"Avoid the Crazed Fan in This House of Games
So you think you're ready for the Great White Way? Just remember, for every light on Broadway there are a hundred broken legs. Whatever.
For the amateur thespian (or director or angel), a CD-ROM video game called "Backstage" by Clarence Sheridan offers even the most amateur gamesters the chance to test their talents on the boards.
Starting out at the Stage Door entrance, players must maneuver through the backstage area of a Broadway theater by clicking the mouse on one after the other of a maze of doors located on five floors of dressing rooms, as well as a basement. The object is to get onstage before the curtain goes up.
Obstacles lurk behind the labyrinth of doors that players face. Some doors lead to the dressing rooms for other members of the cast. Some open into the offices of the Music Director, the Dance Captain, or the Acting Coach. In several rooms, players must pass a quiz in order to move on. They will need to brush up their Shakespeare, for example, to get past the Acting Coach, and will have to tickle the ivories to the tune of "My Dog Has Fleas" in the Music Director's room.
Wrong answers on a quiz may get a player sent to the Stage Manager's office. But there can be worse things in store. Some false turns, for instance, and players may find themselves back out on the street by the Stage Door, or even being poled down a sewer canal that runs underneath the theater a la "Phantom of the Opera," never to be heard from again.
There is also a Phantom in the game's theater as well, who must be avoided, and a Crazed Fan of the show's leading actress who has somehow eluded the theater's security guards and is roaming around backstage.
Top billing in "Backstage" goes to Carol Channing, who is the star of the fictional production and whose dressing room is full of admirers (but don't send the Crazed Fan there). If you get to the right room, there is even a conversation with Ms. Channing in which she talks about her career onstage.
Whether "Backstage" CD-ROM players have a career onstage depends on whether they can find it. As the saying goes, break a leg."
Review by Wilborn Hampton
The New York Times

"There is a current unrest within the publishing community that pressure to deliver hits on the back of megabuck development budgets is stifling creativity. It's a valid worry. One day all software will be safe and tedious. That's why Backstage, developed by the excitingly named New Yorker Clarence Sheridan is a refreshing and welcome title. This low budget theatrical Myst-like adventure created by an actor has qualities sadly missing in many big budget titles. It's innovative in a way that the big boys would never dare attempt. How many titles do you know which pose questions based on the works of Shakespeare? Resident Indie Luvvie Andrea was well impressed. Recommendation enough."
Review by Dave McLean
Editor, Indie Magazine

"Finally! Clarence Sheridan has the chutzpah and where-with-all
to bring to market an exciting, challenging and outrageously fun CD-ROM exclusively for the "smell of the greasepaint and roar of the crowd" fans. BACKSTAGE gives users an extremely simple to use glimpse of the behind the scenes magic of theater, as you roam in a virtual theater through it's dressing rooms, basement, and of course have a tête-à-tête with Carol Channing. Let's hope this is the first of a series of CD-ROM's for the theatrical mindset."
Review by Toby Simkin,
President, BuyBoadway!

" The whole family will enjoy slipping through the maze of backstage doors and hallways to learn more about the inner workings of the theater."
"While kids may not immediately recognize Carol Channing's name, they instantly recognize her voice. Because of this, young theater buffs are drawn to explore the backstage maze to find out more about the inner workings of the theater and this star of stage, screen, and children's cartoons!"
Review by Diane S. Kendall
Editor, Children's Software Press

"Backstage, playable on a PC or Mac, is an entertaining and instructional game about musical theater. As an actor in a touring Carol Channing show, the player is led through all aspects of the production. The game is player-friendly? as puzzles and tests are solved, the player accumulates information required for completion and learns something about acting on the road. It's possible to lose, but its not necessary to save games or restart at the beginning, just to take notes. Unlike the usual adventure game, there's gentle humor rather than battles with killer lizards. Progress is relatively uncomplicated apart from two challenging and time-consuming steps that keep Backstage from being too easy. Its not necessary to be an experienced gamer to enjoy the quest, and installation is easy. Graphics and sound are superior.

An important feature of Backstage is an "interview" with Carol Channing in which the actress delivers a lively autobiography. The sixty minutes of audio are playable on any CD deck, and are tracked for easy reference to a particular passage. Channing fans, therefore, don't need a computer to get good value from the disc.

The young creator of Backstage, Clarence Sheridan, is an actor as well as a computer genius, and his credits include the national tour of Hello Dolly. This unique combination delivers fun and information for gamers who don't know much about the stage and a challenging pastime for theater people who are new to computer games. And of course it's an important addition to the Carol Channing discography."

Review by Art Hilgart
Producer, Broadway Revisited on Public Radio

"A BYTE OF ALL RIGHT"
"This is a collector's item. Whatever you collect, put this on the list. It is instant nostalgia. At CD-ROM antique fairs in the year 2050 it could be worth a fortune.
Created by American actor, Clarence Sheridan, who did a 15 month tour of ‘Hello, Dolly!’ with US legend Carol Channing, it arose from ‘the frustration of always trying to figure out where I was’.
It is a computer game (and works both on PC and Mac) and also an audio monologue by Channing herself.
Channing, for hazy memories, was the first ever Blonde who Gentlemen Preferred. She was Dolly before sheep clones were dreamed of. In a voice that embodies the entire history of American theatre this century – arch, brash, generous, spoilt, but above all very emphatic – she tells us that her theatrical ambitions came to her late – in Grade Four at the age of seven.
But Channing is no stereotype. While there are the inevitable bits of folksy showbiz wisdom – ‘my father told me, be careful what you set your heart upon for you will surely get it’ -- her zest and love for the job redeem all.
She takes us, without shame or vanity, through the list of all her hits, while speculating on Bernard Shaw’s secret women, Caesar's enemy Vercingtorix, Greek tragedy, and co-star Julie Andrews. Even her French sounds pretty good.
You detect, under the automatic storytelling of a thousand chat shows, a broad intelligence and heroic dedication. More than one worthwhile nugget is offered for the young actor of today: ‘Remove the fear from the classics before you learn to be afraid.’
Listening to Channing I thought how much we might have valued similar self-selected monologues from some of our own legends – Olivier freewheeling, Burton ruminating, Evans and Ashcroft spilling the beans. (Hey someone, grab Gielgud now!)
She sums up herself and her work with an answer to that dire question all actors are asked: Don't you get sick of doing the same thing night after night?
‘The only person who asks that question,’ she says, ‘is someone who is sick of the work they do themselves.’
An assortment of characters like the head carpenter, the stage manager, the company manager and the acting coach pop up.
Some will ask you a number of testing questions on you theatrical knowledge. The acting coach, for example, throws out a number of Shakespeare questions in an actor-laddy voice unheard since the thirties.
If it gets too much, switch to the Channing audio for an authentic slice of fast-disappearing American theatre."
Ian Flintoff
THE STAGE (London)

"Veritable ol' Broadway trooper Carol Channing has seen it all, darling, and believe me, you've got to take the knocks that sheer bloody theatre can dish out. The gentleman's blonde found herself the first name on a list that disgraced former President Nixon kept of people that he hated, and her poor son was hounded by transvestites dressed up as six-foot travesties of his dear mum. Worst of all, she was insulted by Miss Piggy when she appeared on The Muppet Show : 'Miss Piggy didn't like me at all. She was very superior. So I wore a dress that made me look as slim as possible. I think she was jealous of me. She told me that if gentlemen didn't prefer blondes after all then I'd wasted a lot of peroxide!' Puhzazz! And now, after appearing as the lead in a glorious touring production of Hello Dolly, Ms. Channing is starring in -- get this -- an interactive theatrical CD-ROM game called Backstage."
Review by Paul Nesbitt
Writer, MacUser Magazine

"In terms of conception, Backstage appears to be aiming at Myst meets The Great White Way, an odd combination if ever there was one. The product is the brainchild of Clarence Sheridan, who conceived it while touring with a production of Hello, Dolly. Sheridan found that every theater on the tour was a maze unto itself, and decided it would make an apt metaphor for an interactive title. In the game, players navigate through dressing rooms in a five-story theater in an attempt to gather clues, solve puzzles, and arrive onstage, dressed and ready for action, at show time. Distractions such as crazed fans, irritable cast members, a phantom lurking in the basement — all manner of things can keep you from ultimately reaching your goal.
The CD includes an audio portion containing interviews Sheridan conducted with actress Carol Channing, and while I’ve never been a Carol Channing fan, I found the sound bites charming. Channing is funny and interesting, and her stories and snippets of personal history, are definitely worth a listen."
Anne Marie Feld
Editor, MacHome