Inventive Technology and Broadway

Galinda's Magic Flying Bubble

So for this assignment we are required to look at the Stage Door blog and find seven examples of technology used in creative ways. I found quite a few myself, some questionable and some obvious.

I cannot view the individual Wicked link because my Internet connection is too slow for HD video. However, I saw Wicked when it was at the Straz Center (before it was the Straz Center). Wicked is one of the most mechanized musicals I have ever seen! The facade framing the stage was a huge glowing dragon that started to move during the overture. The backdrop was, at the opening, a projected map of Oz. Glinda has a huge industrial-themed magic bubble that she rides down from the sky! People fly, monkeys fly, everything flies!

I could go on, but there are more shows to cover. 

Elphaba "Defying Gravity"

Dragon and Map of Oz

In the West Side Story revival at the Tony Awards, the crew used red lighting for Mambo and Blue for the slow dance between Maria and Tony. Lighting is an easily overlooked form of technology. (The color change can be seen at 2:20.)

Now let's look at the La Cage Aux Folles revivals from 2004. I don't know if this is considered technology, but the giant cage skirt that the drag queen is wearing contained all the other women (0:25). Very cool! This was definitely reminiscent of The Nutcracker.

For the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof, film is the interesting technology. The director uses the media to show us the entire town in new depth, to have real locations instead of just the changing of sets (0:20). We also get "smaller" acting. This does not mean that the actors are less talented, but that their facial gestures can be seen clearly on film (0:49 – 1:00). The camera has always been a special medium that brings us in closer, to a more personal level than theater, where everything must be huge in order to be seen.


In Mary Poppins there is of course the fact that Mary flies throughout the show, even over the audience (0:45, 0:55, 2:22, and so on). There are magical things that Mary does to make objects “move by themselves”, so a lot of the sets are fully mechanized. In the clips you see a giant moving umbrella (2:55). Also, the skyline is most likely projected upon or backlit (3:26).


Admittedly I watched the How to Succeed in Business clip because I wanted to see Daniel Radcliffe sing and dance. (Singing, pretty decent – dancing, great.) In the background of this swanky sixties set we have glowing oval light panels that change color throughout the dance scene. (No specific time.)

In A Chorus Line, the mirrors in the back rotate to reveal a decorated mirror on the opposite side (0:30, 1:25).

Adios. Time to review my notes on Der Rosenkavalier and finish this paper already.