Broadway's largest set desgin

[Gmerchant123]

I've heard that my fair lady's set was so big! Same with the latest revival of the King and I

[morosco]

I would think Broadway's largest set design would be a tie between CATS and STARLIGHT EXPRESS.

[Jungle Red]

Only because of ALW's huge and impressive...



... ego.

[MattDe]

ALW does have a huge ego but he did get a TONY which was possibly due to well nothing else playing.

[Wynbish]

I've heard that my fair lady's set was so big!

Can't decide if that's a "That's what she said!" or a classic "How big was it????"

[Jungle Red]

Wyn: Reminds me of Match game! Dumb Dora was so dumb. "How dumb was she?"

[Wynbish]

The set was so big, it made blank look tiny

[Jungle Red]

You changed it!

[SondheimFan5]

Off Broadway [Title of Show] and the Barrow Street "Our Town" had the biggest sets that I have seen.

[Jungle Red]

"Our Town" doesn't have a set. I googled it but didn't find anything except posters and pictures of the cast. What did they do differently?

[Wynbish]

I think those were suggested in jest, Jungle

[AEA AGMA SM]

""Our Town" doesn't have a set. I googled it but didn't find anything except posters and pictures of the cast. What did they do differently?"

[SondheimFan5]

Jungle Red - the Barrow Street had a fabulous design by the folks who design Cirque de Soleil. Instead of 2 step-ladders, Emily and George were each on their own trapeze. It was one for the ages, really. Flying by Foy took Emily back to Heaven at the end of the play. It was like Spider Man meets Mary Poppins.

[Jungle Red]

I don't often post on serious Broadway threads, so I don't know who the joksters are and who aren't. It looks like it wasn't made in jest, as SondheimFan5 last post describes a pretty big set.

I adore Our Town.

[chewy5000]

Ha!

[dramamama611]

Thud.

(It was a joke, as was his next response. Although I'd go and see that Our Town, too.)

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

I've been trying to find the thread it was mentioned in, but a few years ago another poster mentioned a Broadway show where the director was in the audience when the set was first revealed to him. He was impatient because the actors weren't on stage yet. He asked something along the lines of "Where are the actors?" to which they responded from stage "We are here!" From what I remember they decided then and there that the set was overkill.

Can anyone help me out? I can't remember the name of the show.

[castlestreet]

Wouldn't you have to include Sunset Blvd in the conversation? I know just the house itself had to be controlled by a hydraulic lift.

[ucjrdude902]

I'd say Phantom and even Legally Blonde were a pretty big set. Hints the reason Blonde could only fit in the Palace and limited their option of a transfer.

[Phantom of London]

Arguable Aida, the one tht didn't make it to Broadway.

[Yero my Hero]

SPIDER-MAN pretty much has to be in this conversation. I'd also put YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN as one of the largest sets I have ever seen.

BILLY ELLIOT closed down the Imperial Theatre for something like six months gutting it so they could install the stairs that revolve up from under the stage.

[ajh]

what about the original Ragtime? or the original Sweeney? weren't they both Eugene Lee. "he doesn't know less is more" as Tommy Tune said about Ken Russell . Ok am rambling now......

[Nickhutson]

British shows: Starlight, Cats, Phantom, Mary Poppins, Sunset Boulevard.

US Productions: Ragtime, BIg, Beauty and the Beast all spring to mind.

[supersam1026]

The house in Mary Poppins is also really big!

[Hank]

Haha! those comments abour Barrow St "Our House" bring to my mind my classroom read through in high school, and the sets were similar, but in my mind, each time, I pictured myself in a small NH town, just over the Massachusets line.
It worked.

[finebydesign]

Most of the Disney shows have/had massive sets. Even the rigging for Tarzan was insane. Both Lion King and Tarzan had inflatable pieces because there was not enough space.

Legally Blonde didn't seem that huge to me, it seemed like mostly flats from the flies.

I've never seen Sunset but I've heard that was pretty incredible. The recent Into the Woods (though not on Broadway) had a massive set. And you can just forget about opera, those things are huge. I remember Taymor's Grendel opera being MASSIVE. George Typsin (Spiderman, Little Mermaid)designed that monster.


There are some renderings of the Elaborate Lives version of Aid here