If you love theater, you've likely seen a set designed by Tony Award-winner Beowulf Boritt, from "Come From Away" to "Flying Over Sunset" to "Merry Wives" to "POTUS." Now he's drawn back the curtain on his process, and the importance of set design, in his new book, Transforming Space Over Time: Set Design and Visual Storytelling with Broadway's Legendary Directors. Boritt joins to reflect on his career, and his collaboration with directors like James Lapine, Kenny Leon, Hal Prince, Susan Stroman, Jerry Zaks, and Stephen Sondheim.
Mecca: A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim
Setting: Stephen Sondheim’s Turtle Bay town house: the holiest of holies for several generations
oftheaterartists.We’reinaground-floorlivingroom,sprawlingandcluttered,spreadingfrom
asmallfrontentrancefoyerthroughthemainchambertoaback conservatorythatopensintoa
communitygarden.Theroom’ssalientvisualfeatureis Steve’s collection of antique puzzles,
displayed in frames and vitrinesand arrayed on tables.
Beowulf Boritt:I’msureyouhearthisfromalotofpeople,butyourshows,morethananyothers,
arewhatconvincedmetopursuetheater.Igrewupthinkingmusicalswerefrillyand silly, but when
I started being exposed to your shows—first Sunday, then Into the WoodsandSweeneyTodd—I
thought,ThisiswhatIwanttodo.
Stephen Sondheim: So you’re blaming me?
BB:Justplacingblamewhereit’sdue,Steve!I asked various directors, “What productions made a
strong impression on you whenyouwereyoung?”BothJames [Lapine]andSusanStromancredited
SweeneyToddand itsdesignastheshowthatmadethemthink,Thisiswhattheatercanbe.
Of course, Hal directed it, and the set was famously a real, and enormous, Victorian factory
reassembled onstage by Eugene Lee. But that set isn’t inherent in the writing; in fact, the action is
never literally in a factory. When you weredeveloping theshowwithHughWheeler,itwasn’twith
afactorysettinginmind,wasit?
SS: No, no. That came afterward. That was Hal’s idea. I don’t know how he came to it. For me,
Sweeney Todd is not really a story of how the Industrial Revolution manufactured vengeful
Sweeney Todds. That had nothing to do with what I wrote at all—though I did ultimately put one
line in the lyrics about machines, to make Hal happy.
I wanted to do it as a small, scary show. I told Hal that if we were going to do it at a big theater, I’d
like to drape the entire place in black, have gaslit lampposts all around, and have the cast all around,
too: on top of you, beside you, in the aisles, and so on. I wanted the whole theater to look like the
inside of a coffin. I wanted an organ and an organist onstage for that opening prelude—a loud organ
sound to start the show.
BB: You said you have no part in designing the show, but that’s a very clear visual image you just
described—your initial thoughts about it.
SS:Ihavenovisualimaginationtosay,“Thecostumesshouldbered.” Butofcourse Ihavesome
ideasaboutstagingthenumbers.Thedirectorcanthrowthemout,butI dogoonrecordwithwhatI
amthinking.
BB: I’m going to rewind to early in your career, to one of my favorite musicals and one I have not yet had
a chance to design. Did you have any visuals in mind as you wrote West Side Story with Arthur Laurents
and Leonard Bernstein?
a chance to design. Did you have any visuals in mind as you wrote West Side Story with Arthur Laurents
and Leonard Bernstein?
SS: Where is Puerto Rico? No, I don’t think I had anything in mind, but I’ll tell you ananecdote,oneof
thosethingsthatoneneverforgets.OliverSmith,whodesigned it,wantedtoshowusthemodeloftheset
sowewentouttohishouseinBrooklyn.
He showed it to us and there was concern over the scene with the highway bridge, for the rumble at the
end of the first act. Jerry Robbins—or maybe it was Lenny or Arthur—turned to me and said, “What do
youthink?”Iwastwenty-fiveyearsold!“Iagree,”Isaid. “It just doesn’t seem quite right.” Oliver turned
on me and said, “Who cares what you think? You don’t know anythingaboutthetheater!”Hewasreally
ugly.Hewas upset that they didn’t like it, but he couldn’t lash out at Jerry, Lenny, or Arthur,so—
BB: And you were the new guy.
SS:Yes.Youknow, Iunderstandwhyhedidit.
BB:Didyoueverworkwithhimagain?
SS: No.
BB: When you’re the new kid, and an old hand lashes outatyou,it’samazinghowmuchitstings.You
rememberitforever.OnmyfirstBroadwayshow,SpellingBee, that happened to me. Someone involved
in the show, not James, really went after me because I was the new kid. To be honest, I had probably done
something stupid—butitwasunpleasant,andIwillneverforgetit.
BB: Last question, and it isn’t really a question. I’m going to shorten the quote, but you’ve said, “Lyric
writing has to existintime. You have to lay the sentencesout so there’s enough air for the ear to take
themin. There’smusic,there’scostumes, there’slighting.There’salotofthingstolistentoandlookat.
Andtherefore,thelyric must be in that sensesimple.”
SS: The experience of a musical is so rich that it’s like you’re getting two kinds of dessert. You’re getting
the pecan cake and the caramel ice cream, so you don’t want to overdo it with either one.
SS:Allartisabouteconomyofmeans.It’saboutfindingthepartthatisnecessaryand getting rid of the
unnecessary. That’s the hard part, but once you know it, if you’re ruthless,you’llgetridoftheextraand
keepthegreat.Ingeneral,inart,lessismore. Although you must remember, there is alsoTolstoy!