The Musicals 101 Web site is subtitled “The Cyber Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, TV and Film”. The author of the site, John Kenrick, explains that his site is a beginner’s course in theatre, and I have to agree. Although the scope of the coverage is not extensive, the reviews, lists, and essays written by the author are backed by knowledge of the subject. He has been involved in theatre most of his life, writing, producing, and working with musical productions, theatre companies, and national tours. He also attends hundreds of Broadway and off‐Broadway productions and collects theatre memorabilia.
The home page offers users an annotated outline of the major areas of essays and pictures that can be found on musicals, including history, reviews, and biographies of famous performers. Users may wish to make use of the link to the “site index” page. From this page users can view at a quick glance the entire site contents divided by topics and subtopics or use the link to the one‐page capsule history for a quick overview. Although a search feature is available, the results return a list of documents within the site that feature the word or phrase being searched. For example, entering “Gene Kelly” returns 36 pages. Users click on the link to a document but then must scan the entire page to locate “Gene Kelly” on that page or use the browser Find feature (CTRL‐F). The site loads by using thumbnails for the 1,200 pictures, which illustrate old music halls, programmes and handbills, famous actors/actresses, and stage shots. These can be viewed in an enlarged version by clicking on the image.
Each subject and subtopic page is simple in design, offering clearly defined links to a particular essay, review, or list organized either alphabetically or chronologically. The left‐hand navigation column found on every page displays a full list of the links to the entire site. The brief biographies include a picture, birth/death dates, and brief highlights about the person’s life. A list of musicals performed since the 1920s on Broadway, film, and television is organized chronologically by decade. The stage and screen lists include opening date and total number of performances. The screen chronologies list 500‐600 productions, primarily US and British. Lengthy essays describe the history of musicals from the early nineteenth century to the present day and include US and European theatre, burlesque, minstrel shows, and comedies. Review essays cover approximately 30 musicals from current and past productions of Broadway, Off‐Broadway, film, and television. The “flops on CD” are interesting short reviews of cast recordings of musicals considered flops on the stage but worth purchasing on CD for their musical value. The detailed annotated bibliography is helpful for further research. Theatregoers will enjoy the suggested list of recommended eating establishments located near the theatre districts.
A search of the Internet found Musicals 101 is the best site for coverage of material, quality of design, and ease of use as compared to other sites such as OnBroadway WWW Information Page (http://www. on‐broadway.com), Aisle Say (http://www.aislesay.com), or PlaybillOn‐line (http://www.playbill.com).
I recommend anyone looking for information on musical theatre, whether it be for educational needs or personal interest, to visit Musicals101.com.
