Broadway By Design: David Rockwell & Jeff Mahshie Bring SHE LOVES ME from Page to Stage

Who is Annie without her red dress? Or Eva with out her balcony? It is the charge of the Broadway designer to transport the audience into the world of a show, whether it be Great Depression-era New York City or outside of the Casa Rosada.

In our new series, Broadway by Design, BroadwayWorld will be shining a spotlight on the stellar designs of this Broadway season, show by show. Today, we kick off the series with David Rockwell and Jeff Mahshie, who acted as scenic and costume designers for Roundabout's glorious revival of SHE LOVES ME.

Set in 1930s Budapest, SHE LOVES ME follows Amalia and Georg, two parfumerie clerks who aren't quite the best of friends. Constantly bumping heads while on the job, the sparring coworkers can't seem to find common ground. But little do they know the anonymous pen pals they have both been falling for happen to be each other! Will love continue to blossom once their identities are finally revealed?

Five-time Tony nominee Rockwell said of his inspiration for his designs: "We were very influenced by the rich palette of color and intricate decoration of the amazing Art Nouveau architecture and design of the period. It is a very fluid and expressive design style that's rather parallel to the lyricism in the music. We were also inspired by real stores, such as Laduree, for the sense of color, and also C.O. Bigelow's in the Village, which retains many of the apothecary's original features."

"And, of course, we were very inspired by the story itself and the play between the inner and outer lives of George and Amelia. We wanted to find a way to capture something about what these characters choose to reveal and keep hidden, so we came up with the idea of a set that could seamlessly transform from inside to outside."

"We envisioned the set as one of the performers. It's in a constant state of transformation-opening and closing, revealing and concealing, in an alternating rhythm, almost as if it's dancing to the rhythm of the score. The focus of the set is Maraczek's perfumery. Coming up with the right geometries and mechanics for its transformation multiple times-in under 20 seconds, in full view and without interruption-was a huge challenge."

"Also the wing space on the Studio 54 stage is very limited so we had to figure out how to compress the Café Imperial set to achieve its' richness while effortless tracking it onto the stage."

On his take on costumes, Mahshie told us: "SHE LOVES ME was set in the 1930s, which was a period in fashion with a stylish signature. I referenced fashion designers Elsa Schaiparelli and Madeleine Vionnet, whose designs dominated the look of the decade, and contrasted those images with actual photographs of the time to give a feeling of idealized realism and then accented with Art Deco architecture."

On his biggest challenges, he continued: "I always aspire to create the appropriate clothing for the character, sometimes in period musicals there is a tendency for things to look cartoonish. I never want the actors wardrobe to look 'costume-y.'"

Laura Benanti (Amalia), Zachary Levi (Georg), Gavin Creel (Kodaly), Michael McGrath (Sipos),Jane Krakowski (Ilona) and Byron Jennings (Maraczek) star in Roundabout's new Broadway production ofSHE LOVES ME, directed by Scott Ellis, choreographed by Warren Carlyle with musical direction byPaul Gemignani. This classic musical comedy features a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Jerry Bock.

In a special celebration of Roundabout's 50th Anniversary season, SHE LOVES ME returns to Broadway in a new production led by Roundabout's Associate Artistic Director Scott Ellis. Scott directed Roundabout's ten-time Tony nominated revival of SHE LOVES ME in 1993, which marked the first Broadway musical in the company's history and launched the Musical Theatre Program at Roundabout.