Voting opened Friday, May 8th for BroadwayWorld's NEXT ON STAGE - a new, online musical theatre singing competition for student performers sponsored by Broadway Records! Inspired by your favorite network TV singing contests, the site invited high school and college aged students to submit videos of themselves performing a song from the musical theatre canon to enter the competition.

Over 1600 students were nominated, with over 100K readers already having voted!

Voting for the top 25 is now open! Readers can browse all the nominees at broadwayworld.com/nextonstage and submit ratings for each contestant - assigning 1 to 10 points. When voting closes, the contestants with the most number of points will move on to the top 25 and appear on our first live show with our Broadway judges!

Voting for High School will close at 11:59 PM ET on Wednesay, May 13th. Voting for College will close on 11:59 PM ET on Thursday May 14th. The top 25 for each category will be notified by email following the live shows Thursday and Friday evening and will have until 11:59 PM ET Sunday, May 17th to submit a video for the next round.

Both the college and high school winner will receive a Broadway prizepack with merch from the BroadwayWorld Theatre Shop, CDs from Broadway Records, and $1000 to a charity of their choosing, and both first-place winners will also have the opportunity to record a single, to be released by Broadway Records, with the profits from the recording being donated to The Actors Fund.

Additional first place prizes include:

-A virtual voice lesson with Matt Farnsworth prior to recording your single.

-A session with Telsey + Company's Rachel Hoffman to hone in your audition skills.

-A free subscription to BroadwayWorld Edu - online classes in singing, acting, and dancing worth over $1200.