Drastic Setting Changes in a Revival

[Sondheim_Disney1595]

Posted: 12/13/16 at 9:56pm

John Doyle's Sweeney set in an asylum.

The most recent Crucible Revival in the classroom.

What are some other drastic setting changes in a revival?

Updated On: 12/13/16 at 09:56 PM

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 12/13/16 at 10:08pm

The current production of The Cherry Orchard takes place in Hell.

[Sondheim_Disney1595]

Posted: 12/13/16 at 10:17pm

TotallyEffed said: "The current production of The Cherry Orchard takes place in Hell.

 

"

Thank God I was comped because I wouldn't have paid 5 bucks for that piece of crap

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 12/13/16 at 10:25pm

The famous Sam Mendes CABARET revival remianed a fairly faithful nod to the original design, until the coup de theatre finale that put the cast in a concentration camp.

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 12/13/16 at 10:27pm

John Doyle's production of Company was set in a funeral home...

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 12/13/16 at 10:51pm

icecreambenjamin said: "John Doyle's production of Company was set in a funeral home..."

What evidence of this is there? I saw that production a few times and have read/listened to many interviews with Doyle and the cast of none of them ever mentioned that. Doyle has mentioned the Sweeney assylum so he's not vague about his ideas.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 12/13/16 at 11:11pm

The long-running revival of CHICAGO seems to be set at an impoverished supper club amidst the onstage bandstand, and the unfortunate cast members have been pushed onstage in their rehearsal clothes along with some borrowed tux jackets. 

[DigificWriter]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 1:37am

The 1999 Broadway Revival of Annie Get Your Gun re-imagined the story as a "show-within-a-show" set as a Big Top traveling circus.

 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 2:21am

I heard about a pared down Chicago production of The Glass Menagerie where Tom was an old homeless man in an alley, and the action happens around him.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 6:08am

The first minute or so of Bartlett Sher's production of Fiddler on the Roof is set in modern day Anatevka. Diane Paulus' production of Pippin was set in a circus.

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 7:33am

nasty_khakis said: "icecreambenjamin said: "John Doyle's production of Company was set in a funeral home..."

What evidence of this is there? I saw that production a few times and have read/listened to many interviews with Doyle and the cast of none of them ever mentioned that. Doyle has mentioned the Sweeney assylum so he's not vague about his ideas.

 

"

Lol

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 8:14am

John Doyle's The Color Purple is set in Woody McSitz's Discount Chair Warehouse. 

Updated On: 12/14/16 at 08:14 AM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 8:14am

Ivo van Hove's A View From the Bridge, set in an Apple Store

[newintown]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 8:24am

"The current production of The Cherry Orchard takes place in Hell."

I think that's only the audience section.

There's Anne Bogart's famous On The Town set on board a battleship; it almost put Trinity Rep out of business. And Crazy Anne did South Pacific at NYU and set it in a veteran's hospital.

I enjoyed A.J. Antoon's Taming of the Shrew in the Park back in 1990; it was set in the Wild West and starred Morgan Freeman (who muffed many of his famous lines) and Tracey Ullman.

I saw an amateur production of Into the Woods which was set in a young boy's bedroom, very similar to the way The Drowsy Chaperone plays - his father or grandfather was reading him the story, which would come to life around him. Not the worst, but it seemed rather obvious and heavy handed to me.

That last Promises, Promises revival moved the action backwards only about 8 years, but I thought it changed the tone enormously, as Fran is written to be a "free spirit" quasi-hippie; Chenoweth played her more like a Donna Reed impersonator.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 8:27am

Many Roundabout revivals appear to be set in Party City stores.

[AC126748]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 8:34am

Virtually every production Ivo van Hove has ever done. I personally enjoyed his production of The Misanthrope, which was set in a modern corporate workplace.

It's far more common in new productions of classical plays, which allow for more malleable settings. For example, the current Othello is set in a contemporary military barracks, and it's hardly the first production to take that approach. Several productions of Macbeth (the 2006 park production with Schreiber, the 2008 Broadway production with Stewart) set the action in totalitarian regimes. There are plenty of other examples of this.

And of course, it happens commonly in the opera world, particularly in Europe.

[newintown]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 8:39am

"Many Roundabout revivals appear to be set in Party City stores."

Correction: a Party City store where orchestras are prohibited.

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 8:55am

There was the production of MACBETH that had Alan Cumming playing every character and was set in an asylum. 

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 8:56am

nasty_khakis said: "icecreambenjamin said: "John Doyle's production of Company was set in a funeral home..."

What evidence of this is there? I saw that production a few times and have read/listened to many interviews with Doyle and the cast of none of them ever mentioned that. Doyle has mentioned the Sweeney assylum so he's not vague about his ideas."

Pretty sure icecreambenjamin was joking.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 9:03am

Who recalls the famous cancelled "South Pacific" set in a psychiatric hospital?  Has to be some kind of ultimate.  But in general, moving any story to a hospital - particularly one for the mentally ill -- has become its own hoary cliche. If that's any director's fresh idea, he or she might reconsider. "Sweeney" fit, but most others strain. 

[nasty_khakis]

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

Auggie27 said: "Who recalls the famous cancelled "South Pacific" set in a psychiatric hospital?  Has to be some kind of ultimate.  But in general, moving any story to a hospital - particularly one for the mentally ill -- has become its own hoary cliche. If that's any director's fresh idea, he or she might reconsider. "Sweeney" fit, but most others strain. "

I remember hearing I believe Ted Chapain talking about getting the rights to a show and how that production got around casting issues and rights issues by using that setting in a clever way. 

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 11:14am

On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (the forestory updated, the backstory changed from 19th Century England to 1940s U.S.)

 

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 11:25am

I heard Ted Chapin talk about Anne Bogart's SOUTH PACIFIC and he said it was his first show in his post as R&H custodian. He said it was at once fascinating and brilliant and completely counter to the intention of the authors. Apparently the school wanted to do some kind of extension of the run and R&H said no. They didn't make them cease and desist though.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 6:53pm

Was it a military psychiatric hospital? 

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 12/14/16 at 7:58pm

Apparently yes. The patients were acting The musical as therapy.  Basically Marat Sade with Mary Martin.