Friday, January 25, 2019
‘Rent’ Team Talks Production Design for Fox’s Live Version
Variety: Traditionally, when Jonathan Larson’s “Rent” is performed on stage, the production design is minimal, consisting primarily of some scaffolding and a sculptural tree, with a long table, some chairs and a trash can as key set decorations. When approaching Fox’s live broadcast of the musical, production designer Jason Sherwood knew he had to honor that original spirit but still build out the world for a 360-degree, fully immersive experience.
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This genre of entertainment is really interesting to me because of the unique challenges it provides for thee designers, directors, and actors who put it on. It is a hybrid of live theatre and film in a way that is unlike anything else. It really cannot be described as either, because it takes so many aspects from both sides of the industry. The idea of honoring the original story and script while staging it for 360 viewing by the cameras is a part of it I had not even thought about. But so many of these shows have these standard conventions that go along with them that just might not be possible on live TV. Likewise, this platform provides for newer styles and innovations that could only be done in this kind of setting. This is kind of the epitome of temporary art to me. Theatre is like that in the sense that you trash your show after it closes, but they can have very long runs, whereas this will be trashed after one day, and it is likely that the majority of the people who see it will only see it on that one day, which is another new part of it that has to figured in when putting on shows like this.
This new industry of live action theatrical television specials really helps out both the television and theatrical industries. These kinds of performances really help out a whole multitude of people and their audiences. For tv it provides them with known stories and ideas that are successful and widely known and loved. For theatre directors and actors it provides them with a larger stage then they have ever been on for the most part and exposure and work that is of the highest quality in their industry. For their design teams it presents an interesting challenge as they have to follow the plans for something that has very rarely ever been done in practice. The combination of doing a live television theatrical performance that is continually going really presents a challenge especially for shows and performances with different scenes and changes in costume as well as trying to figure out how to do the traditional “magic” moments as we would see on stage but in film where it becomes so much harder to fake out the audience.
The part of this article that really caught my eye was the tree made out of recycled materials because it is a really innovative idea for this piece. It also is budget friendly which I often struggle with when making art. I think that being money savvy can be really cool sometimes and can harm in other times but in this case it really paid off and it looks amazing. I hope that I eventually learn to be smarter with my money and how I use it to pay for projects in the future. I also thought it was interesting when they said that a room can be just a table in a play but not in a film. That really speaks to the different ways people interpret both of these mediums and also how each one has evolved over time. I think that although each has gotten more complicated over time, theater is now returning to a more minimalist style while film is not.
Not usually in new designs are they having to take it from minimalist to more literal, that is like most modern designers worst nightmare, but I love it. I love it because they are not making it super literal, instead they are putting in what is necessary but making it more interesting, and as ways to further inform the story. I also absolutely love the tree, I did not believe that the picture was the one they were describing because at first glance it does not ready as garbage, it reads as something very Dr. Seuss, curvy and whimsical glittering with a little holiday spirit in a rather depressing show. It is also interesting about the planned designs that are being re-incorporated, usually it is always cut cut cut as a show progresses in its life, eventually it is pulled and snipped so much it is totally unrecognizable from the original even if it was not intended to. That is the best way to pay homage to the original, it is already leaning towards Hairspray levels of quality and further away from Christmas Story: the musical, Live.
I’ve been very interested in the newer genre of “live action musical theatre television showings” as I think it’s a very interesting way our society is using technology to make theatre more accessible to the public. I love what the design team came up with for the live-action TV version of RENT—I think they did a great job at combing theatrical design with television design to provide the best experience possible for viewers. I love how they utilized older/used materials instead of buying everything new for the production, and then treating it to look aged. I believe it gives the set and production more integrity when designers take the time to do this, instead of just starting with new materials. I really liked the Christmas tree in particular. Overall, I think the designers did a beautiful job at staying in touch with the time and aesthetic of the piece.
Personally I’m really excited to watch Rent Live later today. It's one of the only times its 100% okay to watch theatre simply in your pj’s. I’ve never seen the entirety of Rent so I’m just that much more excited. Although the best part of Rent Live is not about me, it’s about the non theatre-geek audience who may not be able or willing to shell out the 80-200$ to see the show in person. It’s bringing Rent to a whole new audience, as well as pleasing those who have seen the show many times. To me the production design reflects that. The use of recycled and reclaimed materials throughout the set is modern and eco-friendly reflecting the here and now including concerns about the environment and the emphasis on authenticity, at the same time the use of actually historical elements cements the time period beautifully. I find it fitting that they chose Rent for this year’s Live musical. Rent is a more pop-oriented musical than the past choices. Almost everyone knows it’s most popular song “seasons of love” even if they have no idea what the show is about. Overall Rent live is gonna be steller and I’m all here for it.
I really enjoy hearing about the designs and behind-the-scenes efforts for these kinds of shows- theatre performed on live TV is a really interesting concept that has gained traction in the past few years. I liked the attention that the designers put into their choices for this set! I agree that it’s difficult to take a typically very minimal design and adapt it for television, which is normally very realistic, but from what they’ve said in the article I think they struck a good balance between staying true to the ideas of the show and the script and between making choices that work for both TV and theatre. One interesting aspect of live TV theatre is that it often ends up confusing audiences that are used to normal TV- the live version of A Christmas Story from last year is a good example of this. A lot of audience members ended up disappointed because they were comparing it to either the movie or the Broadway show, while in reality it was something totally different. Hopefully Rent doesn’t run into similar problems- I’m excited to see it!
I love article like this sort of highlighting a line of theatre and film. It is such an interesting place because film usually has to be detailed and when on the screen, audiences don’t usually accept having to disbelieve or be okay with nuances that aren’t quite right while in theatre the audiences are ready to disbelieve and let things go. While I don’t know why this is it is a known fact and so this area of mixing is odd because it looks like theatre and feels like theatre but also has the detail of film due to it being filmed and accommodates for such covering many more angles than in theatre. While it is weird, it is so unique in that people disbelieve and stretch their imagination and on top of that, I enjoy it. Many people do enjoy it, there is a sort of quality to it that you don’t have with theatre that must exist because of the lack of qualities that would make it theatre. One day if I worked on something like this, I would be quite happy mainly because I would have to think to make sure it fits theatre but on camera which just sounds like a fuzzy clarity.
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