Book excerpt: The large-scale Broadway musical is one of America's greatcontributions to world theatre. Bill and Jean Eckart were stagedesigners and producers at the peak of the musical, and their designsrevolutionized Broadway productions. At a time when sets were meantto remain simply backdrops that established time and place but notmuch else, an Eckart set became part of the performance on stage, equal at times to an actor. Anyone who has seen Phantom of the Operaor Les Miserables has seen the innovations that the Eckarts brought tothe large Broadway-style musical production