Name: Broadway Backstages Are Tiny. Here's How ‘Chicago’ Makes It Work.
Uploaded: 2026-02-27T17:00:00Z
Duration: 10 min 26 s
Description: WSJ spent a day in the life of a Broadway electrician to reveal the billion-dollar machine behind this American art form—from the factory floor to a nearly sold-out performance.

https://www.barrons.com/client

Topics

Memberships

Tools

Customer Service

Network

Newsstand

For Business

For Education

For Advertisers

Account

About Barron's

bolded

unBolded

“We don’t see technology undermining our existence, we see technology helping us,” says Max Hollein, the CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260325/2a63586d-e782-4dc5-be2e-df80e32a8ed2/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Museums in the Age of AI

Max Hollein, the CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, tells Barron’s Andy Serwer why more people are donating to museums and cultural institutions.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260325/f1104bdd-a20a-46e0-917c-9292190d83a5/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Changing Landscape of Philanthropy

Jonathan Steinberg, founder and CEO of WisdomTree, tells Barron’s Andy Serwer how gold and metals can be a strong alternative to the dollar and Bitcoin.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260320/d4b49c1b-42b9-4eaa-b914-6f227f593d6c/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

WisdomTree CEO Is Going All In on Gold

Max Hollein, the CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, discusses philanthropy, artificial intelligence, museum security, and more.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260319/1835a4d4-fe5e-422f-b02f-a35b4f6a7272/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

This CEO Runs One of the Biggest Museums in the World

Jonathan Steinberg, founder and CEO of Wisdom Tree, sat down for an interview with Barron's editor at large Andy Serwer.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260312/4427cde3-1850-4fbf-92bc-ec8c7f47f1ae/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

WisdomTree CEO on ETFs, IDing Macro Trends, and More

As remote and hybrid work continues, Elizabeth Brink and Jordan Goldstein, co-CEOS of the architecture firm Gensler, tell Barron’s Andy Serwer how the firm is adapting to office design post-Covid.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260310/9eee4aa4-a86b-4762-9860-8fe7dce15ef3/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Redesigning the Office As a Destination, Not an Obligation

Elizabeth Brink and Jordan Goldstein, co-CEOS of the architecture firm Gensler, discuss how their leadership model works for their company.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260310/69de6812-eedd-4c37-8d4c-33823d11fd03/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Co-Leading and Collaborating at Gensler

Elizabeth Brink and Jordan Goldstein, co-CEOS of the architecture firm Gensler, sat down with Barron's editor at large Andy Serwer.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260306/da75551e-1f3b-4bb6-9d48-1d7eb40aee2a/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Gensler Co-CEOs on Nvidia, AI, and 'the 20-Minute City'

At Barron's

"Your 9-5...is just not going to do it," Nick Magguilli, personal finance expert, said on Barron's Streetwise podcast.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251216/e6897805-d131-4cc4-9c59-ca03b0c0b958/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How to Scale Your Net Worth

TJ Thornton, Head of Global Research Product Marketing at BofA Securities, talks to Jack Hough about his favorite stocks outside of AI.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251210/f9c1a95c-5a0e-4349-9fe4-73b3ac53bfb8/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

BofA’s Favorite Non-AI Stocks

Jack Hough talks to TJ Thornton, Head of Global Research Product Marketing at BofA Securities about diversifying stocks to hedge AI risks.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251210/8e164ff7-1500-4c2f-8713-e891c640a0f4/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Evaluating Investing Opportunities Beyond AI

Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood, breaks down the value of tokenizing stocks in different markets.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251126/f86d65ea-bd8b-4777-b6b0-80f7bb12027e/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Unpacking Tokenization for Everyday Investors

Jack Hough talks to Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood, about trends in retail investing.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251126/a9cbdcc6-f060-4fc9-a15e-396924e25946/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How Robinhood Reshaped the Trading Landscape for an Entire Generation

Streetwise host Jack Hough sat down with strategist Scott Wren to discuss how the AI-fueled market run stacks up against the dot-com boom.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251111/bd2e1a5b-1a6e-4543-8133-dcc63f69b5dc/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

AI vs. The Dot Com Bubble

Bank of America’s Haim Israel shares what’s next for Nuclear Energy development.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250930/ab4fc336-af44-4af2-8e40-9ae6f04a445e/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Outlook For Nuclear

Jack talks to Lyft CEO David Risher about growth potential in the company.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250929/ae62b70e-912b-4ce7-ae63-1b2652628bae/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Lyft's Ride to Profit

The stock market is expensive. What does that mean for your portfolio? Jack sits down with Franklin Templeton’s Matt Quinlan to talk dividend investing, and whether it’s a good move in a pricey market.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250911/9c85e132-d710-4458-9467-aa69d4f25ae0/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Dividends and Capital Appreciation

Barron's Streetwise

“They don't want to wait for the advisor to hand them the performance report,” says Mollie Colavita, CEO of J.P. Morgan Advisors. “They want to consume on their terms and then have a conversation about it with you.”

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260310/eafd1ea2-90cf-4e84-89ec-38bf035de8c0/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Clients Want Direct Access to Information When They Want It

Interviews with top wealth management professionals about topics including compensation, hiring, marketing, next-gen, and more.

Mollie Colavita, CEO of J.P. Morgan Advisors, recommends that advisors seek out a group of trusted people who can act as a sounding board to help address pressing issues.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260311/f79ee94f-8475-4cea-97a7-5c3dcdc6ea53/2/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Benefits of Having a ‘Personal Board of Directors’

Mollie Colavita, CEO of J.P. Morgan Advisors, discusses the importance of financial advisors adopting a CEO mindset in their practice.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260310/d371a9d3-65fe-414e-bade-5b3ed915d16d/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Why Advisors Should Think and Act Like a CEO

Mollie Colavita, CEO of J.P. Morgan Advisors, discusses how new AI tools are being rapidly adopted by advisors, resulting in improved efficiency and enhanced client relationships.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260310/595b6817-9225-4f9a-8ae8-b391eeed555b/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How AI Tools Can Help Streamline Advisor Workflows

Eleni Mavromati, private wealth manager with Merrill Private Wealth Management, who serves as COO of the Jones Zafari Group, says that “listening to everybody’s ideas will help make the team great.”

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260224/400c8545-54da-42c8-89a5-e62f8d0ecf8d/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

‘Leading With Empathy Is the Most Important Thing’

Eleni Mavromati, private wealth manager with Merrill Private Wealth Management, who serves as COO of the Jones Zafari Group, discusses activities that are not work related that encourage mingling and engagement across different roles.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260224/2d52248b-c26d-45c4-b0bf-cf5786f9e9c2/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Ways to Foster a Friendlier and Fun Team Culture 

Eleni Mavromati, private wealth manager with Merrill Private Wealth Management, who serves as COO of the Jones Zafari Group, says her team hosts activities, including nature walks for women, who often become friends and sometimes business partners.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260224/743c8742-df59-4b75-8c6d-e272e7e366cb/2/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Be More Intentional About Business Development

Eleni Mavromati, private wealth manager with Merrill Private Wealth Management, who serves as COO of the Jones Zafari Group, says COOs must ensure that compliance, human resources, business development, marketing, and team culture are all in sync.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260224/f894db37-780d-4063-8455-46acc418d2ad/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How the COO Role Is Similar to Being an Orchestra Conductor

Nancy Daoud, CEO of Opus: Advice First, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, says that alts have become “one of the most important components of portfolios in more recent years, probably in the last eight to 10 years.”

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260210/0f15cdfa-d2c2-466d-9a75-7f02d1b92ddb/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Growing Importance of Alternative Investments

Barron's Advisor The Way Forward

A “willingness to roll up your sleeves and understand the issues that your clients are facing, not just from an investment perspective,” is common among the industry’s most successful, says Kelly Gaur, a Mercer Advisors regional vice president.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260319/318adb2f-a888-4f30-b182-c791e27f98ab/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Best Advice for Someone Considering Wealth Management as a Career

Kelly Gaur, a Mercer Advisors regional vice president, says she was drawn to working for a registered investment advisor partly because they generally offer a more personalized, modern approach to wealth management.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260318/5575e9ca-0b48-4fb9-8e43-82aae1b3e3fc/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Appeal of Working for an RIA

“The best client development professionals are those who have served clients in some capacity,” says Kelly Gaur, a Mercer Advisors regional vice president.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260318/c1638929-6b21-4573-9deb-4f78e1ffa1d7/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Client-Facing Experience Can Help Advance Your Career

The Mercer Advisors regional vice president discusses her business development role and tips for breaking into the industry and gaining valuable experience in a non-advisory capacity.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260318/f2c2c9a5-cb67-4167-a48b-7fe4a9285615/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Kelly Gaur: Tips for Pursuing Non-Advisor Roles in Wealth Management

“You want to make sure that everybody's excited and prepared and that you're all pulling the rope in the same direction,” says Nate Fisher, managing director and wealth advisor at Carson Wealth.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260305/20285ef5-c115-435f-9291-e4f2d5b166a9/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

A Successful Transition Requires Honesty and a ‘Heavy Lift’

Young advisors considering a succession plan should maximize engagement with clients because “it can take a long time to gain that trust and build those relationships,” says Nate Fisher, managing director and wealth advisor at Carson Wealth.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260305/236fdaa2-5acb-48e9-b16d-e20b58846487/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Succession Planning and Establishing Trust With Clients

The Carson Wealth managing director and wealth advisor says his decision to partner with the firm was driven by the need for increased capacity for holistic services and a clear succession plan for his retiring father.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260305/33bb1217-c8be-4358-ba17-6238cbab6fa1/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Nate Fisher: Lessons Learned From a Successful Partnership

As trust grows, advisors tend to spend less time discussing investments and more time on clients’ families and well-being, says Nate Fisher, managing director and wealth advisor at Carson Wealth.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260305/d2d3903a-994f-4ae7-82be-706929930b3d/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Trusted Advisors Focus Less on Investments, More on Clients' Lives 

Serving tech founders is a full-time, long-term effort that often requires significant upfront work before a successful, revenue-generating relationship is established, says Katie Partridge, a Morgan Stanley private wealth advisor.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260219/abc63bad-4c7a-474b-b4a8-b4feae461375/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Landing Founders as Clients Requires Patience and Hard Work

Barron's Advisor Next Generation

The capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and Middle East tensions are reshaping oil supply expectations. The U.S. is intervening in energy markets in decades-unseen ways. Experts break down what’s next for oil, gas and energy stocks.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260212/9779ec13-602a-4a38-bb73-495ff464a24f/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Oil and Gas in a Volatile World

For the first time in decades, U.S. power demand is rising - driven by AI data centers, EVs and electrification. Utility and clean-energy stocks are climbing, but costly buildouts threaten affordability. We explore what’s next for the power trade.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260212/81a81fdd-47b4-44f6-93d1-7597a7fab032/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Gold Rush in Electricity

Will Nvidia and other technology companies keep powering the stock market in 2026? We'll speak with two veteran money managers about their views on tech and their favorite stocks for the coming year.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251212/5683d7a0-ed1f-4e3c-b913-bb3367ea3abd/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Finding Bargains in a Pricey Market

Explore what could go right for investors, and what could go wrong, in a year that will see the AI trade evolve, the Fed's leadership change, and global competition for resources increase in this 2026 Outlook.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251212/573f5954-c4ab-43e9-804d-f1ea93fbb70c/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Meeting the Challenge

Stocks are expensive, risks abound, and AI is about to change the world. Other than that, building a calamity-proof retirement portfolio should be a cinch. Tune in as two veteran money managers size up the markets and share their investment ideas.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250211/17a5e7d6-7c36-44b0-a35e-bf5ac3a24194/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Saving for a Sunny Day

Research shows that people greatly underestimate the healthcare costs they’ll face in retirement. Learn from experts how to estimate those costs, prepare for potential long-term care needs, and manage healthcare expenses in retirement.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250211/e7c022d9-badf-4e95-8e7c-0b6fce9f7823/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Are You Fiscally Fit?

Surging power demand, new energy sources, and growing competition have spurred the utility industry to become more innovative than ever before. Our panelists will unpack the changes afoot and explore what lies ahead for companies, customers, and investors.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20240917/001ea098-1fcc-4da5-9f0e-a3b149bbb2fb/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Not Your Father's Utility

Modernizing America's grid will take creativity and money -- lots of money. Learn how players across the power sector can achieve their electrification goals and serve new customers without breaking the bank for consumers.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20240917/bd6bd43a-bb07-4b7f-9d1c-6ae04220bea9/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Ready for a Revamp?

The launch this year of Bitcoin ETFs has made it easier for investors to buy and trade the cryptocurrency. But is that a wise move, and if so, how much crypto should you own?

https://m.wsj.net/video/20240529/cbb77f15-ef70-445d-85ae-5f02c24ea1ef/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Investing in Cryptocurrencies

Barron's Roundtable

Whether you're leading a transition, building a scalable team, or just trying to stay ahead of the curve, this episode will give you practical insights to lead smarter and grow stronger.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251010/fd26d60b-d1e6-409b-b51b-101da4aaa368/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Next-Gen Leadership Meets Smart Innovation

Electric vehicles sales are growing but not at the pace some expected. Some would-be buyers worry about the range of EV charging, and others are swayed by politics. But innovators from Detroit to Silicon Valley still envision a dramatic shift in how we get around. What’s going on and what’s next?

https://m.wsj.net/video/20240603/5784fa60-791c-47ad-9740-42e4553de5c4/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Forces Shaping EV Adoption and the Future of Driving

Success in improving the power grid to accommodate the electricity demands of the future will be a boon for companies doing the work and utilities that succeed. Explore the investing risks and opportunities.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20240522/2b825c69-2687-4d88-923b-0c8f523a2f67/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How to Invest in Initiatives to Bolster the Power Grid

Joanna Rotenberg, Fidelity's president of personal investing, discusses ways to make investing more accessible and how to bolster your own financial security.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20231025/8ad733df-ac90-41fd-9655-7761b3e0532c/2/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Mind the Gap: Demystifying Investing

Reshma Kapadia sits down with Cozy Wittman of College Inside Track to discuss how to tackle all things college, from what admission officers are seeking today, to navigating the different ways to funding higher education and evaluating the ROIs.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20230515/b7229011-05cc-42ec-9c16-1d7752ec668d/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Decoding the College Search and Financing Puzzle

Nicole Webb, financial advisor and SVP at Wealth Enhancement Group, shares ways to navigate the real estate market this spring whether you are a first-time buyer, a retiree downsizing or someone who is relocating or looking for a second home.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20230424/93eb00e1-caf0-4e83-9fc7-b502a57dc546/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Pro Tips on Buying and Selling a Home

Reggie Fils-Aimé, former president and COO of Nintendo of America, joins Barron's deputy editor Alex Eule to discuss his unlikely rise to the top, and the risks he took once there to beat the odds and achieve success.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20220630/61e2296d-ab1a-4216-ae65-24676447c616/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How Nintendo's Former President Disrupted the Gaming Industry

2050 Wealth Planners co-CEO Lazetta Rainey Braxton, Sequoia Financial Planners vice president Elizabeth Scheiderer, and MoneyZen founder Manisha Thakor offer tips on how to prepare for recession, inflation, caregiving needs.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20220617/a71025ce-518b-49b9-b098-21417863f8ce/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Financial Advice for the Inflation-Weary

Families and advisors have a lot to navigate when it comes to generational wealth transfer. Add sustainable investing to the list. Examine strategies to help close the generational divide. From the Dow Jones Energy & Sustainability event series.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20230210/85cbf3f9-b5ab-4bfa-93c6-f8e8a247d386/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Sustainable Investing and the Wealth Transfer

Barron's Events

Level Up

Barron's Explains

Back to Business

Great Investors

MarketWatch

Video Center - Barron's home

WSJ spent a day in the life of a Broadway electrician to reveal the billion-dollar machine behind this American art form—from the factory floor to a nearly sold-out performance. Photo: Jaden Urbi

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260227/8ae86e4b-4b11-4d3b-8c7a-9c4d4e1bdeb7/2/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

WSJ spent a day in the life of a Broadway electrician to reveal the billion-dollar machine behind this American art form—from the factory floor to a nearly sold-out performance.

Broadway Backstages Are Tiny. Here's How ‘Chicago’ Makes It Work.

Whenever there's been war, famine, economic downturns, Broadway has been a place for people to come and to put their fears aside and sit there and be entertained. It's part of our national character.

It's a very New York feeling when you're leading up to that time when a Broadway show is happening, there's more cabs, there's more restaurants bustling, there's all of these people lining up outside every Broadway theater.

When you hear that crowd and that murmur going out there, the musicians feel it, the crew knows, oh, we got a big house tonight, this is gonna be good.

This is a billion dollar industry. Thousands of people work long, hard hours to deliver a product that is ephemeral. At any given moment, something can happen, it could be, show could be a little bit different every day. And that's part of the excitement of it.

It might be the greatest form of entertainment there is. Come on. I always tell people, you better love what you do. Like everybody else is having a barbecue on Saturday and you're working two shows and then getting home late, leaving early, and then your day off might be Monday where everybody's working. My name is Jimmy Fedigan. I am a production electrician on Broadway shows. I kind of facilitate the day to day of like loading shows in, taking shows out, things like that. So right now we're just gonna check on all the shows from last night. I'm getting eight of these a week times every show. So basically I'm just kind of going through quickly to see if there's any technical notes. They'll tell you about the who was in the show, who was in, who was out, time the show went up, what time the show went down, things like that. I usually just go right to technical and this one right here says, good show, no notes. Technical none, my favorite ones. The beauty of this position and this job is there's no such thing as a normal day. I've worked on Broadway since 1980, so it was kind of my only job. A lot of kids had jobs at McDonald's and they had jobs at Burger King, things like that where I was working in a lighting company. And then my father worked on Broadway. Everybody loved my father. So if you went from 41st to 52nd Street, which is really Broadway proper, you had to stop 50 times for everybody, say hello to them as you walk by. Just so my kids now come and we walk up and it's same thing.

Technically, what Broadway is are shows that have played the 41 Broadway theaters. They stretch from 41st Street to 65th Street and they're all centered around Broadway. 1903 and 1904, that's when the theater district moved to Times Square and it's also when our first electric billboards went up.

I was here as a kid in the seventies all the way through. So I've seen the change of Times Square. So I've seen it when it was light bulbs, then became neon and you could actually hear the buzz of the neon like transformers because there was so much of it. Times Square at the time was not a place that was what it is now, it was movie theaters that may have been putting in crazy shows like a raunchier type feel. Now when you get all the tourist there and we're trying to walk from point A to point B, everybody's looking up and you can't blame them because it really is beautiful. This is PRG Scenic Technologies. This is where everything from the ground up is built for all different forms of entertainment. All the Broadway stuff, all the television, film. Guys, you're busy, looks like the whole floor is taken up.

But we could be empty tomorrow.

Right, right.

And load out 12, 15 trailers and then the next day, full again. So you never quite know.

You're gonna walk in there, you're gonna smell sawdust, you're gonna smell maybe hydraulic oil. There are gonna be chain loaders going. They're taking drawings from paper and getting them to work into a theater and be put in there and moved around and flown and hung.

Some of the pieces that we've had to bring into the theaters, they take up entire flatbeds. Weird is so normal for us. A lot of it's trying to keep that magic alive for people too. So although we're overcoming physical constraints and physics of things, we still want the audience to be amazed and enjoy the magic when it happens. So we try to keep a lot of those things pretty tightlipped.

Lighting Shop is this huge building and not only do they do the lighting over there, they do the video and they also do the sounds. This is where all the shows come in to prep before they head into Broadway for loading. They'll do a lot of demos ahead of time to see how it all works so that when it gets there, time is money. When we get into the theater, things have to move fast and work.

We'll have crews come in here and we'll show them how the equipment works, how to set it up and make sure that it'll sound the way it's supposed to be, if it's the speaker or look the correct way if it's a light.

Jimmy: When I was a young kid, seven, eight years old, they would drop me off at the warehouse and I started working on lighting gear. And my father, what he explained to me is, we're actually telling the audience where to look.

Without lights, it's radio. We're providing the visual cues, whether it's a music performance or a theatrical performance, it can help set the mood, it can set the tone, it can guide audience's attention. It is an unspoken visual character and it adds to the story that's being told.

You may see Grammys, Tonys, Mariah Carey concert and Taylor Swift, I guess I should say now. The concert, everything like that could all be in docks on its way back in or ready be pushed out

At any given point, we can have over a hundred trucks coming in and out of a facility.

Jimmy: It gets pretty busy.

Day in the life of Shorty. I'm a truck driver. I go in and out of the city. Like Broadway, we deliver Broadway shows, movies. If equipment goes down, like we have a hotline, I gotta come in, get loaded and dash on out. Now people say I could probably make it into the city in 15, 20 minutes, absolutely, absolutely. Rain, sleet, snow, hot, cold, don't matter.

The theater district changes all the time, just like New York City changes all the time. But the shows inside the theaters are still happening just like they've always happened.

At about 5:20, you'll see people starting to meander up this direction and at 5:30 when the call starts, everybody has their routine. It's like somebody working on a Rolex clock that's perfectly dialed in. The carpenters will check all their pieces they have, the props will go through and they'll start presetting all their pieces and anything that they have to work on that might be a little banged up from the night before. And the sound system is being checked out, each microphone is being checked out. Next thing we're gonna do is we're gonna bring in, once that black deck goes out, this electric's gonna come in, that happens during the courtroom scene and it comes in and turns as it goes. So it uplights the ladies and it also blinds the audience. We'll bring the Chicago sign in when you get a chance. That's good, I think on the sign. You good on the sign? Okay, all good on the sign.

Broadway is both so glamorous, right? It's the pinnacle of American professional theater and it's also, we're performing these shows and making these shows happen in these theaters that are often a hundred years old or so. So there's a glamour and then there's also the other side of it where you're like sharing a toilet with, 20 other cast members or, oh, we have this much space for our dressing room table.

This is the main desk area that I have, this is upstage left. I have shelving and I have all the items that we need during the show, whether to fix them or to hand them out for the show. There's pencils, there's cameras, there's newspapers. That's the machine gun for kitty scene. This is very tight, in the theater, it's not much room. In fact, I'm literally sitting below the drummer under the stage. He actually climbs up this ladder and sits over my head, which makes it for a very interesting evening. On this side, we have the quick change. It's a tiny little space where the actors come to check their makeup or change costumes if needed. But it really becomes more of a storage area. This way is where the actors enter, you can see how the audience can see us. And if we come upstage this way, it enters into the backstage area, which has the staircases to the dressing rooms and as well as a hangout area for a lot of the actors. Water cooler and then storage for their water bottles, phones, lipstick, hair and makeup, anything they need when they're not on stage.

Jimmy: About 10 minutes before the doors open for the audience to come in, it gets kind of quiet. Probably the same thing as being an athlete in a game. Like you've worked your way up to being like, okay, showtime.

If you've not signed in, please do so at this time, it's half hour, half hour.

You hear the murmur of the crowd and once they start getting in and it gets a little, they're all talking and it gets louder and louder and louder. And when you have a full house and the audience is, like dialed in, it's special. "Beaches" will be my 126th Broadway show that I've worked on. I'm slowing down a little bit, but we get three or four a year for the next five years or so. My father passed at 59, but during that time when I did go to work, I felt proud that he got to see me progress to a spot he hadn't done.

Theater will never be replaced, right? Like there's no form of technology, there's no movie, TV show, AI form, computer generated software. There's nothing that can replace the art form of watching people in a room telling you a story. And while that might look different, the LED marquees and the tracks moving on the stage, it might look different because of technology, the actual art form is forever.

Inside a 12-Hour Workday for a 2-Hour Broadway Show

Up Next