#84 - Derek McLane & Eila Mell: Designing Broadway

Tony and Emmy Winning Production Designer Derek McLane and Eila
Mell have come together to create the new hit book Designing
Broadway, available wherever books are sold! This episode is
incredible for all artists – especially theatre designers who are
beginning to explore their multi-hyphenate identities. 
Together with other leading set design and theatre talents, McLane
invites us into the immersive and exhilarating experience of
building the striking visual worlds that have brought so many of
our favorite stories to life. Discover how designers generate
innovative ideas, research period and place, solve staging
challenges, and collaborate with directors, projectionists, costume
designers, and other artists to capture the essence of a show in
powerful scenic design. With co-writer Eila Mell, McLane and
contributors discuss Moulin Rouge!, Hamilton, Hadestown, Beautiful,
and many more of the most iconic productions of our generation.
Among the Broadway luminaries who contribute are John Lee Beatty,
Danny Burstein, Cameron Crowe, Ethan Hawke, Moisés Kaufman, Carole
King, Kenny Leon, Santo Loquasto, Kathleen Marshall, Lynn Nottage,
David Rabe, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Wallace Shawn, John Leguizamo,
and Robin Wagner. Filled with personal sketches and photographs
from the artists’ archives, this stunningly designed book is truly
a behind-the-scenes journey that theatre fans will love. Derek
McLane is an Emmy and Tony Award winning production designer for
Broadway and television, who’s nearly 350 designs include: Broadway
credits such as MJ, The Michael Jackson Musical, Moulin Rouge!
(Tony Award), A Soldier’s Play (Tony Nomination), American Son,
Parisian Woman, The Price, Beautiful, Fully Committed, Noises Off,
Gigi, 33 Variations (with Jane Fonda) (Tony Award), China Doll
(with Al Pacino), How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying
(with Daniel Radcliffe), Follies, Anything Goes, Bengal Tiger at
the Baghdad Zoo (with Robin Williams), Ragtime, The Pajama Game, I
Am My Own Wife. Off-Broadway: Buried Child, Jerry Springer The
Opera, Merrily We Roll Along, The Spoils, If I Forget, Love, Love,
Love; The Night of the Iguana, Sweet Charity, Buried Child, Into
the Woods, Ruined, The Last Five Years, Television 6 years of
Academy Awards, NBC Musicals: The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, The
Wiz & Hairspray. Derek is the Chairman of the Board of The New
Group Theatre. His many awards include: 2 Tony Awards, 2 Emmy’s, 2
Obie’s, 2 Drama Desks, 3 Lucille Lortel Awards, and 3 Art Directors
Guild Awards. @derekmclane Eila Mell is the author of Designing
Broadway as well as the official guide to the hit television series
Project Runway, titled Project Runway: The Show That Changed
Fashion. Among her other books are New York Fashion Week and, with
Ty Hunter, Makeover from Within: Lessons in Hardship, Acceptance,
and Self-Discovery. Mell has been featured in the New York Times,
Marie Claire, Glamour, and CBS’s The Insider, as well as in the
documentary Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s. She is the co-host of
the podcast Jiffy Pop Culture with comedian Frank Liotti. @eilamell
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