ABSTRACT
Hudson Scenic Studios in Yonkers, New York, does not appear to the casual onlooker like a vital hub in the increasingly global marketplace of Broadway musicals. A view of the musical industry from massive shop floor provides insight into the ways scenographic technologies have shaped the Broadway brand as an international commodity. Computer technological and aesthetic shifts have altered practices of backstage labor on Broadway, particularly among the members of Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Broadway's lighting technicians became even more specialized with the introduction of automated instrumentation, which uses computer controls to remotely refocus and change the colors of individual instruments as part of a production’s cuing. The contentious debates around sound amplification will surely continue, but in practice, today's Broadway musicals are wedded to amplification, producing sounds that audiences have come to expect, despite continued criticism from stalwarts of a bygone era.
