“It is the biggest set I’ve ever done and probably one of the bigger sets ever done on Broadway,” said scenic designer Beowulf Boritt of his Tony Award-winning creation for “New York, New York.” “The musical has a sprawling ambition, so the design had to match that.”
Boritt, along with the production’s Tony-nominated lighting and sound designers, Ken Billington and Kai Harada, respectively, created NYC of 1946 on an approximately 41-by-40-foot proscenium Broadway stage. “It’s attempting to take you on a trip through New York City,” Boritt explained. To accomplish that for an audience of New Yorkers took a year of conversations between director-choreographer Susan Stroman and her design team.
“There was an incredible amount of research into what was here at the time, but also doing it in a way that would resonate with modern New Yorkers,” Boritt added. “New York, New York” portrays 70 locations (“A normal musical has 10,” Boritt said).
