Sondheim on Sondheim
by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine
Roundabout Theatre Company at Studio 54
Directed by James Lapine, Musical Staging by Dan Knechtges
Costumes by Susan Hilferty, Lighting by Ken Billington, Sound by Dan Moses Schreier, Projection Design by Peter Flaherty
2010
Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination, Henry Hewes Award Nomination
Brief video showing the movement of the set:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF7heg4m_Vw
"Beowulf—Just a note to tell you that I think your set is one of the most beautiful (and ingenious) I’ve ever seen in the theater. And, although you may not believe it, I’ve been around a long time. Thank you so much." —Steve Sondheim
Overture: Leslie Kritzer, Vanessa Williams, Norm Lewis, Barbara Cook, Matthew Scott, Euan Morton and Erin Mackey
I'll Meet You At The Donut: Company
Something's Coming: Euan Morton, Leslie Kritzer, Erin Mackey and Matthew Scott
Epiphany: Tom Wopat
Losing My Mind: Vanessa Williams & Barbara Cook
Opening Doors: Leslie Kritzer, Euan Morton and Matthew Scott
Something Just Broke: Euan Morton, Erin Mackey, Tom Wopat, Leslie Kritzer, Matthew Scott and Norm Lewis
The Gun Song: Euan Morton, Erin Mackey, Leslie Kritzer, Tom Wopat & Company
Smile Girls: Vanessa Williams & Company
New York Times article about the projection design of Sondheim on Sondheim: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/theater/07projection.html?ref=theater&_r=0
New York Times slide show: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/07/theater/20100307-projection-design-anita-gates-multimedia/index.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1402064703-US+YGQZUytasJbvGyAXhbg
Lighting & Sound America Article: http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/Sondheim.pdf
"A visual tour-de-force, with the large overhead screen suddenly and stunningly fragmented midway through the show, after which Sondheim comes at the audience from all angles. Set designer Beowulf Boritt cleverly make this possible." ~Steven Suskin, Variety
"The presentation is especially brilliant, giving us the sense of being inside a Rubik's Cube or two. On a mighty revolve, we get a wall of rectangles that can split up into all sorts of configurations, go off in sundry directions, replicate one image or offer many in a visual crazy quilt of talking heads, colorful designs or abstractions. Now it's Sondheim speaking from them, now it's merry pictures, geometric shapes and color washes."
~John Simon, Bloomberg News
"Visually, the production is a stunner. Beowulf Boritt's ingenious scenic design consists of moving banks of screens and scrims."
~Charles McNulty, LA Times
"A crisp physical production that includes Beowulf Boritt's moving-building-block set."
~Ben Brantley, New York Times
"Beowulf Boritt's modular set, which keeps breaking up into different pieces, is arresting."
~Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
"Designer Beowulf Boritt and videographer Peter Flaherty stick Sondheim's face on every projectable-upon surface you could conceive, constantly changing its scale, scrambling his body and features into little pieces and reassembling them differently (an apt metaphor for his oeuvre)."
~Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
"Beowulf Boritt has designed a cool, clever setting that rearranges video screens in a multitude of ways suggesting jigsaw and crossword puzzles. This environment can be a neutral place or turn dramatic as it does for an unsettling 'Assassins' excerpt. The designers present a particularly lovely evocation of a half-ruined theater for a haunting version of the 'Waiting for the Girls Upstairs' octet from 'Follies.'"
~Michael Sommers, Star Ledger
"The revolving set... is like a giant puzzle which can be used in any combination of ways is put to great use as bit by bit his songs and life are deconstructed and brought together in many moments of brilliance."
~Oscar Moore, Talk Entertainment.com
"The screen used for the videographed images initially looks like a giant version of Apple's i-pad. Next it becomes an amazingly chameleonic design, and ultimately a Sondheim à la Chuck Close image. The integration of Flaherty's computer wizardry, Beowulf Boritt's set and Ken Billington's gorgeously evocative lighting is a master class in merging filmed and live content."
~Elyse Sommer, Curtain Up
"Beowulf Boritt's revolving imagination-landscape staircase (strewn with more of those monitors) gives things exactly the up-to-the-minute feel you'd expect."
~Matthew Murray, Talkin' Broadway