How Do Movable Stages Work?

Most broadway houses have 9' to 10' of height in the crossover space below the stage. If you look down into the orchestra pit you'll see a depth of 7' to 8' from the stage and usually there are steps from there leading down another couple of feet to the crossover space. If the show has lots of wagons winched on and off stage, often those winches are anchored below in the crossover space too.

I remember in the tour they explained that they used the design for the military to raise the decks on ships to launch planes. For a while there, Radio City Musical Hall was declared a military secret to make sure the technology did not fall into the wrong hands

I believe for Billy Elliot they had to excavate the basement of the Imperial Theatre for this stage lift.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21UqRW7NkV4

European mega musicals also love stage lifts especially for staircases:

Tanz der Vampire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmWpRt9PrFM

Rebecca--the staircase (its big, its on fire, spinning and descending into the basement)(at 1:45)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lRlipxkZR0

Quoting from the Time out article:

. The 80-year-old hydraulic elevators beneath the Great Stage are perfect just the way they are.
The theater has received a number of technological upgrades—3-D projection, a gigantic LCD screen and, back in 1980, a full renovation. But during that overhaul of the theater, engineers could find no reason to change the original hydraulic lifts beneath the stage, which were so advanced when they were first built that the US Navy imitated them in its aircraft carriers during World War II and had personnel guard the facilities at Radio City to prevent the enemy from learning their secrets.

Clicking on the link in the article takes u to a New York Times confirmation.



As you were.

I remember when SUNSET BOULEVARD opened in London and in the states there was much written about their ascending /descending stages - as though it was something rather new. What was ait about SB that it got so much attention in the mid 90s?

Call_me_jorge said: "After a show leaves a theatre and the show cut up the theatres deck for lifts, do they replace the deck?"

I think it depends on the show. If I remember correctly, the producers of Billy Elliot put something like $1 million in a locked account for use when the show closed in order to renovate the Imperial back to how it was previously.

The troubled broadway production was never going to exactly duplicate the original production. The staircase and the fire were going to be (they are both central to the plot) but I'm pretty sure they weren't going to excavate under the Broadhurst, so no sinking into the basement. I sort of remember a proposed London production was cancelled after they started to dig down in the basement of the the theatre to accommodate the staircase and hit water. That staircase has a mind of its own and is not to be messed with

RippedMan said: "In regards to Sunset, I think it’s because the mansion set - which was massive - lifted to reveal the sets underneath, which was quite impressive as it was essentially the entire stage. And to this day, I don’t think we have seen a show as massive."

Thank You for the response. I remember when I saw the show on B'way in 1996, and the mansion was rising everyone in the audience seemed to gasp. That really was a massive stage and in retrospect, it did take away from the musical itself.