By Robert Simonson
03 Jun 2009

Of course, Broadway producers are used to getting what they want, and it's Sapper's job to find a way to give it to them. Consistency of hue in a marquee is a continual challenge to King Displays. "It's hard to make marquees look alike day and night," explained Sapper. "A back-illuminated image is really made for nighttime viewing. But now, with the equipment we have, we're able to print it so it looks the same day and night." The musical Next to Normal presented a tough assignment. The art features plenty of purple, an extremely variable color. "When it's lighted, purple is a bright color. During the day, when the light's not on it, purple is a dark color, almost like black. But they want everything to be consistent." Sapper made many tests on a number of materials — today's marquees are typically printed on translucent vinyl — and played with a number of lighting techniques until he finally got it right.

After he's perfected the sign, all he has to do is get the marquee up on the theatre. That can prove tricky, too. "The problem is, we have the loadout to work around," said Sapper, referring to the process by which the sets of a previous show are carted out of the theatre and trucked away. "The show closes on Sunday, loadout is Monday. We have to maneuver around the trucks to get the marquees in."

Calls must also be placed to a couple of unions to make the marquee-hanging happen. The riggers from Local 137 are the only ones sanctioned to put up, take down, or fix a Broadway marquee. And should some of the bulbs inside need to be changed, you'll need the electrical workers at Local 3.

Sapper estimated that King Displays handles 80 percent of the theatres on Broadway. It fills out its days with work for movies, as well as companies like Target and JetBlue (fabric banners for their airline terminal). In the days of Louis Sapper, who founded the company on West 45th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, the company did a great deal of work with the burlesque theatres. When Madison Square Garden was on West 49th Street, they would create the giant cutouts of pugilists with dukes up, to proclaim the coming of a new title bout. During the Depression, King painted movie ads in the tunnels of subway stations. And during the 1960s and 1970s, when Times Square was down on its luck, work flowed in from the pornography movie houses.

Wayne Sapper can always take a walk down his business' Memory Lane if he chooses to. Many of the past signs created by King are stored out in a warehouse in New Jersey. Others for long-running shows like Wicked, Chicago and The Phantom of the Opera are stacked up in the basement; with the way those musicals change cast members, who can tell if a former window card sporting the mug of a past headliner will suddenly come in handy again.

He's hesitant to throw any of it away. Like theatre itself, theatre signs are ephemeral. Once they're lost, they're lost. "I wish they had a museum I could donate things to," he said.