Photo from Playbill. It features Cynthia Erivo, the host of the Tony Awards this year.
It’s been a record year for Broadway theater. 4.85 million viewers watched the Tony Awards on CBS on Sunday, the largest broadcast audience since 2019 and a 38% increase over 2024. It set a new record for streaming with a 208% year-over-year increase. This is on the heels of Broadway’s highest grossing year ever – $2 billion in revenue from 14.7 million tickets sold.
Working in the performing arts in many different capacities for a good portion of my career, including Broadway theater, regional theater, touring, and now for Carnegie Hall, it’s inspiring and gratifying to see so many people choosing to spend their time and money to experience live performances. Most of my work is now in the digital media space, and I’m especially excited to see digital and live melding together as is the case for the current Broadway incarnations of Sunset Boulevard and The Picture of Dorian Grey
We often hear platitudes that theater is an escape from our everyday lives. We sit together in a dark theater with total strangers for 2+ hours as a way to get away from our worries and cares, to forget the outside world for a little while, to find some kind of reprieve.
I’ve always seen live performance as a way to come home to myself, to my deepest dreams, to the core of who I am. It helps me to reimagine what I might create, what I might aspire to do next. That’s why I keep going back. I think that may be why in these troubling, dangerous times so many people are gathering together in theaters – to affirm their belief that our best and brightest days are still ahead of us.
The short of it:
Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day.
The long of it:
My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events.
While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series.
A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist.
My company:
I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media:
• I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference;
• I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable;
• I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me.
Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
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Christa Avampato 