Bad or odd set designs- Page 2

[dave1606]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 4:09pm

PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE. A deathtrap!

I also hated Catch me if you can and Sister Act which i still maintain is the ugliest set of the season (and I even liked the show).

[egghumor]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 5:42pm

and how could I have forgotten "Carrie"?!? I remember thinking that much of the show looked like it took place inside a microwave oven, because it had this box set that was made of blank shiny white panels. Also, that ridiculously long staircase at the end which prompted hecklers to shout: "Carrie White, come on down!"

I remember laughing early on during "The Grand Tour" when Florence Lacey planted herself (with suitcase in hand) on a basically blank stage and sang "I belong here!" Uh, honey, where the hell are you?

The sets for the awful short-lived James Coco/Victor Garber revival of "Little Me," were bad.

[ChiChi]

Posted: 4/12/11 at 11:28pm

For me, Grey Gardens' set was very awkward. There were beautiful things about it, but the transitions weren't too effective.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 9/14/12 at 1:18am

As an ardent Merrily fan I feel compelled to talk about Eugene Lee's troubled set, which, like a good portion of the rest of the show, was mangled via the disastrous choice to preview in New York. The original concept of the show was to do it a la "Our Town", which shifted to the idea that the show was a high school musical, so all the props were sort of seedy (you can see a photo or two of the show during this stage), but this seemed too small and thus came Lee's monster-masher set. I'm not sure when exactly the set was designed and built, as the high school gymnasium setting was there from day 1 and several photos show that bare set in previews, but it sure looks hasty.

The centerpiece was this huge, weird multipurpose platform that appeared to be (literally) constructed out of ladders and planks. Stairs were rolled on and off to connect to the ends, lights and accouterments were added and removed (it was situated in the middle of the turntable so while one scene played out the next was set up behind). It was also mobile, disappearing in the middle of Act 1, only to return for Act II. It was also bright yellow. Someone once said that it "just stopped short of chewing up the actors and spitting them out", and it really is overwhelming, particularly in motion (the shift from Gussie's party to her greenhouse, represented by a bench and a piece of lattice, had them walking up, over, and back down the other side of it while the stage rotated 180 degrees, moving the party with it).

The other major element was a series of adjustable risers, which caused much consternation because they never moved quick enough. They didn't do much outside of the opening scene and the courthouse steps, where they were dwarfed by the massive empty theater space (as was the "platform" - you were always aware of another half of the stage lurking behind it) but they were blah and slow enough to seem just a little bit silly, particularly when arranged into a hopeless fan shape during the Now You Know dance break.

Scene by scene, though, there were a number of issues. Frank's "Rich And Happy" party was marred by the opened, half-constructed design of the central platform. The Polo Lounge was reduced to two cheap-looking diner booths under tacky green-white awning. The television interview was conducted in a pair of wheelie chairs. It felt like two designs clashing - the gargantuan, emotionless people-eater and the sparse but cheerful high school play. It was never one or the other, just a sad squashing-together of half-baked concepts that illustrates the tremendous pressure the show was under.

Someone mentioned that they'd never seen a really beautiful Merrily set, which I agree with. It's too much of an odd duck to get a really lavish treatment that a show of its design deserves, I think, and it's so severely handicapped by the clumsy revision, which not only severs any chance for perfectly valid emotional closure but is trimmed away from the weird, electric originality of the early draft and preview recording. It started out as a very daring, very original, and very strange piece but everyone was so scalded by the critical response that the script was carried away to a bland sort of safety zone. All the side characters, for example, once had a range of amusing quirks in a typically George Furth manner but have been wheedled down to the extent that they're essentially unremarkable. This wouldn't be an issue if they'd taken the chance to shine more light on Charley and Mary but they were wheedled down, too. All focus went, mistakenly, to Frank, in a desperate attempt to make him a lovable protagonist, which is something he will never be before the second act, but in doing so cramped his natural reverse progression. The revised script takes the easy way out - Frank doesn't make bad decisions, Gussie's just too sizzling to turn away from, which drastically simplifies the show's moral questions.

Something amusing I've observed, actually, is that the revised script is so emotionally chilly (and fake in that mawkish mid-80s way - think of that horrible scene with Frank Jr., which even Raul Esparza couldn't save) that it's always drenched in blue. I think that says a lot.

I realize this is an old thread, it's just something I've been thinking a lot about in the wake of the Cincinnati production.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/14/12 at 7:45pm

As I've said elsewhere, I saw the first and last previews of MERRILY. Your history of the set is beautifully explained, Charley.

But how can you not mention the original's swimming pool? It was center stage during the post-prologue party at Frank's LA house. IIRC, It featured a sheet of blue paper instead of water; and when a character was pushed into the "pool", she fell through and ripped the paper, then popped up and spit out a mouthful of real water!

It was, in my view, the main cue to the "high school musical" concept. If you didn't get it in that scene, you probably never got it. But unfortunately it was so early in the show, that if one did get it, one had as yet no idea WHY.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 9/14/12 at 8:30pm

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the recent On A Clear Day. That entire production- sets, costumes, choreography, everything - was a huge eyesore. In fact, it gave me a headache...I think it was the weird faux-psychedelic black and white swirly things that did me in.

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 9/14/12 at 8:36pm

The first time I saw a picture of the ON A CLEAR DAY set, I immediately texted my friend “Christine Jones, your Tony is revoked.”

[broadway guy]

Posted: 9/14/12 at 9:16pm

1.The Guys and Dolls revival set looked very corny.
2.I actually find the Les Mis tour set Far superior than the the one with the turn table.
3.The original Suessical set.
4. Never cared for the In the Heights design.
5.The New Beauty and The Beast touring show design.Once you have seen the original Design on broadway,everything else is just a let down.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 9/14/12 at 11:47pm

Gaveston - I thought I did! But I guess not. I know I've seen a photo of it somewhere and it's in the second-preview audio recording I have (Gussie pushes Meg into it, you hear the paper tear, and the audience laughs, presumably to the chagrin of the authors). It's an adorable idea, and though I understand why it was removed and eventually replaced with the iodine, as in the original play (Gussie needs to do something wicked and awful, rather than amusing) I'd love to see a Merrily that really stuck to those high-school roots.

Was I missing anything else? I've always been curious about the early preview sets. I know Our Time was just a door in a frame. Poor Eugene Lee was really wrong for this one.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 9/14/12 at 11:53pm

THE WOMAN IN WHITE

Those god-awful projections gave me a migraine.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/15/12 at 7:48am

Was I missing anything else?

You flatter me, Charley, by suggesting I retain sufficient brain cells to remember a set from so long ago. (But didn't "Our Time" take place on a rooftop? I thought they were watching for Sputnik.)

The pool bit would have been charming if we had understood the concept by the time it happened. As I recall, however, most people did not. So instead it just seemed cheesy and cheap, as did the entire set to a lot of people, based on the comments from those seated around me at the first preview.

The t-shirts with character names didn't look any better, but at least they were clearly a deliberate choice.

Updated On: 9/15/12 at 07:48 AM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/15/12 at 7:54am

I wonder how those of a certain age felt about John Lee Beatty's set for FIFTH OF JULY?

(It consisted of a large, Missouri house that is, itself, the focus of the plot. It was highly detailed and basically realistic except for the removal of the front wall, allowing us to view the action inside. When Act II opened, the entire house had been rotated a few degrees, as if we the spectators had picked up our chairs and moved to get a different view.)

It was quite a coup de theatre; yet it also had the effect (as did the set of SUNSET BOULEVARD years later) of making the large house suddenly seem light and easily movable. No doubt the choice was deliberate, but was it a good one? I have my doubts.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 9/15/12 at 8:29am

Ghost, would be near the top of the list. That god awful love making video. Her hair after he dies, took focus away from the set and not in a good way!

[mikey2573]

Posted: 9/15/12 at 9:11am

RENT had probably the ugliest set I have ever seen on a professional stage.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/15/12 at 9:30am

Rent's stage design was perhaps the most incompetent design I have ever seen on the proffessional stage!

[little_sally]

Posted: 9/15/12 at 12:39pm

Leap of Faith!

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the recent Porgy & Bess production.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/15/12 at 4:53pm

I'd never heard about the swimming pool in MERRILY--wow.

I saw the Parade tour in Seattle--I know things were changed, but I found the design pretty striking overall.

[Quiche2]

Posted: 9/15/12 at 5:19pm

current BEAUTY AND THE BEAST tour

[RippedMan]

Posted: 9/16/12 at 3:25am

Gaveston, that sounds so interesting. I don't know the play, so I can't say if it's justified or not, but I like the idea of it.

[My Oh My]

Posted: 9/16/12 at 4:33am

Maybe I see things through weirdo glasses but I wouldn't consider the current Beauty and the Beast set design as bad or odd because it is more than likely intentionally lacking due to a need to adhere to a specific budget and to be as easily and cheaply transported, set-up and broken down.

Such designs are in a special category for me and not in a category reserved for the art of scenic design for the theatre. It can't be, especially when the driving spark of creativity isn't centered around anything other than money. What results is not necessarily reflective of that as a rule. Of course not, but it always ends up being consistent with that approach, hence why cheapo productions are typically characterized by excessive corner cutting and corner cutting to the detriment of a show is expected of distanced, dispassionate entities that take advantage of the public's own dispassionate taking for granted of music and music theatre.

Even if a production design is outrageously bad and cut down to death that it's an insult, at worst, the duped public will bitch and moan over being duped. They will cite being deprived of the Beast's transformation as the production's biggest problem. They will crinkle their foreheads and feign concern for the future of music and theatre. They might even tighten their jaws and clench their fists at it all.

They'd be over it as soon as they pull out of the parking lot, LOL.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/16/12 at 8:22am

Gaveston, that sounds so interesting. I don't know the play, so I can't say if it's justified or not, but I like the idea of it.

The house is definitely a character in the play and much of the focus of the plot, IIRC, is on who will inherit it. So I don't know whether they move the house at intermission just to give us a different angle or to suggest the house is somehow metaphorically not secured to its foundation. One could make an argue for the latter based on the text. (Martshall Mason was the director, BTW.)

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 9/1/18 at 10:59am

Bumping this. Out of the shows currently running on Broadway, I have major issues with sets for...

Anastasia - The projections are hideous and made me feel like I was in Times Square. I also was not a fan of the permanent rotating walls and marble tiled deck. It looked like the whole story was set in the corner of a ballroom.

Carousel - The set is basically non-existent, and what little set there is looks cheap.

Gettin' The Band Back Together - The design can't decide if it's cartoonish or realistic.

Summer - This is one of the worst and cheapest designs I have ever seen on Broadway. The projections are laughably bad and look like clipart.

What are some of your least favorite sets on Broadway right now?

[Solipsist234]

Posted: 9/1/18 at 11:09am

Even though I'm in a small majority of people that actually liked this show, I still cannot fathom the fact that Jack O'Brien made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a "minimalist" piece...

For a story of that magnitude (where you're hoping for big sets for the factory, i.e. the Tim Burton film), it was incredibly disappointing!

[Tag]

Posted: 9/1/18 at 11:36am

^It's crazy, because the West End design was over-the-top amazing.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 9/1/18 at 12:00pm

I love certain elements of the "minimalist" Charlie - the Magritte-esque show curtain, the round portals with the factory and town in the first act, the beautiful "cube" chocolate room, the use of pure red on pure blue (and the silhouettes on the side walls). It just feels like it wasn't entirely committed to in some ways, particularly in terms of staging. IDK if the show will ever 100% "work" but I appreciate the artfulness of some of the visual concepts, particularly in contrast to the clutter of the London version, which was like a dump truck unloading.