Bad or odd set designs — Page 4

seanmcdonagh121 said: "I never understood the Finding Neverland set. Honestly I thought it was hideous. The Pretty Woman set is also quite disappointing. This may also be controversial but excluding a beautiful proscenium, I felt like the set for Spongebob was only ever ‘70%’ of the way there... it just lacked something. "

I agree re: the Finding Neverland set, in that I also never really understood why it looked like that! I feel like the ART production's set made more sense than what ended up on Broadway (it kind of looked like a glorified storybook come to life onstage!) Also, what was up with those panels???

From what I've seen of the Pretty Woman set, it's incredibly bare, which is especially disappointing, considering David Rockwell designed the set!!!

Updated On: 9/2/18 at 01:05 AM

I think the current Miss Saigon set is quite bad. It feels and looks like a pimped amateur production. I always cringe a little when I hear people say that it looks so raw and real now.

The original London version had a very filmic quality which really improved the moment/scene in terms of emotion/experience of their sung thoughts. For example, Last night of the world is a very intense moment for Chris and Kim, in their minds it's (maybe naively) better/more beautiful than reality. The set and lighting used to paint with that, with the turning fan, the white fabric on the bamboo bed, and at the end the impressive sliding stage moving backwards with them embracing/kissing. It really heightened the emotion as the essence is their sung thoughts.

Same goes for The Heat is on in Saigon. It used to start with the girls standing in a row and the the bar slides towards the audience, creating a theatre within a theatre, pulling the audience in. Creating intimacy on the big stage. This is especially necessary for scenes like sun and moon and why god. Centre stage, down stage, pulling the audience in. Another scene which used to be fantastic was the hotelroom, it really represented a room, and when things happened off that stage it represented another place, such as the wonderful "I still taste your kisses sequence".

With the new sets it's a big mess. Last night of the world takes place in some storage room, basically meaning the whole big black stage with small round prop; back of the bar/storage room, in the middle where they sit on. What happened to the filmic illusion of sung thoughts? It also loses intimacy.

The heat is on in Saigon takes place on that same round little bar, the scene is very messy and amateurish, especially in the Broadway revival where the girls in the opening of the song are placed on chairs and all over the place and again, it's just chairs as props on the big black stage.

Sun and moon and why god all take place in the street? Which is not intimate at all and just very odd. But I guess they had to, as the bed is somewhere far away up in a steel pipe construction, so why not avoid intimacy all together and just have these scenes taking place outdoors and on the whole big black stage again?

Room 317 is a bunch of chairs and props, again on the big black stage. Almost like an amateur production. I still taste you kisses, of course, takes place on the steel pipe construction on the street again.

The full Ho Chi Minh statue and the flags and the screens on the side of the stage, separated from the smaller theatres was also very impressive in the original.

One of the scenes that bothers me the most though is The Fall of Saigon. Instead of the beautiful scene of Kim and Chris in the bed, it is again on the stairs/steel pipe construction on the street, because they simply don't have another set. This makes doubly sure the moment does not reach intimacy once again. Then when the scene proceeds and the little fence is rolled on, it almost looks like a funny stylized amateur production. The fence does not close properly and when people put their hands up they rise above the fence. It almost looks like a dance around small separate props on the big black stage. There is no threat in this scene whatsoever. In the original production that first fence was already bigger and much more threatening, as was the staging of the whole scene. The fence was actually placed right and then when the ensemble sings "she's not the only one we'll have betrayed..." right in the second before Kim walks on and sings: "Oh Chris....I still believe...." a second fence, this time 22 feet tall is dropped from above in a split second, taking up the whole stage, which is really impressive and a slap in the face for the characters and the audience, as there is no way they could ever get over this extremely high fence and then the helicopter sequence starts where you actually see the marines get into the helicopter (this illusion is done quite well in the new version too, but that's about it).

Updated On: 9/2/18 at 05:05 AM

When people refer to use of projections in a show like Mean Girls or Anatasia I get confused because I think they aren't really using projections as much as they are using LED display screens. Am I wrong?

morosco said: "When people refer to use of projections in a show like Mean Girls or AnatasiaI get confused because I think they aren't really using projections as much as they are using LED display screens. Am I wrong?"

No, you’re not, they both use LED screens.

I'm pretty sure the wonderful, original Broadway CHESS would have received better reviews if it didn't have the world's ugliest, weirdest, possibly allegorical, possibly metaphoric, strange-functioning set. It was hard to get past.

Great Dame said: "I'm surprised by how many people don't like the Wicked set. I like the steampunk feel, and if you've read the book it makes a little more sense. Do you think that's enough to rely on though? I know most people haven't read the book, and the Time Dragon Clock is a much bigger deal in the book than in the show. Anyway, I like the Wicked set."

The problem with the Wicked set design is that if you have NOT read the book, the clock design concept makes no sense. They address the idea of a clock very briefly and in passing maybe twice during the show, yet it is the basis for the whole design. It looks cool, but the concept is not incorporated into the story of the musical.

morosco said: "When people refer to use of projections in a show like Mean Girls or AnatasiaI get confused because I think they aren't really using projections as much as they are using LED display screens. Am I wrong?"

Whether it's done using LED screens or actual projectors, it's referred to in the industry as projection design. Larger theaters with more money typically use LED, while smaller theaters use projectors and screens. It's a rising field of design in the theatre world, and it all falls under the umbrella of projections.

I felt as if Anastasia, Mean Girls & Charlie and the Chocolate Factory cut corners with the set design in favor to appeal to touring houses.



The only shows I have seen benefit from heavy projection design are Dear Evan Hansen & American Psycho.

I go back and forth as to whether the Wicked set design is actually bad or not. IMO, it doesn't really function well with the way the show is directed or written. It just sort of lays there making the show seem static. However, it's a VERY distinctive set and one that people really do remember. It gives a good first impression and sets the darker color scheme of the rest of the show.

TheSassySam said: "I felt as if Anastasia, Mean Girls & Charlie and the Chocolate Factory cut corners with the set design in favor to appeal to touring houses.



The only shows I have seen benefit from heavy projection design are Dear Evan Hansen & American Psycho."



i think you nailed it. Projections travel well, and those shows most definitely have been produced with the intent to tour either post-Broadway or concurrently if they've been successful enough. Though I'd add Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night to your lost of shows that projections worked well in.

Interestingly, I can think of many sets over the years that I have loved, but not as many that I thought were downright bad. May be a case of forgetting mediocrity after so many years, but retaining the best indefinitely.

Re the bad, agree re the horrible sets for both the Broadway version of Chess and Merrily We Roll Along. Both were truely awful. Chess so dark and monolithic, except for the creative mountaintop. Merrily...allI remember is bleachers; I do remember leaving the theatre trying to decide whether the sets, the costumes, the book or the direction were the worst things about the show. I have since concluded that it was the direction; which simply validated that the most brilliantly creative geniuses can have bad days (in this case, months).

Would also add:

-- Tootsie: cheesy sets for a show that cost a lot of $$ to produce. Did not understand that at all.

-- The Prom: lower budget than Tootsie, but ticket prices were the same. Tacky as hell. Looked like Summer Stock.

-- Revival of Promises Promises. They were just so plastic. The 70s were a little plastic, but plenty of shows form the 70s had great stage designs.

-- Wicked: I have enjoyed Wicked every time I have seen it, but have wondered every time also why the sets were so damned ugly. They didn't have to be that ugly.

-- Revival of Bye Bye Birdie. Just about everything to do with that production was bottom drawer...so at least consistent with the rest of the show, but really lifeless.

-- Aspects of Love -- the single best design desision was a rip-off of the only good thing about the NY Chess. I barely remember the show, but do remember that I hated everything about it, including the ugly sets.

-- Lorelei -- everything about Lorelei wreaked of bad summer stock, starting with the sets. No imagination whatsoever.

-- Seussical -- I expected some imagination, didn't get any.



PS -- I thought the sets for the revival of Hello Dolly were a thousand times better than the original production. In that production, the Harmonia Gardens was so uninspired and there were too many flats. The train station set was great, though. The revival started with the original and improved upon it exponentially.

Loved the sets for Miss Saigon. Loved the use of projections in Anastasia, probably the single thing that I liked about it. I absolved the set for the original production Fifth of July.

Updated On: 1/10/20 at 10:35 PM