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Best Set You've Ever Seen?

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#1

Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 3:47pm

Mine would be The Lion King with Wicked following close behind.

Odd that the best sets and production design I've ever seen in the theater belong to two shows without gripping stories or compelling songs. Ahh well. Food for thought.
#3

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 3:53pm

An Inspector Calls
"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men" - Willy Wonka
#5

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 4:00pm

Wow, you both just listed two of my favorites (for different reasons):

Sunset Blvd.
An Inspector Calls

I would also add:

I'm Not Rappaport
Cats (only at the Winter Garden, where the theatre was enveloped.)
Dreamgirls (for its sheer innovation)

...and Our Town (...for the one I created in my mind)
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
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#6

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 4:29pm

I would have to say Phantom of the opera and Joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat. I think they are really amazing.
#8

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 5:15pm

I haven't seen it, but I've heard that the original Sondheim's "Follies" set was the most incredible piece ever on Broadway.
#9

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 5:26pm

Hm...Wickes was good. I didn't think Lion Kings was anything to write home about, some of it was pretty innovative though. I like the Oklahoma Lond revival tour set. I saw it in a book. Anyone have pics of Inspector Calls? What do you mean by Cats enveloped the theater? Sounds cool, could you describe more?

And I agree with Sunset - just a great show.
#11

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 5:36pm

I'll see if I can try and describe Cats . . .

Basically, they extended the stage out into the audience to make it more of a thrust configuration (with the audience on 3 sides). The ceiling was painted to look like the sky and the set extended beyond the stage so it was as if the entire theater was the junkyard. You could probably find pictures online somewhere. I know there are a few in a book about Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was really something to see, quite spectacular.
#12

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 5:51pm

I totally agree with "An Inspector Calls".
"Smart! And into all those exotic mystiques -- The Kama Sutra and Chinese techniques. I hear she knows more than seventy-five. Call me tomorrow if you're still alive!"
#14

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 6:32pm

I'm having a hard time coming up with my favortie set. The barricade in Miz stands out in my head, Glimmerglass Opera's set for Patience was amazing. So many good ones.

I do disagree with Wicked's set though, and I even like the show. Being a tech/design major, I just don't "get it." The designer has even said that he doesn't care how the set looks, just how it functions. To me, it just doesn't make any sense.
#15

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 7:45pm

Follies was great followed by Sunset Blvd
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#16

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 7:54pm

The Second act of the revival of GGR


oh, and Jenny's Apartment from In My Life (just because its so randomly detailed while every other set in the show is vague)
when ducks grow thumbs then maybe my opinion will change.
#17

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 7:56pm

Hairsprays set is fun and colorful

Piazzas is neat to me

I want to give an honorable mention to Rents set. I dont know why but I like it, one reaon is because so much of it can function for different things.
"I've always secretly longed for an actress to get to the top of the cherry picker and projectile vomit all over the guards below."- Wonderwaiter in the "Defy Gravity?" thread. ~~~~~~~~My dream? Sutton Foster as Cassie in A Chorus Line
#18

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 8:08pm

Sunday in the Park with George - the opening moments were phenomenal, probally one of the best designed shows ever

Mamma Mia - for its stylized & graphic minimalism, for its use of only 2 automated set pieces which change into the different locations, genius

Crazy for You - realistic yet stylized, huge sets trucking on to fill the stage, and because I love Robin Wagner (the set designer)
#19

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 8:12pm

Beauty and the Beast
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611
#20

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 8:19pm

Piazza, Les Miz, Hairspray, any version of Sweeney Todd (the original, the new, and Lincoln Center), and I'm biased but my high school's Drood (we had black-and-white ink drawings right from the book for our background [obviously they were magnified in size], and there was virtually no color, but we had really colorful lighting and costumes).

Updated On: 11/24/05 at 08:19 PM

#21

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 8:29pm

As someone who has worked on numerous college-level sets, I was really excited by the Odd Couple set - complete with ceiling! I also loved the Naked Girl on the Appian Way set with its beautiful floors and working sink.

Rent's set is also so wonderful in its multi-functional-ness.
"If you start from a place of joy and charm, you can get away with a lot in the second act. It may be that that's my life. I'm not sure." ~Roger Bart
#22

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 8:47pm

Piazza
Wicked
MARGARET: "Clara, stop that. That's illegal." - The Light in the Piazza

"I'm not in Bambi and I'm not blonde!" - Idina Menzel
#23

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 9:43pm

yeah RENTs set is really cool. I'm going to try and find pictures of CATS it sounds really cool...I think the latest INTO THE WOODS revival had an amazing set. I saw pictures of it in a book. It actually made me go out and get the recording, sounds pretty cool.
#24

re: Best Set You've Ever Seen?

Posted: 11/24/05 at 9:55pm

What about Avenue Q? With at least a dozen different pop-outs to serve as various locations... and when kate monster scales the building... wow.

Although the Hairspray set is so fun and colorful.

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