Crain's New York Business: Robert Diamond's initial brush with Broadway and technology began with Phantom of the Opera and a fascination with its leading man. "Hey, I'm a straight guy who loves Michael Crawford. When I was still in college I created the official Michael Crawford website," said the self-described nerd, who remains good friends with the celebrity.
His next venture was a little more professional. In 2003, Mr. Diamond launched BroadwayWorld.com with a $5,000 investment. It took several years before he quit his day job working for a publisher of technology magazines, but eventually the site became his bread and butter.
3 comments:
Without any same I will say I that at one point I was your stereotypical theater nerd. What this means is that everyday I checked every single Broadway website out there to get updated on all the things happening in the Broadway world. I can happily say that I no longer do this. When I do want to learn about the theater world I am also now not limiting myself to the Broadway commercial world, but focusing more on what is happening in the regional world. None the less, these websites are important. This is because it allows people to stay connected, and up to date. In a very similar way that this blog does. They are a great source of information, and tend to be unbiased and accurate. To the creators and editors, thank you so much for doing what you do.
I completely agree that Broadway websites play a crutial role in how the show is viewed. I would extend this to media and ads as a whole. There have been many shows that I have seen that were amazing but I had not heard of them before I saw it becuse of a poor ad campaign. I also, along with many other americans, check out the website for any place or activity before I go, including broadway, and if their website isnt up to par, it greatly affects my decision.
I never knew how much went into Broadway websites, or that they played as big a role as they do. While it's interesting to see how much all aspects of society have shifted to reliance on online media, it is unfortunate that "what's hot" is becoming more of a factor in what shows people see than critics' reviews. On one hand, a general agreement between many people can often be a good indication of quality, but on the other, there are probably a lot of people who have very different criteria for deciding whether a show was "good" than an established critic might have. It's also rather sad that how much money a company has plays such a big role in what shows get attention, when it frequently has little to do with what is a truly good production.
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