HOW TO USE TOTALTHEATER.COM
Welcome to TotalTheater.com, a website of theater information, reviews and history.

We have tried to make the site as user friendly as possible without sacrificing the power of our search engines or the scope of our information. Even so, we can understand how navigating the site may occasionally be confusing or even daunting. That's why, in this section, you'll be able to read specific, easy-to-follow instructions on finding and utilizing all the various sections of TotalTheater.com. (For quick answers, you might also want to check our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section.) Ready? Let's begin.

HOMEPAGE

The homepage is the front page of TotalTheater.com (the one that first appears when you type www.totaltheater.com). The homepage currently consists of our banner and logo, a short message to the readers, buttons linked to the five major search areas of our site (Dramapedia, Referencia, Criticopia, Periodica, Photorium), and links to a Review of the Day, Feature of the Week and our Angel "thank you." At the bottom of the page you'll find links to smaller sections, including: Trivia, Humor, Press Releases, Classifieds, What Is New, Total Club, About Us, How To Use, Browsers, FAQ, Contact Us and Letters To The Editor. Anytime you roll your mouse over the page and your mouse arrow turns into a hand with a pointing finger, that means you can click your mouse in that area and go to that section. For example, clicking on the brown oval for "Referencia" brings you to the Referencia section. Also of interest on the homepage are two small brown circles in the top upper left-hand corner. Those circles also appear on every page of the website. The "Hm" circle is a home button. No matter where you are in the site, if you click it, you'll go right back to the homepage. (You can do the same with our TotalTheater Online banner, which also appears on every page of the site.) The "?" button brings you directly to the How To Use section.

Now let's look at the three special notes on the right side of the homepage:

REVIEW OF THE DAY

Every day or couple of days, TotalTheater.com will select a theater review we feel is of particular interest to our readers. By clicking on the underlined words, you can jump directly to the Criticopia page where the review is published. To go back to the homepage, just click the home button or our banner.

FEATURE OF THE DAY

Every week or two, TotalTheater.com's staff select a theater-related interview or article we feel is of particular interest to our readers. By clicking on the underlined words, you can jump directly to the Periodica page where the story is published. To go back to the homepage, just click the home button or our banner.

TODAY'S ANGEL

This is a way for TotalTheater to thank its contributors, advertisers and donors. Sometimes there'll be a link to an ad or message, sometimes it's just a little "thank you." Interested in having your name or business here? Contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Now let's look over at the five brown ovals on left side of the homepage. These are the five major sections of TotalTheater.com.

DRAMAPEDIA - An encyclopedic archive of show titles, talents & terms.
Click the button and you'll see this is the place to search for show titles, people's names, character names, places (theater names), song titles, awards, and organizational names/technical terms. We'll go through each of these one by one.

Dramapedia: Shows - Show titles.

STEP ONE - Search: We have hundreds of show titles in our database. To search for one, just type the show's title in the blank box and hit enter or click the Find button. Don't worry about capital or lower-case letters. Remember that articles (a, an, the) come after the title (Example: Music Man, The).
For easiest searching, use contains, rather than equal to or begins with. That way, you can type just a partial title and get the most possible results. (Example: "moon" will bring up Harvest Moon, The and Moon For The Misbegotten, A)
If you search by equal to, you must type the exact full title (Example: Music Man, The). If you search by begins with, you can search by the first word or part of it (Example: "satur" will bring up Saturday Night Fever).
TIP: For browsing, leave the search box blank and hit enter. This brings up an alphabetical listing of every show. Or you can browse letter-by-letter using begins with. (For example: begins with "d" brings up every show that starts with the letter "d".)
PROBLEM?: Not finding the show you're searching for? Maybe you're spelling it wrong; or maybe you're being tricked by punctuation (example: typing "hello dolly" won't bring up Hello, Dolly! because of the comma; you either need to type "hello, dolly" or just "hello" or just "dolly").
Still not finding the show? Maybe we just haven't been able to add the show to our database yet. We add shows all the time, but it's a huge undertaking expected to take years. Your patience and support is most appreciated as we slowly but surely build our archive.
STEP TWO - Sort & Read: Your search will have brought up a list of results. If there were no results, the page will read: "Sorry, no matches were found. Please Press The BACK BUTTON On Your Browser To Return To The Previous Page. Thank You." Do so, and you can start another search. If you did get results, you'll see a chart of those results displaying Show Title, Genre, Author Name and Year. Notice that the show title is underlined and colored blue. That means it's a hyperlink; you can click on it and get the full page of information about the show. If your search brought up many results, and you want to organize the shows in a different way, use the "Sort" button, which sorts alphabetically by Show Title, Genre, Author Name or Year. Once the sorting is done, you can again click on the blue, underlined Show Title to hyperlink to the full page of information.

Dramapedia: Persons - Names of people

STEP ONE - Search: We have thousands of names in our database. Names of actors, composers, playwrights, directors, stage managers, producers, designers — just about anything to do with the theater.
To search for a person, just type his/her name, last name first, and hit Enter or click the Find button. Don't worry about capital or lower-case letters. For easiest searching, use contains, rather than equal to or begins with. That way, you can type just a partial title and get the most possible results. (For example: typing "sten" will bring up Bernard Gersten and Kristen Harris.)
If you search by equal to, you must type the exact full name (Example: Freydberg, James B.) If you search by begins with, you can search by the last name or just part of it (Example: "hirs" will bring up Neil Hirsch, Herman Hirshberg and David Hirson).
TIPS: If you're not sure how to spell a name, use contains and type just the part of the name you know is correct. For browsing, you can leave the search box blank and hit Enter or click Find. This brings up an alphabetical listing of every name. Or you can browse letter-by-letter using begins with. (For example: typing begins with "c" brings up every person whose last name starts with the letter "c".)
PROBLEM?: Not finding the person you're searching for? Maybe you're spelling the name wrong; or maybe you're being tricked by punctuation (example: for the sake of alphabetizing, we put the suffix "Jr." at the very end and in parentheses (e.g.: Hudson, Alfred (Jr.)), rather than after the last name. The most foolproof way to search is using contains and typing just part of the name.
Still not finding the person? Maybe we just haven't been able to add the name to our database yet. We add names all the time, but it's a huge undertaking expected to take years. Your patience and support is most appreciated as we slowly but surely build our archive.
STEP TWO - Sort & Read: Your search will have brought up a list of results. If there were no results, the page will read: "Sorry, no matches were found. Please Press The BACK BUTTON On Your Browser To Return To The Previous Page. Thank You." Do so, and you can start another search. If you did get results, you'll see a chart of those results displaying Name and Occupation. Notice that the name is underlined and colored blue. That means it's a hyperlink; you can click on it and get the full page of information about that person. If your search brought up many results, and you want to organize the names in a different way, use the "Sort" button, which sorts alphabetically by Name or Occupation. (For example, sorting by Occupation arranges the list starting with Actor, Actress, Artistic Director, Casting, Company Manager, etc., rather than alphabetically by last name.) Once the sorting is done, you can again click on the blue, underlined Name to hyperlink to the full page of information.

Dramapedia: Characters - Names of fictional characters in plays

STEP ONE - Search: We have dozens of character names in our database, from Aida to Simon Zealotes. To search for a name, just type the name, last name first, and hit Enter or click the Find button. Don't worry about capital or lower-case letters.
For easiest searching, use contains, rather than equal to or begins with. That way, you can type just a partial name and get the most possible results. (For example: typing "Uncle" will bring up both Death of a Salesman's Uncle Ben and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.
If you search by equal to, you must type the exact full name (Example: Hogan, Josie). If you search by begins with, you can search by the last name or just part of it (Example: "ros" will bring up Macbeth's Ross, Martin Sherman's Rose and Waiting in the Wings' Maudie Melrose).
TIPS: If you're not sure how to spell a name, use contains and type just the part of the name you know is correct. For browsing, you can leave the search box blank and hit Enter or click Find. This brings up an alphabetical listing of every name. Or you can browse letter-by-letter using begins with. (For example: typing begins with "c" brings up every character whose last name starts with the letter "c".)
PROBLEM?: Not finding the character name you're searching for? Maybe you're spelling the name wrong; or maybe you're being tricked by punctuation (example: for the sake of alphabetizing, we put the suffix "Jr." at the very end and in parentheses (e.g.: Tyrone, James (Jr.)), rather than after the last name. The most foolproof way to search is using contains and typing just part of the name.
Still not finding the character? Try checking a listing of the show itself in the Dramapedia Shows and Referencia Seasons sections. Or maybe we just haven't been able to add the name to our database yet. We add names all the time, but it's a huge undertaking expected to take years. Your patience and support is most appreciated as we slowly but surely build our archive.
STEP TWO - Sort & Read: Your search will have brought up a list of results. If there were no results, the page will read: "Sorry, no matches were found. Please Press The BACK BUTTON On Your Browser To Return To The Previous Page. Thank You." Do so, and you can start another search. If you did get results, you'll see a chart of those results displaying Name and Show. Notice that the name is underlined and colored blue. That means it's a hyperlink; you can click on it and get the full page of information about that character. If your search brought up many results, and you want to organize the names in a different way, use the "Sort" button, which sorts alphabetically by Name or Show title. Once the sorting is done, you can again click on the blue, underlined character Name to hyperlink to the full page of information.

Dramapedia: Places - Names of theaters and theater-related locations.

STEP ONE - Search: Looking for what played at Broadway's John Golden Theater? Or what plays/musicals are set in Buffalo, New York? This is the place. To search for a place, just type the full name (e.g., Virginia Theater) and hit Enter or click the Find button. Don't worry about capital or lower-case letters. Remember that unless it's an international venue, we generally spell "theater" with "er" rather than "re".
For easiest searching, use contains, rather than equal to or begins with. That way, you can type just a partial entry and get the most possible results. (For example: typing "long" will bring up both the Longacre and Long Wharf theaters.
If you search by equal to, you must type the exact full location. If you search by begins with, you can search by the last name or just part of it (Example: "wal" will bring up Wallack Theater and Walter Kerr Theater).
TIPS: If you're not sure how to spell a venue, use contains and type just the part of the name you know is correct. For browsing, you can leave the search box blank and hit Enter or click Find. This brings up an alphabetical listing of every name. Or you can browse letter-by-letter using begins with. (For example: typing begins with "c" brings up every theater or place that starts with the letter "c".)
PROBLEM?: Not finding the name you're searching for? Maybe you're misspelling; or maybe you're being tricked by punctuation (example: Weber's Theater). The most foolproof way to search is using contains and typing just part of the name.
Still not finding the place? Maybe we just haven't been able to add it to our database yet. We add places all the time, but it's a huge undertaking expected to take years. Your patience and support is most appreciated as we slowly but surely build our archive.
STEP TWO - Sort & Read: Your search will have brought up a list of results. If there were no results, the page will read: "Sorry, no matches were found. Please Press The BACK BUTTON On Your Browser To Return To The Previous Page. Thank You." Do so, and you can start another search. If you did get results, you'll see a chart of those results displaying Place and Location (for example, Alliance Theater / Atlanta, GA, USA). Notice that the Place is underlined and colored blue. That means it's a hyperlink; you can click on it and get the full page of information. If your search brought up many results, and you want to organize the Places in a different way, use the "Sort" button, which sorts alphabetically by Place or Location. Once the sorting is done, you can again click on the blue, underlined Place to hyperlink to the full page of information.

Dramapedia: Songs - Song titles.

STEP ONE - Search: This is the place to find information about showtunes. To search for a song, just type the full title (e.g., Goodnight, My Someone) and hit Enter or click the Find button. Don't worry about capital or lower-case letters. Remember that articles (a, an, the) come after the title (Example: Best Of Times, The). For easiest searching, use contains, rather than equal to or begins with. That way, you can type just a partial title and get the most possible results. (For example: typing "heaven" will bring up "Heaven Help Me" and "Heaven On Their Minds."
If you search by equal to, you must type the exact full title. If you search by begins with, you can search by the first word or just part of it (Example: "canti" will bring up "Cantiamo D'Amore" from Kiss Me, Kate).
TIPS: If you're not sure how to spell a title, use contains and type just the part of the name you know is correct. For browsing, you can leave the search box blank and hit Enter or click Find. This brings up an alphabetical listing of every name. Or you can browse letter-by-letter using begins with. (For example: typing begins with "c" brings up every song title that starts with the letter "c".)
PROBLEM?: Not finding the song you're searching for? Maybe you're misspelling, or maybe you're being tricked by punctuation (example: "Clap Yo' Hands" by the Gershwins). The most foolproof way to search is using contains and typing just part of the title.
Still not finding the song? Maybe we just haven't been able to add it to our database yet. We add song titles all the time, but it's a huge undertaking expected to take years. Your patience and support is most appreciated as we slowly but surely build our archive.
STEP TWO - Sort & Read: Your search will have brought up a list of results. If there were no results, the page will read: "Sorry, no matches were found. Please Press The BACK BUTTON On Your Browser To Return To The Previous Page. Thank You." Do so, and you can start another search. If you did get results, you'll see a chart of those results displaying song Title, Author, Year and Show. (for example, All Of Me / Simons & Marks / 1931 / Swing!). Notice that the song Title is underlined and colored blue. That means it's a hyperlink; you can click on it and get the full page of information about the song. If your search brought up many results, and you want to organize the songs in a different way, use the "Sort" button, which sorts alphabetically by Title, Author, Year or Show. Once the sorting is done, you can again click on the blue, underlined song Title to hyperlink to the full page of information.

Dramapedia: Awards - Theater nominations and awards.

STEP ONE: This is the place to find information about years, nominees and winners of various theater awards. To search for an award type, just type the full title (e.g., Lucille Lortel Awards) and hit Enter or click the Find button. Don't worry about capital or lower-case letters and don't add articles (a, an, the) before the award.
Remember that many awards are posted year by year, rather than all on one page. For example, typing "Tony Awards" will bring up a list of entries from 1947 to the present, as well as a separate explanation of Tony rules and history.
For easiest searching, use contains, rather than equal to or begins with. That way, you can type just a partial title and get the most possible results. (For example: typing "inge" will bring up William Inge Festival Award.
If you search by equal to, you must type the exact full award. If you search by begins with, you can search by the first word or just part of it (Example: "circle" will bring up New York Drama Critics Circle and Outer Critics Circle).
If you're not sure how to spell an award title, use contains and type just the part of the award you know is correct. For browsing, you can leave the search box blank and hit Enter or click Find. This brings up an alphabetical listing of every award. Or you can browse letter-by-letter using begins with. (For example: typing begins with "p" brings up every award that starts with the letter "p".)
PROBLEM?: Not finding the award you're searching for? Maybe you're misspelling or forgetting/transposing a word. The most foolproof way to search is using contains and typing just part of the title.
Still not finding the award? Maybe we just haven't been able to add it to our database yet. We add entries all the time, but it's a huge undertaking expected to take years. Your patience and support is most appreciated as we slowly but surely build our archive.
STEP TWO - Sort & Read: Your search will have brought up a list of results. If there were no results, the page will read: "Sorry, no matches were found. Please Press The BACK BUTTON On Your Browser To Return To The Previous Page. Thank You." Do so, and you can start another search. If you did get results, you'll see a chart of those Awards results. Notice that each Award is underlined and colored blue. That means it's a hyperlink; you can click on it and get the full page of information about the Award.

Dramapedia: Dictionary - Theater organizations and definitions of technical terms.

STEP ONE: This is the place to find information about theater organizations (such as theater companies, press agencies and casting agencies) as well as definitions of theater terms (such as "understudy" or "intermission".) Please note that a regional theater, such as the Goodman, might be separately listed in both Dramapedia Places and Dramapedia Dictionary, since the Goodman Theater is a place, while the production company housed there is an organization.
To search for a Dictionary term, just type the full title (e.g., Flying By Foy) and hit Enter or click the Find button. Don't worry about capital or lower-case letters.

For easiest searching, use contains, rather than equal to or begins with. That way, you can type just a partial title and get the most possible results. (For example: typing "liff" will bring up Johnson-Liff Associates.
If you search by equal to, you must type the exact full term. If you search by begins with, you can search by the first word or just part of it (Example: "kard" will bring up Kardana Productions and Kardana- Swinsky Productions).
If you're not sure how to spell a term, use contains and type just the part you know is correct. For browsing, you can leave the search box blank and hit Enter or click Find. This brings up an alphabetical listing of every term. Or you can browse letter-by-letter using begins with. (For example: typing begins with "k" brings up every Dictionary entry that starts with the letter "k".)
PROBLEM?: Not finding the word or organization you're searching for? Maybe you're misspelling or forgetting/transposing a word. The most foolproof way to search is using contains and typing just part of the title.
Still not finding the term? Maybe we just haven't been able to add it to our database yet. We add entries all the time, but it's a huge undertaking expected to take years. Your patience and support is most appreciated as we slowly but surely build our archive.
STEP TWO - Sort & Read: Your search will have brought up a list of results. If there were no results, the page will read: "Sorry, no matches were found. Please Press The BACK BUTTON On Your Browser To Return To The Previous Page. Thank You." Do so, and you can start another search. If you did get results, you'll see a chart of those results headed as "Term or Organization." Notice that each term is underlined and colored blue. That means it's a hyperlink; you can click on it and get the full page of information.
Remember that you can always go back to the beginning page of any section by clicking on the brown ovals below the banner shown on every page of the site. And you can always go back to the homepage by clicking on the banner or the Hm circle.
Now let's move on to the next section, CRITICOPIA.

CRITICOPIA - An archive of theater reviews, new and old, from around the world.
Click the button and you'll see this is the place to find theater reviews from around the world, some written by TotalTheater staffers, others excerpted from other publications and media. The site is divided into five sections: BROADWAY, OFF-BROADWAY, REGIONAL THEATER, INTERNATIONAL and CRITICS SCORECARD. The first four sections all work the same way.

Criticopia: Broadway - Broadway Reviews

STEP ONE - Search: This section contains Broadway reviews written by TotalTheater staff and freelancers. To search for one, just type the show's title in the blank box and hit enter or click the Find button. Don't worry about capital or lower-case letters. Remember that articles (a, an, the) come after the title (Example: Music Man, The).
For easiest searching, use contains, rather than equal to or begins with. That way, you can type just a partial title and get the most possible results. (Example: "man" will bring up Best Man, The; Music Man, The and Man Who Came To Dinner, The)
If you search by equal to, you must type the exact full title (Example: Best Man, The). If you search by begins with, you can search by the first word or part of it (Example: "phan" will bring up Phantom Of The Opera, The).
TIP: For browsing, leave the search box blank and hit enter. This brings up an alphabetical listing of every show. Or you can browse letter-by-letter using begins with. (For example: begins with "e" brings up every show that starts with the letter "e".)
PROBLEM?: Not finding the show you're searching for? Maybe you're spelling it wrong; or maybe you're being tricked by punctuation (example: typing "nothing" won't bring up It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues because of the apostrophe).
Still not finding the show? Maybe we just haven't been able to add the show to our database yet. We add shows all the time, but it's a huge undertaking expected to take years. Your patience and support is most appreciated as we slowly but surely build our archive.
STEP TWO - Sort & Read: Your search will have brought up a list of results. If there were no results, the page will read: "Sorry, no matches were found. Please Press The BACK BUTTON On Your Browser To Return To The Previous Page. Thank You." Do so, and you can start another search. If you did get results, you'll see a chart of those results displaying Show Title, Currently Running, Dates, City/Town, Producer/Theater Company, Theater and Critic. Notice that the show title is underlined and colored blue. That means it's a hyperlink; you can click on it and get the review of the show. If your search brought up many results, and you want to organize the shows in a different way, use the "Sort" button, which sorts alphabetically by Show Title, Currently Running (Yes or No), Theater, Critic, City/Town and Producer/Theater Company. Once the sorting is done, you can again click on the blue, underlined Show Title to hyperlink to the review.
TIP: Let's say you're planning a trip to New York this weekend, and you want to know what critics thought of shows currently playing on Broadway. First you'd leave the Search box blank and hit Enter to get all the Broadway reviews we have online. Then you'd sort by Currently Running, so that shows still open would all be grouped together before closed shows.

Criticopia: Off-Broadway - Off and Off-Off-Broadway Reviews

This section contains Off and Off-Off-Broadway reviews written by TotalTheater staffers and freelancers. The steps are exactly the same as for Broadway, although the sort options are slightly different.

Criticopia: Regional - Regional Reviews.

STEP ONE - Search: This section contains reviews of shows playing in regional, stock and community theaters across the U.S. You can search by Show Title, Critic's name, State, City, Theater name, Dates and even if the show is still running or not. For example, to search for shows playing in Chicago, IL, type the word Chicago. To search for various reviews of Steel Magnolias, type Steel Magnolias. To search for all the reviews by critic Charles Whaley, type Whaley, Charles (or just Whaley). Don't worry about capital or lower-case letters. Remember that articles (a, an, the) come after the title (Example: Music Man, The). For easiest searching, use contains, rather than equal to or begins with. That way, you can type just a partial title and get the most possible results. (Example: "all" will bring up All In The Timing and All Night Strut)
If you search by equal to, you must type the exact full title (Example: Babysitter, The). If you search by begins with, you can search by the first word or part of it (Example: "chorus" will bring up Chorus Line, A).
TIP: For browsing, leave the search box blank and hit enter. This brings up an alphabetical listing of every show.
PROBLEM?: Not finding the review you're searching for? Maybe you're misspelling; or maybe you're being tricked by punctuation.
Still not finding the review? Maybe we the show wasn't reviewed by one of TotalTheater's writers. Hey, it happens.
Are you getting some search responses that don't seem to fit your criteria? Don't forget that our search engine is looking at several columns at once. So if you search for "Chicago," it will bring up both reviews of Chicago, IL productions and reviews of the musical Chicago. STEP TWO - Sort & Read: Your search will have brought up a list of results. If there were no results, the page will read: "Sorry, no matches were found. Please Press The BACK BUTTON On Your Browser To Return To The Previous Page. Thank You." Do so, and you can start another search.