Ragtime, the floor in the touring company of Cats has always impressed me... it is detailed and i like it..... oh and the kennedy center's set for Company was pretty inventive
Mine would have to be The Witches of Eastwicks in its two versions as well as Marry Popins, I think Bob Crowley is a genius.
In my heart, I found the answered dream,
and in my soul I found the song, and in my friends
I found the magic, the love,
the moon up above- they were mine, all mine, all along..!
I would say for musical it would Sunset Boulevard which was truly stunning..
and for a play probably "Mourning becomes Electra" at the National theatre.. it was a huge veranda of a house with a garden and graveyard... at one point the whole set suddenly dropped down to fit under the stage revealing a huge sailing ship.. an amazing moment.
Lion King Urinetown Beauty & the Beast Hairspray Wicked
"Now I may not have much, but I have more determination than any man you're likely to meet." - Big Fish
"Misdirection. What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes." - Swordfish
I thought Starlight Express was pretty incredible many years ago. I also was amazed at the special effects (The Car) In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The whole show had amazing sets and special effects. Jackson was very wide eyed!
One of the coolest but not necessarily the best was Chess in London. During Endgame when the floor (Chessboard) tilted up and pivoted into the orchestra pit; well it just blew my 17 year old eyes away!!!
The best set I have EVER seen was for Ka (Cirque du Soleil) in Las Vegas. UNBELIEVABLE
It was the biggest financial loss in broadway history (or so i have heard if someone knows differently lol) OF COURSE IT WOULD HAVE HAD AN AMAZING SET! It was fabulous!!! All of the tech in that show was fabulous!
When someone blunders, we say that he makes a misstep. Is it then not clear that all the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill our history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill in dancing. - Moliere
I am a big fan of Eugene Lee's designs for the original SWEENEY TODD, the 1975 CANDIDE, the SHOWBOAT revival, and the original RAGTIME. He also is the resident designer for Saturday Nigh Live and creates their "basic environment" each season. One year it looked like a subway, one year it was Times square, etc.
I loved The Lion King set. Beauty and the Beast is a close second. When I saw Tommy a few years ago at a local community theatre, the set they had for it was pretty cool.
This thread has brought back so many great memories!
I can't get over the Light in the Piazza set. I enjoyed the show, but LOVED the set. I gasped in act II when...well, i'm not gonna do the spoiler thing, but...the use of empty space was as powerful as any set I've ever seen.
Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme also made me gasp, and I actually almost started crying when the lights came on in the Cafe Momus scene. I know. How pathetic. I was sitting there thinking: "I'm actually ferklempt over a set, for cryin' out loud! They flip a light switch and i sob."
Also, off-bway, the sets for Hot N Throbbing at the Signature and Spatter Pattern at Playwright's Horizons last year (same designer) both blew me away. In HnT, the set of the family's house deteriorates as they do, with whole sections of the set detaching from the rest when leaned on, the "solid and safe" shifting and revealing how fragile and breakable houses and people and lives really are.
Spatter Pattern's set was just thrilling, with at least 1/2 a dozen doors set into the back and side walls of the set, and the playing area constantly reconfigured with a set of rolling, hinged walls that could fill the set or be accordioned to the side. So well done.
Also, I have to mention Le Dernier Caravanserai at Lincoln Center this past year. Some of the most incredible images I've ever seen onstage. The boat full of refugees bobbing and jerking in the water (massive silks covering the whole huge playing area with people underneath making them billow like really rough seas) and the tidal wave (another huge white silk, this one several feet above the waves) rushing towards the audience fromt he very back wall, engulfing the boat and everything. Good lord that was breathtaking.
I have to agree with the Dead End set. It was absolutely gorgeous (and huge. The fact that they had to have special lighting to accomodate the set is crazy). That combined with the "river" created in the orchestra pit...wow. There's not a big picture that does it justice on the Ahmanson website, but I think I have one somewhere - I'll have to find it.
I also liked the inventiveness of the Avenue Q set. I actually just wrote a design critique on the show for one of my classes at school, so I can go into great depth on the design aspects of Avenue Q!
