鈥淚 remember, as a kid, watching the Michael Jackson 鈥楾hriller鈥� video, which blew my mind as it did everyone鈥檚 mind, but they did a making-of movie, and I remember being like, 鈥楾his is more interesting than the video,鈥欌� says David Korins, the now Tony-nominated scenic designer behind Hamilton. 鈥淪eeing the teeth and the prosthetics and the casting and the dance rehearsal and the set being built and the zombies drinking Coca-Cola on their breaks鈥� I was like, 鈥楾his is un-f***ing-believable that you get to see really how it gets put together.鈥� It made a huge imprint on me.鈥�
Korins, who prior to Hamilton lent his talents to design for Grease: Live, this season鈥檚 Misery, as well as Passing Strange, Bring it On The Musical and concert tours for Kanye, lavishes in sharing his design and building process on social media. 鈥淧eople are starting to care about how the sausage gets made 鈥� so I love that I can sort of be the voice for the voiceless and the behind-the-scenes,鈥� says Korins. His photos and quick video takes reveal, how it transitions 鈥渇rom an idea to the [actual] thing.鈥�
Step one: Research. Lots of it. 鈥淭he cool thing about Hamilton is that it takes place in many many realistic locations. Every place is a place you can research鈥攑ictures or etchings or portraits or descriptions. In some places you can go to the real places,鈥� he says. Still, Korins and his creative partners, director Thomas Kail and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, knew they were never going to be able to depict every single location in Hamilton. 鈥淲e had to come up with some sort of theatrical metaphor and some sort of bigger idea to serve the play,鈥� he says. 鈥淟in and Tommy had no idea of what the show is supposed to look like. It鈥檚 not a revival. You know?
鈥淲e had so many bad ideas鈥攊t was like do we want this to be modern? Do we want it to be period?鈥� Korins recalls. 鈥淭he turntable was one of my very, very first ideas; I think I said that to Tommy in the interview. There鈥檚 this swirling, cyclical feeling between [Hamilton鈥檚] relationship with Burr or that he got swept off the island of Nevis by a hurricane, or the political storm he finds himself in.鈥�
鈥淏ut then Tommy was like, 鈥楶ut a pin in that [idea],鈥� and we didn鈥檛 touch it for eight months,鈥� says Korins. Then days before rehearsals began at Off-Broadway鈥檚 Public Theater, Korins鈥� associate, Rod Lemmond, brought back the idea of the turntable. It may have been too late for Off-Broadway, but the dual turntables are a quintessential piece of Hamilton鈥檚 set today.
As seen in the video, Korins鈥� research morphs to sketches, then a ground plan (how people will move through the space), models and renderings before a crew builds the pieces. The final version of Hamilton鈥檚 set may seem obvious, as everything clicks into place, but Korins says that it was the result of a million bad ideas. 鈥淚 think writing is re-writing and designing is re-designing,鈥� he says.
Korins describes the final iteration as an aspirational space, which helped him create the symbolism he was searching for. 鈥淭he show is about people who 鈥� built the foundation from which the country is built, so our big theatrical methapor is we are building the scaffolding from which the foundation of the country is going to be built,鈥� he says.
鈥淭hat wooden catwalk is the scaffolding, and we have, literally, a half-made brick wall and we have trowels and all sorts of building tools,鈥� he describes. 鈥淏etween Act One and Act Two the walls actually grow. We add eight feet of height to the walls to show that progress has happened in the country.鈥�
鈥淲e [also] change out the props from utilitarian war-like guns and things to finer china and parchment paper and scrolls and maps because now they鈥檙e governing the country.鈥�
For Korins, his passion is in the details, even if few notice them. 鈥淚f one person picks up on that [detail], the profundity of that experience, for them, changes,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 believe that people feel the change in the mass of the wall and the set even if they can鈥檛 put their finger on what happened, and 鈥� even at a subconscious level, it really does affect your viewing experience.鈥�
In fact, Korins sees his role as a kind of therapist: extrapolating the deep ideas from Miranda and Kail and then ensuring it affects their audience鈥檚 emotions in the desired way. Korins calculates every choice. 鈥淭here are no mistakes in the theatre,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here are happy accidents, but there is nothing on that set that isn鈥檛 fully accounted for and thought of.鈥� In fact, Korins and his team experimented with 33 variations of brick color鈥攖o complement costumes and lighting and performers鈥� skin tones鈥攂efore settling on the blend audiences see today.
A team of builders at Hudson Scenic Studios (outside of New York City) built, painted and fully constructed the final set before de-constructing it and transporting it to its current home on the stage of the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Final load-in (and rebuilding) as seen in the video, lasted about eight weeks.
鈥淚鈥檓 so unbelievably proud of the fact that we could wrestle this 30-year-spanning story鈥�51 musical numbers鈥攁nd wrestle it down into the ground,鈥� says Korins. 鈥淣ow this design has become this iconic thing that 鈥榊eah it鈥檚 obvious that it looks like that,鈥� but it wasn鈥檛 obvious to us [at the start].鈥�
As the June 12 Tony Awards approach, it seems the flurry of work around Hamilton would wind down, but Korins will have to gear up for the Chicago production of the show.
鈥淢y life is like a cyclical experience,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like ground-hog day, so, yes, I feel like [I'm] in the home stretch only knowing that I鈥檓 about to get back on the treadmill.鈥� Or, in his world, the turntable.
