Changing Cities, Shifting Stages is built on stories about how the performing arts reveal urban transformation. The book is shaped around case studies. Four (dance in Montreal, theater in Washington, Toronto, and Kyiv) illustrate how the emergence of new performance cultures reflect deeper changes in their cities. The fifth case study (commercial music in Nashville) reverses the causal arrows to illustrate how the arts transform the city.

Changing Cities, Shifting Stages is the closing volume of a trilogy, after The Muse of Urban Delirium and Performing Presence from the Washington Stage. "This is a manuscript with sharp analysis and evidence of impeccable historical research. The book digs into the question of urban creativity while avoiding the jargonistic and fashionable language about 'creative cities'. The style is accessible and engaging."

-Will Straw, James McGill Professor of Urban Media Studies, McGill University