Blue-Collar Broadway: The Craft and Industry of American Theater

Behind the scenes of New York City's Great White Way, virtuosos of stagecraft have built the scenery, costumes, lights, and other components of theatrical productions for more than a hundred years. But like a good magician who refuses to reveal secrets, they have left few clues about their work. Blue—Collar Broadway recovers the history of those people and the neighborhood in which their undersung labor occurred.

Timothy R. White begins his history of the theater industry with the dispersed ...