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What’s makes a musical iconic?
The actors? The script? The songs?
All play an important role, but when flipping through over 100 years of musical history,
some of the most iconic come from the set.
Flying chandeliers, heavy barricades, wooden swings:
just a few of the countless times that one specific set piece defined an entire show.
But for every set piece that leaves audiences amazed,
there are bound to be a few that leave them bewildered.
I’m Brendon with Wait in the Wings and these are 10 set pieces that went unnecessarily hard.
But first, we can’t dive in without a quick shoutout for this video's sponsor, Squarespace.
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The Rocky Boxing Ring
Broadway is no stranger to boxing rings on stage, but Rocky took it one step above the rest.
Out of all the words to describe director Alex Timbers, timid isn’t one of them.
A champion of immersive theater on Broadway, Timbers constantly
searches for ways to eliminate the divide between performers and audience members.
This might have been his boldest attempt yet.
Following the same story as the 1976 Syvlester Stallone movie,
Rocky the Musical ended with a championship fight between Rocky and Apollo Creed. In a
stunning grand finale, the Winter Garden theatre transformed into
the Philadelphia Spectrum sports arena, equipped with a three ton boxing ring.
Timbers and set designer Chris Barreca wanted
the crowd to really feel like they were at a boxing match.
Utilizing the same technology used to move shipping containers, audience members in “The
Golden Circle” were escorted onstage as the boxing ring rolled out into the first six rows of seats.
For twenty electrifying minutes, the theater basically transformed into a WWE event,
as audiences watched the fight in the bleachers right behind the ring.
As if that wasn’t rousing enough, the ring spun,
and was filled with camera crews, hidden mics in towels, and makeup
artists carefully making the actors look more and more bruised the longer the fight went on.
Critics had a lot to say about Rocky the Musical,
but none of them denied how cool the finale looked.
The Beetlejuice House
Holy crap, a house already?
Another example of director Alex Timbers' creative flair,
every single scene of Beetlejuice the Musical was a visual wonderland —- and the most
eye-popping (or snake-popping?) feature was the actual house.
The set went beyond just aesthetics, it also played an important role in the story.
In very early discussions, Timbers wanted the house to be its own character, evolving throughout
the night from the Maitland’s quaint country house to Beetlejuice’s terrifying haunted one.
As set designer David Korins said in an interview with the New York Times,
“Every single thing that is a telltale visual element gets changed [...] all the walls,
all the window dressing, every single light fixture, and the fireplace.”
In all, the set transformed four times depending on who controlled it:
the Maitlands, the Deetz’, and twice under Beetlejuice.
The massive house also captivated in its lighting, projections, and references to Beetlejuice creator
Tim Burton. Wanting the home to possess a hand-drawn feel, the wallpaper included
scaled up Burton flower illustrations that the team traced over with markers.
The entire house even moved up and down the stage — an incredible feat
that made “Dead Mom” even more strange and unusual.
The Carrie Staircase
Considered to be the queen of Broadway flops, Carrie the Musical looked radically
different from its source material, especially during the iconic finale.
Much like the Stephen King book and movie, Carrie gets covered in
pigs blood at prom and goes on a terrifying killing spree in the high school gymnasium.
That's when things took a ludicrous turn when
A GIANT WHITE STAIRCASE FROM HEAVEN DROPPED ONTO THE STAGE.
Why did the staircase exist? A lot of it came back to the show’s director,
Terry Hands, trying to emulate his Royal Shakespeare Company predecessor, Trevor Nunn.
Trevor Nunn and designer John Napier helped usher in the 1980s megamusical craze,
a time where spectacle beat out story.
Shows like Cats and Les Mis all featured something called a “scenic coup-de-theatre”:
a larger than life scenic piece that left audiences mesmerized.
Carrie tried to do it with a giant staircase.
The enormous structure lowered using hydraulics and then locked
into place after fifty-two neverending seconds. Designed by Ralph Koltai,
the staircase engulfed the entire stage, a size estimated to be 38 feet wide and 45 feet long.
Did the set piece have anything to do with the coming-of-age horror story? No way.
But did it serve as an explosive ending that put the movie’s finale to shame?
Also no.
The Legs Diamond Sign
Things didn’t look good for Legs Diamond in December 1988.
Actor and songwriter Peter Allen’s new musical that turned the murderous mobster
Jack “Legs” Diamond into a wanna be dancer was getting torn apart.
The original Jack Diamond earned the moniker “Legs” from escaping death so many times.
In the musical, it was because of his tap-dancing skills.
Critics and audiences viewed Allen as horribly miscast and,
even though he was the star of the show, he consistently failed to get entrance applause.
The team took cues from other megamusicals of the time, shockingly deciding to drop $15,000 for a
brand new opening number and a monumental 20 foot sign reading just two weeks before opening night.
The bright, blinking “ALMOST TOTALLY FICTITIOUS MUSICAL HYSTERY OF LEGS
DIAMOND!” basically shouted at audiences not to expect a dark,
historically accurate retelling of the vicious murderer.
The creative team prayed that their hail mary for entrance applause would work when the
massive sign made its grand debut. The dancers and Allen gave it their all and then…crickets.
But, much like Legs Diamond himself, it continues to survive as the most
memorable part of the show... right behind the dancing baby doll heads.
Legs Diamond was a fever dream.
The Starlight Express Bridge
A roller rink on the stage…sounds crazy, no?
In 1984, audiences got to see what happens when a joke gets taken way
too far with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Expense… sorry, Express.
A musical loosely based on Thomas the Tank Engine, Lloyd Webber originally envisioned Starlight as a
modest concert for school children until Trevor Nunn, the lord of the spectacle, got involved.
Designer John Napier needed a way to make the actors look like locomotives
and found the perfect solution after watching roller skaters in Central Park.
The run away train of a musical picked up speed when Napier revealed his set design.
London’s Apollo Victoria theater turned into a high octane death trap.
Fifty tons of set and race tracks exploded out into the audience.
Suspended above it all was a
32,000 pound industrial bridge made of steel, iron, and fiberglass.
The actual action took place over three levels of track and
the bridge used hydraulics lifts to raise, lower,
and tilt automatically — this helped the actors travel from one level of the set to the next.
Though cool in presentation,
the bridge proved extremely dangerous when the automated movements didn’t work.
During one performance on Broadway, cast members Bob Torti and Jane Krakowski sped
their way from level two to level one, only to realize one tiny problem. There was no bridge.
In a flash, Torti shoved Krakowski to safety,
sacrificing himself and falling fifteen feet to the floor below.
Out of all the dangerous set pieces in musical theater history,
its truly a miracle that this one didn’t kill somebody.
The Aladdin Magic Carpet
Ever since Disney’s earliest foray into Broadway,
the company's made a habit of bewildering audiences with stunning stage illusions.
When Aladdin the Musical opened in 2014,
it introduced an effect so stunning that it still bewilders audiences to this day.
Name some of the most iconic moments in cinematic history and the magic carpet
ride from “Aladdin” should rank near the top… right behind the cabin attack in “Cocaine Bear”.
An easy effect to achieve with animation, but pulling it off onstage took a lot of science.
To make the carpet fly, very thin wires run up from each corner to a
winch that spins them rapidly in a little circle.
The cables spin so fast that they appear invisible to the audience below.
Knowing the secret of how the carpet flies still doesn’t diminish the
spectacular amazement of seeing it live — an impressive feat of theater
magic that continues to transport audiences to a whole new world.
The Miss Saigon Helicopter
Another product of the megamusical craze,
Miss Saigon certainly wasn't lacking in scenic coup de theatre. That being said,
there’s a reason so many people still refer to it as “the musical with the helicopter.”
A constant image of the Vietnam War, a helicopter dramatically
hovered over a crowd of refugees during the climatic fall of Saigon flashback.
As if in a competition against himself,
designer John Napier continued his trend of increasingly complicated set pieces.
Weighing in at 8,000 pounds, the body of the Miss Saigon
helicopter was only 10% smaller than a real-life Huey transport.
Through seven automations and, you guessed it, hydraulic lifts,
the helicopter not only moved up and down, but also swayed side to side and
used thin cords on the top that, which, when spun very fast, looked like blades.
Thirty-four years since its first flight, the Miss Saigon helicopter continues to
evolve and change with each production around the globe. A production in the
state of Georgia even staged the production outdoors AND FLEW IN A REAL HELICOPTER!
The King Kong Puppet
As one of the biggest legends in New York City lore (literally),
the gargantuan monkey puppet in King Kong the Musical astonished audiences.
In the original 1933 film, animator Willis O’Brien scaled the Kong model to look twenty-four feet
tall. Remarkably, the Kong animatronic used in the musical measured in just four feet under.
The Australia based Creature Technology Company engineered the Kong animatronic
into a technical marvel of inflatable tubes and a steel and carbon fiber
skeleton. As one operator put it, “He’s kind of like a Beanie Baby”.
A giant beanie baby that required a seventeen ton crane above the stage just to hold it up.
It took a team of three operators to infuse the puppet with life-like emotions.
One controlled the face, another controlled the shoulders, arms,
and wrists, and the third controlled the head and neck, and provided the voice.
The actual physicality of Kong required an onstage team of ten puppeteers
called the “King’s Company” to move the enormous limbs with wires and pulleys.
Controlling the Kong puppet was so intense that the Broadway
production actually provided free physical therapy for the crew.
Out of all the puppets to appear on Broadway, the King Kong puppet truly reigned supreme.
The Sunset Boulevard Mansion
Sure, the Beetlejuice house moving up and down the stage was pretty cool,
but what if an entire *mansion* dropped out of a ceiling!?
Say hello to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard.
A brain child of spectacle daddy Trevor Nunn and designer John Napier, the palatial design
for the home of fictional forgotten film star Norma Desmond was anything but minimal.
Napier’s set relished in excess. Towering gothic columns hung over
a never-ending staircase inside a thirty foot cathedral of melted gold.
The entire set piece was so big that it had to be built in small sections
in scene shops across the country —- it wouldn’t fit in one shop.
The mansion flew in the same way every huge piece of scenery moved in the 1980s:
a bunch of hydraulic lifts - four to be exact,
and a joystick that somehow raised and lowered the entire 30,000 pound mansion.
Napier’s Sunset Boulevard mansion represented the culmination of every megamusical coup-de-theatre
that came before and, in many ways, served as an end to Broadway’s era of excess.
The Rebecca Staircase
As a smash hit when it opened in Vienna in 2006, Rebecca the Musical,
an adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s 1939 novel, captivated audiences with powerhouse
performances, dramatic orchestrations, and breathtaking set pieces…one in particular.
The main action of the show takes place in the ghostly estate of Manderly. Rows
of imposing pillars surround a swirling spiral staircase.
Designed by Peter J. Davison, the staircase was hardly stationary:
it moved forwards, backwards, side to side, and even rotated.
To maneuver this monster set piece, the team used HYDRAULICS
(just kidding),
the team used a panel and a joystick hidden behind a couple books in a built-in bookcase.
Already impressive in its presentation,
the stairs transitioned from stunning to spectacular in the musical’s final moments.
In a passion filled rage, Manderley’s housekeeper and resident gothic mommy,
Mrs. Danvers, sets the house on fire.
The staircase combusts as Danvers climbs to the top.
To achieve this effect, each stair is outfitted with gas powered flames on
the edges. The first few steps ignite across the full length of the stair.
Halfway up, the flames turn into tiny pockets under the rails.
In the original Vienna production, the entire house collapsed and
the staircase descended into a deep pit below the stage as sparks flew,
It’s no wonder producer Ben Sprecher fought a conman to move the show to Broadway.
Oh, what? Did you not know that story? What about the mysterious
investor who caught malaria on an Africa safari?
That’s just the tip of the Rebecca iceberg. Click
on this video to hear every step of the show that spiraled out of control.