Broadway fly systems

I realize that these theatre are small,and that the stages are not ginormous, on some shows like Spamalot or young Frankenstein, they have huge sets, Im curious to know how they store all of the set pieces in the fly system in the small and old Theatres! If you have any pictures of a broadway fly system post it! Thanks!

I'm not an expert on the subject, and I know it often varies depending on the theater, but I understand that for especially large shows where there may not be enough wing space, set pieces are stored in the flies and lowered in the wings when it's time to use them onstage. Afterwards, they're then flown out of the way, thus freeing up valuable wing space.

Ghostlight is right in that many shows often utilize the theater's basement (if there is one) to store set pieces. I recently read an old article about Titanic The Musical and they mentioned that there were several large set pieces that were stored in the basement of the Lunt-Fontanne and they would use an elevator to raise them up to stage level. In fact, in preparation for the opening of Titanic the basement of the Lunt-Fontanne had to be gutted, not only to install/modify the elevator, but to also install the machinery that would cause the entire stage to tilt during Act II

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Updated On: 5/17/13 at 12:41 AM

The LUNT was not "gutted" per se for TITANIC, but the lowest deck was in the basement and it was lifted and tilted for various scenes.

In the original production of Follies, because the showgirl costumes were so large, there was no real way to store them (let alone put them on) so they were suspended in the wings and then lowered onto the actresses.

In one of the backstage videos at Newsies, it was mentioned they had more room backstage at Paper Mill then they do now at the Nederlander. For example, I know they have to hang the tables for 'King of New York' on the walls, something they didn't have to do at Paper Mill.

This isn't Broadway, but last night I saw Far From Heaven, and there are no flies and just really tiny wing space. Down Stage Left there was a small elevator that was used during the show that some scenery raised and lowered on. At intermission the stagehands used that elevator to retrieve some other pieces from below that were used later in the second act. This was in full view of the audience, and I had never seen that done before.

The stage is very large. But there is virtually no wing space. I was seated in the front row, all the way on the house right (even with the proscenium). I could easily see into the wings stage right, and I could see there was maybe 6 feet of space, and I think it's the same on stage left. I could also see the ceiling of the stage, and while high, there really isn't fly space. You'd have to be creative.