Legally Blonde... in the round?

[wicked91]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 12:57am

Hi there. So I'm working on a project for school and we have to choose a show that is typically done on a proscenium stage, and design it to be performed in the round.

Instead of doing something super easy, I'm thinking about doing Legally Blonde, but am running into issues as far as the courtroom/shower scene go. As well as the salon. Maybe this is too ambitious of a choice, but I just was seeing if anyone had any quick suggestions or thoughts.

If not, then don't post. Rude comments are only a waste of your time.

Thank you. :)

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 1:08am

Hmm.. Okay...

Well, first off, since 'Blonde' has only surfaced, so far, in it's original production and the reproduction companies, I think that you can't REALLY say that it's TYPICALLY done as such, but that is besides the point. :-P

As far as the court room / shower go, I don't understand the problem. Rockwell and Mitchell handled the transition be having the judge unit revolve, etc, but there is NOTHING in the script that would say it needs to happen that way. Your only issue would be the shower curtain and wig change, but there are simple ways to handle that, should you choose. Truth be told, there is NOTHING in the script for Legally Blonde that would provide a real challenge for an in the round staging. The only hurdle would be removing yourself from the mental imprint of Rockwell's designs.

If you would like to bat around ideas for "Blonde" or a few other shows, please PM me and I am more than happy to offer thought and insight...

I could name a couple of shows that are older and tricky to do in the round, but HAVE been done successfully with a little creativity..

[Dre2387]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 1:35am

I've seen Into the Woods in the round and that was good. :)

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 2:26am

I see the problem with the salon given the fact that it is scripted for the guys to see Paulette do the bend and snap from outside and Elle has an on-stage quick change in the supply closet which would be difficult to conceive in the round. Unless those moments were reconceived I can definitely see some challenges. I don't see much of a problem with the court room scene as long as you're able to have set pieces fly in from above and below. I too, would be interested in hearing some ideas. It's an interesting project.

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 2:32am

Not to mention how many locations there are throughout the show, that must be very challenging for this kind of configuration.

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 2:49am

Sacramento has a theatre in the round here that does every show that comes through it in the round. It's called Music Circus. I have no doubts whatsoever that this show can be done in the round.

For the Paulette "Bend and Snap" where the men jump out behind her, have them jump out of the aisles. The majority of the shows at Music Circus utilitze not only the stage, but also the aisles. Keep that in mind. The show doesn't need to be done just on the stage. And use the fact that it's in the round. It's a 3-dimensional show now, not just a 2-dimensional.

[FlyingMonkey1223]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 2:51am

"A Chorus Line" was performed at Sacramento Music Circus at one time. I wonder how they did it!

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 2:57am

That was all the way in '99! I was just a babe at the time, only eight, so I couldn't tell ya. There's a review, though, that gives absolutely no help to the thread poster, but here it is anyway:

http://www.sacnews.net/sacstage/chorus.html

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 3:56am

CATS,
While traps and elevators and a great fly system are wonderful for ANY designer to use should they chose, there's no reason they'd be needed for those moments. I also don't see how the closet and door of the Hair Affair poses such a problem. You're still thinking in proscenium terms and wondering how to do the same thing in the round.. Both would actually be VERY simple.

Yes, angel, aisles are sometimes the director and designer's best friend when staging an in the round production, but I must elaborate on your post.. every show that "comes through" the Music is actually staged BY and FOR them, so it is not a matter of adapting an existing staging to the area stage. That only would come into consideration in instances where you are supposed to replicate the original choreography to the best ability - such as A Chorus Line or West Side Story, but even then, it isn.t so difficult with creativity.

A challenge for such a staging would be something like Peter Pan, where you have the special effects such as flying and at least one set that requires two levels. Still, it has been done that way.. and worked.. repeatedly.

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 6:06am

I never said that the shows that go to Music Circus are originally done in the round. I recently saw Evita (with Julia Murney, AMAZING), Hairspray, Jeckyll and Hyde, Into the Woods, Cats, and Altar Boyz there this season and previously and none of those shows are originally done in the round.

Unless that's not what you meant. If it wasn't, I don't understand what you mean. It is 3am in Sactown right now, so maybe my brain isn't processing what you mean correctly...?

[Anastasia_Beaverhausen]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 11:41am

I saw A Chorus Line at Music Circus and from what I remember when they were all "on the line," half of them faced one way and the other half the other way at times but they were still a line. They would also all face one direction, switch around...the stage would rotate...things like that. It worked just fine. :)

[wicked91]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 1:20pm

Thank you all so much for your input so far! I really like the idea about the guys running down into the isles for the Bend and Snap. The quick change in the salon for LB remix is still giving me issues.

For the courtroom, I figured out how to do the members of the court, but the judge itself is tricky. For the shower scene, I thought the shower might be able to be circular and fly down into the center of the stage, and the rest of the scene (since it is short) can be played towards the downstage sides of the stage.

I also used arch type structures where each of the four aisles meet the stage, and made them light boxes, similar to the Broadway design, but more neon than the original.

Thanks again

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 3:25pm

Utilize everything. You can set up the closet in the aisle. It's been done before. Tracy's bedroom was done entirely in the aisle next to my seat, Amber's room was in another and Penny's was in another and they did Mama I'm a Blah Blah entirely in the aisles in Hairspray.

I love this idea! Can't wait to see how your version and Music Circus's version compare when Blonde actually goes to Sac!

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 3:50pm

Angel,
I was being specific because your post seemed to hint that wexisting stagings are adapted to the arena staging, which isn't the case. The shows require no ADAPTION.


Wicked, I am going to shoot a PM.. Once again, I stress, don't even THINK about Rockwell and Mitchell did on Broadway. I would also caution that arch structures might prove to hinder certain sightlines...

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 5:51pm

I saw a production of Spelling Bee in the round this summer, and the desk for the teachers was at the edge of the stage, in front of the aisles, and a few times throughout the show, they rotated everything counterclockwise so it was in front of the next aisle. As long as the judge's desk isn't too big, it should work okay in front of an aisle. And the "supply closet" can really just be Elle walking to the end of an aisle and through an exit door and Paulette shouts to her from the stage instead of knocking on the door while she does her quick change. There is no show that can't be stage in the round.

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 7:07pm

Speaking of sightlines, at every single second during the show, someone is going to have a bad seat. That's something you can't escape. Actors only have one front side and it can only face one direction at a time. During Evita's death scene, all we saw for the entire scene was the back of the bed and the back of Julia Murney's head.

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 7:30pm

In response to the quick change trouble, HAIRSPRAY was done in the round at NSMT, and that show has a couple of big quick changes. I din't see the show, but perhaps somebody that did could share how the quick change was done.

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 10/15/09 at 9:21pm

Well, they're quick-changes. We don't see them. In Sacramento, there are quick-change booths at the end of almost every aisle. They go in there and change and then come back out.

[jonmbway4652]

Posted: 10/17/09 at 12:33am

so for the music circus is EVERY show that comes through done in the round? even the broadway in sacramento ones?

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 10/17/09 at 1:29am

Broadway in Sacramento consists of the Convention Center (or Community Center, they're interchangable) and the Wells Fargo Pavallion. It's called Music Circus because it used to be a large tent and a stage. Now that they've rebuilt it as an actual theatre, it's the Wells Fargo Pavallion, but it's still referred to as Music Circus. Music Circus is only a summerstock program. They do a bunch of shows for a week or two at a time each and end in August, I believe. Then the touring companies come through and they go to the Convention center. The convention center is a Broadway stage. I don't know what they're really called. Does someone know what a normal stage is called?

The CA Music Theatre website might have better information than I do. I'm just a local and that's what I know of the theatre's history. What I said might be totally wrong.

California Musical Theatre website

Updated On: 10/17/09 at 01:29 AM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/17/09 at 11:51am

*slams head forcefully into desk*

A "normal" stage is a PROSCENIUM theatre. The convention center there is NOT a Broadway stage as it is not a Broadway theatre. In fact, not at all Broadway theatres are proscenium houses.

Music Circus is the name of the program / series. Wells Fargo pavilion is the name of the venue.

Yes, the Sacramento Music Circus is a summer stock theatre producing and creating their productions in-house and specific to them. National tours coming through Sacramento, as I said before in several posts in this exact thread, have NOTHING to do with the Music Circus.

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 10/17/09 at 4:10pm

Did you really need to make the thread take that turn? Really. Forgive me for not knowing. I'm sorry I'm not an actual theatre expert. I just live in Midtown and everything and have lived here since my birth. I'm sorry that that's just what I knew. Forgive me, please, or I'll never sleep.

I called it a Broadway stage because I didn't know what it was called and I even asked. You didn't have to be rude.

[jonmbway4652]

Posted: 10/17/09 at 5:02pm

Thank you for clarifying... i was just confused because some posts made it sound like every show that comes through it done in the round, even the broadway tours.

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 10/17/09 at 5:41pm

I guess it did. I apologise. The Broadway tours are done in the Convention center.