The “VIP Access” column serves up advice on how to make your theater-going experiences cheaper, easier and more fulfilling with inside scoop from the experts. For January, we’ve got the way to experience Broadway, without venturing out into the cold…

Photo by Rido.

The puppets of Avenue Q tell us that the internet is for porn; I’d take a slightly wider view and state that the internet is for procrastination. There’s nothing like avoiding, say, writing a blog post by falling mouse first into the web and getting lost in more information (or videos or images or…well, porn) than you could ever need. For Broadway lovers wanting a cyber vacation, the last month has seen unprecedented content uploaded with the launch of two major website initiatives designed to digitize theatrical archives and make them available online for academics and fans alike: Playbill Vault and Roundabout Theatre Company’s Digital Online Archive. Now that they’re both up and running, let’s take them for a test drive to see how they roll… Read more…