This year, Broadway鈥檚 scenic designers seemed to up the ante. From the turntables of Hamilton to the unfurling jewel-box set of She Loves Me, from the video projections inviting audiences into the expansive yet disturbed mind of Patrick Bateman to the opulent yet dilapidated hotel of Hughie, from the onstage pool in Th茅r猫se Raquin to the literal blood bath in A View from the Bridge, from the downtown duplex of The Humans to the 鈥淛imtown鈥� setting of the 1920s, this year鈥檚 Tony-nominated designers proved that they鈥檙e doing more than decorating a space for shows to appear in, they are creating scenic characters through their work.
Here, the Tony nominees share their earliest renderings, sketches, models and more, and reveal the origins and subtext of their designs.
BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A PLAY
Beowulf Boritt, Th茅r猫se Raquin
Set model for Th茅r猫se Raquin
What the story鈥檚 always been about, to me, is there is this young woman鈥攕ort of ordinary woman鈥攚ho is continually boxed in by the people around her, and they鈥檙e not even bad people. They鈥檙e just stupid people, and they just keep hemming her in, hemming her in, until finally she lashes out. That was kind of the impetus of the set.
We thought that garret, specifically, it鈥檚 the one moment of happiness and joy in this entire miserable play, and it鈥檚 got to be beautiful and ethereal, and then very quickly, of course, the horrible parasail crashes back in on top of her, blocking her in. So it was all trying to be a visual metaphor for that.
[As for the onstage pool], what鈥檚 hard about it is that water is clear, of course, so if you look at it at the wrong angle鈥攅ven if it鈥檚 three-feet deep鈥攜ou can see the bottom and see a rubber pool liner, and it loses all the magic, so one of the big challenges is: How do you make it so that the audience can鈥檛 actually see through the water even though it鈥檚 clear?
Christopher Oram, Hughie
It was clear that the environment he was in was going to be a player. It鈥檚 both representative of his home鈥攚here he鈥檚 been living the last five years鈥揵ut also his state of mind and where he鈥檚 at. And the wonderful thing about [star] Forest [Whitaker] is he鈥檚 this kind of huge presence, this great hulking figure, but he also kind of looks like slightly broken as well, this slightly kind of injured quality, and I wanted to capture that within the space: this once grandiose building that has seen better days and fallen on harder times, which is Erie鈥檚 story as well. And yet you see vestiges of hope and glamour in it and have a sense that you can picture girls in the 鈥�20s walking through there and now it鈥檚 left kind of rotting.
It was also about being in that world together [audience and actor]. The Booth is this beautiful, beautiful theatre and the perfect intimate size of it. This wide but shallow auditorium means [Forest]鈥檚 never that far from the back of the audience. ... We use the warm soft color of the Booth itself on the stage; it sort of melted into the auditorium so that one colluded [with the other] within that environment.
The detail across it, the cigarette butts, the ashtrays, things like the elevator crank, the luggage trolley and stuff like that were the things that created the sense of detail and also the memento mori of it. [Erie] comes in and tells a dozen stories, and there are a hundred more stories in it. It鈥檚 like a book in a way, with hundreds of stories in it, and we were privy to that.
Jan Versweyveld, A View from the Bridge
The title indicates that we, the public, perceive an event from a higher point, we get a broader view. A bridge is the connection between two worlds; we are in a vacuum, a transit zone, apart from a starting point but not yet arrived at a destination. Being in this state makes us vulnerable as a spectator and more susceptible to what is coming at us. We are loosened, freed from what binds us to the course of everyday life, and we can open ourselves up to look into our souls and those of our fellow man. What happens with Eddie is something which is inside all of us. As a result, time and place of action are no longer relevant. This means that we as creators can free ourselves from the naturalism present in the text.
At the start of the play a space is unveiled, until then, life in this space was still private, not yet revealed. Like lifting a large stone to observe the life beneath. Suddenly, the creatures underneath are literally uncovered, and you see their life in all its naked vulnerability. We see things we are not supposed to see. The audience is a voyeur and thus is confronted with themselves and with the human condition. The drafting of the audience on 3 sides of the playing space means that we look not only at the actors, but also at the reactions of the audience opposite.
[A View from the Bridge plays like] a Greek tragedy. Man is sent by his fate. We show a man as a caged animal that cannot escape his fate. ... Once entering the room (there is, as in any Greek tragedy but one door, the entrance to the palace), there is no turning back. The characters are caught in a trap like a rabbit, dazzled and attracted by a bright beam of light. Thus, the dividing line between actor and audience is important and is displayed by a glass edge. This comes to represent the remains of a house that once gave security to a family before fate came along and destroyed it.
Theatre has a cleansing effect; we can experience things that we do not allow ourselves to in everyday life. Through the eyes of Alfieri we are given an insight into the irreversible journey of Eddie. The character of Alfieri is the link between actors and audience. He tells us the story of Eddie who cannot resist the suction of fate, like a fly is attracted by a light bulb. The purity of his intentions is represented by the presence of running water鈥攖he daily shower that cleanses Eddie from his hard work as a longshoreman. This purity turns into guilt, represented by dripping blood. Gradually the blood covers more and more of the floor. The space has a plughole in which the fluids accumulate and can flow away, as in a slaughterhouse. The same bloody ritual can happen over and over again. Time is also displayed by the evolution of the lighting. We begin with a bright flash鈥攍ike a premonition of the end鈥攖he light then evolves during the duration of the performance from warm and womb like into hard and cold, the light which is used in open heart surgery. The cycle is complete.
David Zinn, The Humans
The Humans was a cool opportunity to make a set that really had a character and presence in the play. It's a study of the uncanny鈥攐f familiar things made strange and threatening鈥攁nd was a great exercise in both the kind of "movie"-like real detail I really like to indulge in, as well as a host of theatrical "tricks" to make the space feel alive and scary. And we were able to rehearse on the set from day one, which I think helped make it feel really, truly, inhabited by our extraordinary cast.
BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A MUSICAL
Es Devlin & Finn Ross, American Psycho
It鈥檚 kind of the two-prongs to it: there鈥檚 making these gigantic musical theatre numbers, but also making Patrick Bateman鈥檚 inner mind. I think that鈥檚 more something I鈥檓 interested in is the psychological space the character inhabits and finding a way to visually articulate that to an audience and bring that forward is sort of my motivation. Patrick鈥檚 mind is clearly completely f***ed up, the guy has problems. He鈥檚 kind of all over the place; it鈥檚 a messy, noisy place he inhabits. The whole static thing [with images] was a way of connecting to the analog nature of the 1980s and the pre-digital world. It鈥檚 all from analog sources distorted. If you remember when your Sony Walkman ran out of batteries and went 鈥渨ooooooaaaaamp鈥� and died. It鈥檚 the way of seeing these kind of ideas come forward is something I found quite interesting and labeling the characters鈥� rampant and wanton desire to things and status.
80s MTV has a big branding factor in it as well. He was the MTV generation inspired by the Barbara Kruger idea of 鈥淚 shock therefore I am.鈥� That was quite interesting to me.
There was never supposed to be that much video in the show, and then as you鈥檙e approaching tech you realizes that there鈥檚 more that could be done with it. [As for the white canvas of the set], Patrick lives in this white, sort of pristine environment; certainly it鈥檚 where he thinks he lives. Before you get into the impact that there鈥檚 going to be blood flying everywhere and the red against the white as a strong look, if you read the descriptions of how he talks in parts of the book and reference the movie, it鈥檚 this perfectly white-walled [world].
What Es is doing is creating an enormous playground for video because鈥攏ot in everything she does but certainly in this one鈥攊t鈥檚 a blank world. Lighting can give life to it in one way, but video can give life to it in a more subtext psychological kind of way. Es, when she鈥檚 designing something, she thinks, 鈥淗ow can this work as a surface as well as a wall?鈥� which is quite important for what we do. It鈥檚 always a fun and exciting challenge when those shows come along, especially something like Psycho, which is just so total in its approach to a subject matter but also in our approach to production. Don鈥檛 hold anything back, just go for it and that鈥檚 kind of what the characters think. They鈥檙e not holding anything back, they鈥檙e living it.
-Finn Ross
David Korins, Hamilton
From my very first reading of the show, it felt, to me, like there was this cyclical kind of movement. [Turntables are] a very cinematic storytelling device, but also, a cyclone pushes him, you know, a hurricane pushes him off of Nevis; his social and political storm that surrounds him; his cyclical relationship with Burr. It just felt to me like all these things could happen in a circle; like, a duel, when you surround someone and size them up. And so, I said it to [director] Tommy Kail and [choreographer] Andy [Blankenbuehler], and they bought it.
It鈥檚 definitely a very presentational space, but I think it鈥檚 more about trying to evoke a town square, like an aspirational space.... I think it鈥檚 about creating a place where people came together, you know, in that time period.
Santo Loquasto, Shuffle Along...
The Act I finale of Shuffle Along is the reveal of the Jimtown setting [shown in this sketch], inspired by the original 1921 design for the production. It is rendered in a somewhat rapturous, romantic painting style and infused with a palpable glow provided by the lighting and costume designers. Of course, the sensational dancing is nothing short of thrilling. I think we can safely say that the cumulative effect is what the audience responds to. Our struggling troop has arrived and triumphed.
David Rockwell, She Loves Me
It is a kind of dream-come-true project for me. And, as someone who鈥檚 lived in New York all my adult life and been a designer, being invited to take a musical from the Golden Age of musicals and reinvent it was thrilling. The notion was to create the world of Budapest with all its color-saturated detail as a sort of homage to that Golden Age of musicals, but then allow it to dance and move as a character in the play using technology (that no one鈥檚 aware of) to make that happen.
So when that store, which has 300 perfume bottles in it, opens up, that鈥檚 four separate pieces, each tracking and rotating. But the thrill is that the design intent is about emotionally connecting you to the story. The actors love being in it; each one of those counters is customized for each person who鈥檚 part of that world, so they believe in it, and that is something the audience feels. And, you know, I think all of us who work in the theatre are creating environments that last for two-and-a-half hours while the audience is there and everyone鈥檚 effort goes into telling that story.
Ruthie Fierberg is the Features Editor at 半岛体育.com. She has also written for Backstage, Parents and American Baby. See more at and follow her on Twitter at .
