"The remarkable and inventive Clarence Sheridan has scored the greatest hit of his theatrical career thus far. He's not singing and dancing this time. He's not acting either. He's not even appearing on the stage. He's playing this time to Sitting Room Only!! Sitting? Yep, at your computer. Here, Mr. Sheridan has served up the first Broadway Musical computer game, "Backstage". This amazing and delightful game, a true labor of love (a hackneyed expression, but other phrases fail) could only come from the mind of a programmer of the highest degree and a trouper of the deepest dedication.

The wet behind the ears actor, that's you, enters the theater through the stage door. The object is to make it to the stage. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, take it from me (an actor who turned radio announcer - I wanted to work every day), anyone can open a stage door, but how many can indeed make it to the stage? Never a simple task, I assure you, and in "Backstage", the task is equally not so simple, and certainly as challenging and as nerve wracking as the real life experience can be. Room to room - corridor to corridor - oops! I'm in Carol Channing's dressing room! Pardon me, Miss Channing. Oh no! It's the stage manager, yoikes! Here's that Shakespeare - absorbed acting teacher again! Heck, did I see this staircase before? I gotta get onstage!!

I started experiencing flop-sweat in my own home!!

I could not tear myself from my computer for hours, and I'm still not onstage! I'm having a love-hate issue with this CD ROM. I want to beat the game, yet I hope it never ends. All the tension and excitement of the real experience is all there in every detail. Also the artwork and audio effects and music are astounding and particularly expertly executed. There's also a huge cast of Broadway luminaries gracing this cross-platform (both PC and Mac) CD ROM. The likes of actor/director Lee Roy Reams, the exceptionally talented Cory English, James Darrah, Steve Pudenz, Mr. Sheridan and Desta Sheridan, and certainly the great and beloved Miss Carol Channing. There are so many fascinating and highly talented others as well.

Did I say that this "event" is cross-platform? Rather, let me correct this and say tri-platform, because one can pop this into a regular audio CD player and delight to a generous audio book of over an hour of Carol Channing relating her remarkable memoirs as only that remarkable First Lady of Musical Comedy can do. I found myself smiling at my machine.

"Backstage" is an absolute must-have not only for the steeped in Broadway types, but will be a perfect addition to the building collection of materials being put together by the young theater student, or even the casual theater goer. But it needn't stop there! The devotee of computer gaming will also be impressed, delighted and magnificently confused by every twist, turn, hidden hotspot and surprise. If there was ever a reason for a theatre-loving computer holdout to rush out and get a rig, ClarenceSheridan's "Backstage" is certainly it!"
Bob Stern
Program Director, Radio Station WLIM, New York