ANDY DRACHENBERG: How did you first explore designing Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill?
JAMES NOONE: Lonny and I actually did a version of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill about 6 years ago at the Long Wharf Theatre. A lot of the ideas used for this Broadway production have grown out of the Long Wharf production. It was sort of our out-of-town try-out.
AD: As the project worked its way towards Broadway performances, what were the opportunities you had as a designer?
JN: Well, we were fortunate enough to get the Circle in the Square Theatre, which is a different experience than working in a typical proscenium Broadway theatre. We were actually able to take one of the characters (the audience) and make that a real visceral part of the show. We tried to find Emerson’s Bar and Grill with what was already at Circle in the Square. The floor of the stage is rather large and is almost the size of what Emerson’s would actually have been, so we’re able to have tables and chairs for audience members in a space that’s just like it would have been.
AD: What challenges were posed by having an on-stage band and an in-the-round audience?
JN: Lonny and I walked around the space and found the best spot to have Audra McDonald connect with the audience – the spot that she would be most central for everybody. We tried all sorts of different locations in the theatre, but what it came down to was that Audra has to have a relationship with the band and with the people sitting in the club on the main floor. The challenge with the band is that Audra McDonald and the musicians all have to be able to see each other and connect with each other to play together, while ensuring they look attractive to the audience. It would seem like a simple set-up, but how we position the piano so Shelton (who plays Jimmy) can see the drummer and the bass player and still be available to the rest of the audience was just one thing that was a little tricky.
AD: Was it difficult to create a set where audience members interact with the design and scenery?
JN: It was important that the set feel real to the audience. We integrated real objects into the set, even though they’re scenic pieces. The railings feel authentic to the setting, the bandstand is what a real stage in a club would be- it’s real linoleum; it’s real wood under the piano. I think it would have been more difficult if we had tried to create scenery in Circle in the Square versus Emerson’s.
AD: What liberties were you able to take in a world that is so based in reality and made to feel “real?”
JN: Lonny and I have been working together for almost 14 years now. We have done a lot of work in this style: Sweeney Todd and Passion… and we try to integrate all aspects of a theatrical event in a way that is not a traditional way of seeing a play: involving the audience, making it alive in the room. So we’ve developed this vocabulary which easily translated into this piece. I also worked a lot in Philadelphia in the early 80’s, and went into a lot of these club that were still hanging on off North Broadway. I had a sense of what they felt like, so I was able to bring that feeling into that aspect of the design.
JAMES NOONE (Scenic Designer). Broadway: A Time to Kill, Match, A Bronx Tale, A Class Act, Jekyll & Hyde (original), The Gin Game, The Rainmaker, The Sunshine Boys, Inherit the Wind, and others. Off-Broadway: Juno and the Paycock, In Masks Outrageous and Austere, Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, Three Tall Women, Full Gallop, Fully Committed, Ruthless, A Bronx Tale. Other: Live from Lincoln Center and many opera productions. Awards: Drama Desk, American Theatre Wing Design Award, two Helen Hayes Awards, and La Ovation.