Something I've always wanted to know...

In long-running productions (Wicked, Les Mis, Rent etc) are the sets we see today the originals from when it opened?

Or do they get re-made/renovated every so often just to stop things from wearing out and so on?

Thanks.

Generally speaking they'll be the originals unless things have been broken or damaged. Regular maintenance goes on throughout a production in the aim of keeping everything looking good and working properly.

I once heard about the time when the carpet was replaced on The Mousetrap, and one of the actors just couldn't remember his lines at all. That change in scene just put him off.

Yes, in a long running show they are the original sets, which, in a big budget musical can cost millions. They are maintained throughout the run, and bits replaced or re-painted if necessary. This is how a long running show can go into profit once these one off costs, sets, costumes etc have been written off and only the running costs ( wages, theatre hire etc) remain. This is why Phantom and LesMis are so profitable, together with pantomime productions which are toured endlessly around the country each Christmas, all the sets and costumes are made to withstand alot of wear and tear.

In contrast, a flop, never recoups these costs and can lose millions.

What I always think is a great shame, is that at the end of a run the sets are usually broken up and destroyed. This is due to the high cost of storage and for copywright reasons. The exception to this is if the producer is intending to tour or remount the prodution in the near future when this one off set cost can be saved, thus reducing the cost of the revival.

It's a pity that these sets, once used, are not available for amateur companies to hire. I am surprised scenic hire comapnies do not buy them to hire out - but I think storage costs and copywright issues play a part here too. Some of the quality of sets available to amateurs is very poor considering the costs of hiring and transporting the scenery.

Often however, the set is not built to tour - it'll be built inside the theatre and the only way out is in pieces. The construction methods for a touring set must be far more robust, and therefore expensive, than the methods used for something that's not expected to be disassembled and re-assembled. Perhaps producers should take a risk and make sets tour-able from the start, but it's a big chance when a show has no guarantee of multiple consecutive productions.

(copyright - the right to make a copy. sorry.)

I am always deeply impressed by the construction of touring sets and sets for amateur hire. They have to be assembled and disassembled within a few hours, folded into the one lorry, and also need to fit theatres of sometimes very different sizes.

So in the current production of Oliver!, are the sets the same as the ones in the Palladium version?

And for a transfer, (eg Hamlet or Night Music) to Broadway, will the sets be shipped over, or just made from scratch again?

You must have been really lucky! When I think of some of the disgraceful tat masquerading as sets that came into my previous venue it make my blood boil. Often they were quite obviously just stock items from different sources lumped together to make a show. Sometimes even the items for individual scenes did not match. Equally they often arrived without any instructions for assembly leaving to the unfortunate local crew to piece the puzzle together. There would also be hilarious faux pas such as a London cloth for a show set in the 1830's with a picture of Big Ben and a Paris cloth with the Tour Eiffel for a show set 40 years before it was built!
There are good sets available for amateurs but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

Seb

I think I'd just had a good experience with Scenic Projects for three out of the last four shows we've hired sets for. I wrote my previous post on the thread a couple of days after having helped to assemble one of their Oklahoma! sets. We had a very wobbly set for Run For Your Wife from someone else this year.


Now, if the London backcloth had had the Eiffel Tower on it, that would have been a really good story!

True! But these sort of annoying mistakes are endemic of the less scrupulous providers who think that any old rubbish is good enough for amateurs.
Many of the providers would send a list of cloth measurements which bore absolutely no relation the items which actually arrived so one would have to re-think, on the hoof, all the bar deads and border etc. Since amateur fit-ups are always done on a very limited time frame the effects could be fairly disastrous.

Seb