BroadwayWorld.com Summer Feature Breaks Records

As the theatre season gets back into gear, BroadwayWorld.com tallies up some numbers that are quite impressive. Their biggest story to date has been an ongoing piece this summer titled "What's on Your iPod?." It boasts a host of theatre celebrities, singers and well-known industry professionals listing what they're listening to on their iPod. Due to the feature's huge popularity, it was extended to continue for over 40 days, concluding this Saturday, September 9, 2006.

Up until now, the popular web site's previous top story had been the "coup" of an exclusive interview with the original "Phantom," Michael Crawford, in perfect conjunction with The Phantom of the Opera's record-breaking performance on Broadway. This past January, the show became the longest running musical in Broadway history - having surpassed Cats, Les Miserables and A Chorus Line.

"What's on Your iPod?" has been read by hundreds of thousands of web site regulars. It also attracted many new visitors to the web site, with even the people over at Apple, creators of the iPod, keeping an eye on the action. After all, Broadway and original cast recordings are stable catalogue items and it seems that fans like to know what some of their favorite people are listening to. Visitors to the site have also been journeying out to learn about artists or cast recordings that they haven't heard of, until reading some of these very interesting lists by quite a mixed bag of industry professionals.

The iPod feature was so popular that BroadwayWorld.com put off its "Summer Reading" list and the debut of their latest acquisition, writer Naomi Plume, to review books about theatre, the arts and show business. As a result, that feature has now been expanded and repositioned as BroadwayWorld.com's "Back to School Book Report" which will debut in two parts. Part I this Friday, September 8th and part II, Friday, September 15th.

The "book report" feature will kick off on Friday with coverage of Donna McKechnie's book party, which takes place on Thursday evening, September 7th - a special event, which celebrates the release of her autobiography Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life (Simon and Schuster).

Other books reviewed in this special two-part feature will be - Moss Hart: A Prince of the Theatre by Jared Brown, Raising a Star by Nancy Carson, Ethel Merman: The Biggest Star on Broadway by Geoffrey Mark, without you by Anthony Rapp, 'til the fat girl sings by Sharon Wheatley, Second Act Trouble by Steven Suskin, A Fine Romance: Hollywood/Broadway (The Magic. The Mayhem. The Musicals.) by Darcie Denkert, Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley by Jon Krampner, The Importance of Being Barbra by Tom Santopietro and I Could Have Sung All Night: My Story by Marni Nixon.

BroadwayWorld.com continues to position themselves as innovators within the industry by developing new features and technologies and by involving popular culture and weaving it into the "tried and true" traditions of theatre and the arts. Recent additions to the site include a complete Multimedia Library featuring video show previews, features and popular television program, Broadway Beat. Other popular recent site features include the Fan's Choice Awards, the Broadway Photo Game, a major international ticketing deal with the prestigious Keith Prowse Agency, and much more. Coming soon to BroadwayWorld.com will be a very extensive Classifieds section - in and around interest catering to those in the arts.

Editor-in-Chief, Robert Diamond, continues trying to go places that other theatrically inclined web sites haven't and continues looking for ways to co-broker trends in the industry.

The age range of visitors to the site ranges from 8-100 and current advertising clients range from Off-Broadway shows like [title of show] to Broadway shows like The Pirate Queen and the upcoming major revival of A Chorus Line. This month, the site is even giving away an Alaska Cruise for 2 on Celebrity Cruises in a Deluxe Stateroom…including air fare!

The presence of such exciting clients co-exist alongside BroadwayWorld.com's many long existing relationships (the web site just celebrated its 3rd Anniversary)with popular restaurants like Tony's DiNapoli, in the heart of Times Square, Angus McIndoe, a popular theatre hangout, Serafina and venues like the legendary Birdland and the downtown "hotspot" Joe's Pub, named after Joe Papp, at the Public Theater…and many more.

One of the unique qualities of BroadwayWorld.com, is that not only does it have fans all over the world and industry professionals visiting repeatedly (even writing and "blogging" under pseudonyms)…but, in addition, the web site has continued to raise money for Broadway's favorite charity, Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, with many live events.

This year will be no exception when they announce their Holiday Spectacular benefit show, set for December 10th, at the aforementioned Joe's Pub. The show will be directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, who's currently helming Barbra Streisand's tour and who also staged BroadwayWorld.com's hugely popular Standing Ovations IV benefit. Ben Toth is Musical Director (also of Standing Ovations IV) and the evening will be hosted by BroadwayBeat's popular host Richard Ridge.Tickets will go on sale on October 15th.

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