtbikes, watercraft, streetbikes, and ATV's in Tyler, TX)
Broadway-Nightclub.co.uk
(a funky, funky nightclub in Riverside, Market Harborough, UK)
Broadway-gmbh.de (leather
clothing in Aschaffenburg, Deutschland)
Broadway-web.com (a
connectivity company headed by Stephen Romandetta, creator of
one of the first-ever websites devoted to theatre -- which was
later absorbed by Playbill.com)
Broadway-music.com
(Broadway Music Consignments, used musical instruments and recording
gear, in Nashville, TN)
The-Bell-Inn-Broadway.com
(a bed and breakfast, perhaps in Broadway village, UK?)
Broadway.net.au (an
Australian ISP)
Broadway-Lights.com
(Broadway Lights Center for the Performing Arts, a dance school
in St. Catharines Ontario, Canada)
Next week: some of the bway.... sites. (Only kidding.)
Originally published at Suite101.com Theatre, 6/19/01
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