Hmm. Well first of all, I'll say that when it comes down to the basics of lighting systems, Broadway really isn't any different than other theatres. You're always going to have backlight (for example), but changing how you do that is sometimes more related to saving labor costs than an actual design decision. For example, an out-of-town production may use a two-color backlight
system, but upon transferring to New York, maybe they replace that with a single
system of
scroller backlight to allow the designer more flexibility and reduce the need to
send electricians to do color swaps during tech. That same show may then transfer to Broadway and replace that
scroller system with a
system of Moving Light
wash units to reduce the need to
send electricians up for focus notes and hanging new fixtures. In each case, the designer is going to use the
system in roughly the same way (sure, having the ability to tilt your backlight a
bit will be useful, but it's still basically backlight), it's just the tool being used that changes. For a big-budget Broadway musical, it's not uncommon to have not a single
ERS overhead, and rely entirely on moving lights for backlight, toplight, sidelight, and whatever you need. This is obviously a lot of equipment cost as well as labor for maintaining and repairing them during the show's run, but it may still end up being cheaper when you consider the alternative of having to hold in tech every time something changes on
stage to allow an electrician to go refocus a light. At the same time, another Broadway show might have a very small and simple rig that is smaller than most Regional and Summerstock shows. A show I just worked on had around 200 conventionals, maybe a dozen scrollers, and 4 AutoYokes, and that's it.
I'll be honest, I'm really not sure what your professor is wanting you to get out of this, apart from saying "Broadway uses Backlight, so I should too!", but maybe I'm missing something by hearing about the assignment secondhand. But to answer your question, it sounds like what would be most helpful is some Broadway Magic Sheets that you can peruse. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to give these out to someone over the internet, but you can find a handful of them online. The NYPL Lighting Database and The Lighting Archive are both solid sources, with the latter probably being more useful to you as it has a few more modern shows with graphical magic sheets.
