Stand-by Joined: 2/14/04
I'd second Cats...
The Who's Tommy was pretty impressive also.
Broadway Star Joined: 2/3/05
All Shook Up has awesome sets!
I also like POTA, Wicked, and DRS.
Sunset Blvd. was THE most effective, efficient set design I've ever seen. Big and glorious yet intimate and moody...all right when it needed to be. To say nothing of the functionality of the way it was engineered.
I'm going old school with my fav show Sweeney Todd. The set is so good. They are able to keep the show on maybe 3 main pieces and thats it and it works really well.
the best set designs I ever recall in my life were for
PACIFIC OVERTURES
COMPANY
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/22/05
I love Wicked's set! Also i love how they use things in Rent so I will go with Rent too.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
Marin Mazzie, Sherie Scott and Kristin Chenoweth al have really nice sets.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/12/04
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - stunning sets. The staging of the title song is still one of the best scenes I've seen.
CATS
THE KING AND I revival
WICKED
WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND - the use of the 'liftable' platform which covered almost the whole stage was brilliant, dividing the stage to 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' and making the ceiling of the stage when pulled all the way up.
Wicked
Producers
Chicago - simple, sleek and uber classy!
I like Rent also - the trap door impressed me more then it should have when I saw it in NY for the 1st time.
I also REALLY loved Parade - the tour, not the Bway - didnt see it.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/25/03
The plays this season have the most gorgeous sets. That is possible, because of the limited number of scene changes.
Broadway Star Joined: 1/20/05
Swing Joined: 11/9/04
At the moment I am in love with the DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS set. (well anything that David Rockwell does)
ASSASSINS also had a wonderful set, the way it was used was great!
I've always liked the urban, gritty feeling of the RENT set. Very suiting for the storyline.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
Yeah I was wondering about that too. I've never seen the show live but I can't really see where the need for a trapdoor would fit in based off the recording and the script in the RENT bible....
Loved the recent set in the Assasins revival. Captured the abandoned fair ground atmosphere perfectly. Seems like All Shook Up reused parts of it for its own Act 2...though I don't...know...why.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/10/04
Cats
The King and I revival
Rent
Dance of the Vampires
Brooklyn (just kidding)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? revival
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune revival
Twelve Angry Men
Assassins
Sunset Boulevard
Bombay Dreams (say what you want about the show, but the sets
were amazing to look at...thought I don't know
how functional they were...)
Sixteen Wounded
Doubt (so eerie)
Into the Woods OBC
Sweeney Todd OBC
Sunday in the Park with George
The Retreat from Moscow
The Chairs revival
The Graduate
edit: how could I forget LA BOHEME?!
There can't be THAT many " bests ", Munk! Anyway, my favorites are Phantom, and my personal all time favorite, the Little Shop Revival.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/10/04
oh, and little women has the best set currently on broadway i do believe. it is extraordinary, perhaps 'astonishing' some might say...
i just had to!
Well, when I say best I should have said favorites. I really love realistic sets - sets that mirror everyday life to a T - sort of like THE GOAT, FRANKIE AND JOHNNY, VIRGINIA WOOLF, etc.
I do think the LITTLE WOMEN set is rather nice, but the best on Broadway? I think that title belongs to VIRGINIA WOOLF, as far as "realistic."
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/10/04
oh yes, i did forget virginia. on golden pond's set was very nice though i feel it could have been a bit more.
Didn't Sunset Boulevard have an entire separate set that was up in the fly system, or something like that? Something totally unnecessary and flashy? Haha.
Tom Sawyer actually had an amazing design.
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