Broadway exhibits have gotten embarrassingly cheap-looking

There’s a miserable sight that New York theatergoers have gotten all too accustomed to: a brick wall behind the stage. 

Welcome to Broadway! Please benefit from the naked minimal!

Scenic downsizing is all the craze in Midtown for a spread of causes — skyrocketing prices, chilly ideas, fast turnarounds. Consequently, storied homes are morphing into college black packing containers; exhibits into showcases; dramas into drab-a-thons.

How unhappy. Set design, an artwork that’s all the time been important to conjuring Broadway’s incomparable magic, is being handled like an opulent need fairly than a primary want for a memorable night time out. 

Eye-popping decor has been stripped away, and irritated audiences are nonetheless being charged prime greenback prefer it hasn’t.

Have a look at what’s onstage proper now — or, extra precisely, at what isn’t.

We’ve bought an unfurnished “Doll’s Home” starring Oscar winner Jessica Chastain (top ticket $299), which options just a few chairs positioned on a turntable that’s lit like a hospital broom closet. 

The no-frills revival of the musical “Parade” (top ticket $297), which started as a Metropolis Middle Encores live performance, has only a raised platform surrounded by lamps and extra chairs. 

The return of the Bob Fosse revue “Dancin’” (top ticket $297) has a projection display and some steel towers — applicable for jazz arms, however flimsy all the identical.

“Into the Woods,” one other Metropolis Middle live performance that has since closed on the St. James Theater and gone on tour, had some picket steps and easy birch tree trunks, as a result of the principle occasion was its sizable 15-person orchestra and stars resembling Sara Bareilles and Patina Miller.

In the meantime, “& Juliet” (top ticket $323), a jukebox musical comedy from London that includes Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys songs, is glitzier than the above, goes to a number of locales and options garish lighting, however remains to be designed to seem like a bricky rehearsal area.

In all places you look, there’s nothing.

That’s to not say these exhibits are all unhealthy. Some are sensational, others aren’t. However collectively, fixed minimalism is a drag. I can’t recall a Broadway season up to now 15 years that was so aesthetically non-existent.

At first, streamlining is a novel trick, and also you rationalize it to your companion. “I might actually hear the lyrics this time!” you say with somewhat an excessive amount of enthusiasm. 

However right here we’re midway by way of the season, and I can’t assist however really feel that I’ve taken a unsuitable flip into the car parking zone of an Ace {Hardware}, the place I’m surrounded by unpainted plywood and diverse metals with none soul or viewpoint.

Will the upcoming “Dangerous Cinderella,” “Shucked” and “New York, New York” rescue us from our chair-and-air infestation? I hope so. Broadway’s imagery is each bit as important as its songs and speeches. 

Whether or not the impact is large (Santo Loquasto’s choo-choo prepare arriving in “Whats up, Dolly!” or Kelli O’Hara crusing into Siam on Michael Yeargan’s ship in “The King and I”) or small (Daniel Ostling’s emotional pool of water in “Metamorphoses,” the “Sesame Road”-style neighborhood in “Avenue Q”), surroundings is a serious cause we’re transported, moved, tickled and excitedly speaking when the present is over.

Whereas most Broadway performs and musicals that began their runs after theaters reopened have struggled to achieve a foothold on the field workplace within the wake of the pandemic, fashionable productions resembling “Depraved,” “The Lion King,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Moulin Rouge!” have thrived.

Folks chalk up their continued success to them being well-known manufacturers, however in addition they ship sumptuously theatrical experiences. Audiences need units!

And but placing visuals have develop into the area of opera homes and Las Vegas, each of which cost comparable costs to Broadway. And different world cities are additionally one-upping us.

The projection-heavy play “Lifetime of Pi,” which has simply come to Broadway from London, is a feast for the eyes (if not the thoughts) and the West Finish musical “Again to the Future,” whereas just about “Star Excursions” at Disney World, will park a cool flying DeLorean on the Winter Backyard Theatre this summer season.

Final October in London, I additionally caught the Royal Shakespeare Firm’s unbelievable “My Neighbour Totoro,” whose huge puppets and sprawling units have been extra dazzling than any post-pandemic manufacturing in New York to date.

Final month, set designer Eugene Lee died at age 83. Over his lengthy profession, the person created the surroundings for Stephen Sondheim’s authentic “Sweeney Todd” on the Gershwin (then the Uris) in 1979 and “Depraved” in 2003, which performs the identical theater at this time.

Once you shut your eyes and movie Idina Menzel within the air clutching Elphaba’s broom, or Angela Lansbury within the pie store wielding Mrs. Lovett’s rolling pin, your vivid reminiscence exists partly due to Lee’s genius.

A long time down the road, if you attempt to nostalgically envision the exhibits you caught in the course of the 2022-23 Broadway season, you’ll battle — as a result of there’s not a lot to see.