So I have done technical theatre for over 8 years in High School and College, including other theatres around Indianapolis. However, none of the theatres have a feature Broadway stages have: the ability for the stages to move up and down. This has shown in The Lion King and Paramour. This also includes part of the set under the stage floor that rose.
So in these theatres, I was wondering what type of machinery raised these stage floors and normally how much space is available under the stage.
There are numerous ways stages move. Most shows have a deck that is built over the existing stage that contain numerous tracks and pulley systems which allows sets to track on and off the stage. If you are talking about Stages rising this is done with platforms/decks built on hydrolic lifts, much like elevators. Sometimes a stage can be built and lowered in the orchestra pit. Someday you should take a backstage tour of Radio City Music Hall. They have a massive set up.
Most broadway houses have 9' to 10' of height in the crossover space below the stage. If you look down into the orchestra pit you'll see a depth of 7' to 8' from the stage and usually there are steps from there leading down another couple of feet to the crossover space. If the show has lots of wagons winched on and off stage, often those winches are anchored below in the crossover space too.
I remember in the tour they explained that they used the design for the military to raise the decks on ships to launch planes. For a while there, Radio City Musical Hall was declared a military secret to make sure the technology did not fall into the wrong hands
But there were a lot of rules in WWII that had more to do with making civilians "feel" like they were involved in the war effort. Like the blackout drills my parents and grandparents enjoyed in Wichita. (No Japanese or German plane carried enough fuel to get to Wichita and back.)
The Japanese already had ship elevators in their aircraft carriers. The Battle of Midway was won by the Americans in part because the Japanese admiral kept changing his mind as to whether his planes should carry torpedoes or bombs. Each change involved putting the planes on elevators where they were lowered to the deck that did the rearming. So I don't know what they were hiding at RCMH.
. The 80-year-old hydraulic elevators beneath the Great Stage are perfect just the way they are. The theater has received a number of technological upgrades—3-D projection, a gigantic LCD screen and, back in 1980, a full renovation. But during that overhaul of the theater, engineers could find no reason to change the original hydraulic lifts beneath the stage, which were so advanced when they were first built that the US Navy imitated them in its aircraft carriers during World War II and had personnel guard the facilities at Radio City to prevent the enemy from learning their secrets.
Clicking on the link in the article takes u to a New York Times confirmation.
I said I didn't doubt the claim was made on the tour and might even be true in terms of the posting of a guard. What I questioned was the need to protect elevator tech- nology from the Japanese, who had their own elevators on their own carriers. Such as the one at at the link below, which was converted from a battleship be- ginning in 1942.
I remember when SUNSET BOULEVARD opened in London and in the states there was much written about their ascending /descending stages - as though it was something rather new. What was ait about SB that it got so much attention in the mid 90s?
In regards to Sunset, I think it’s because the mansion set - which was massive - lifted to reveal the sets underneath, which was quite impressive as it was essentially the entire stage. And to this day, I don’t think we have seen a show as massive.
Side discussion: how do water tanks work on stage? Such as for Tiffany's Glass Menagerie that was at the Booth? Or even Harry Potter and the Cursed Child where the actors actually are immersed in it?
Tiffany’s Menagerie was actually some kind of black goop, not water. And in Harry Potter - I can’t remember - do we actually see them submerged? I think it’s just a pool of water under the stage that I’m sure is cleaned and filled everyday.
I’m more curious about Let The Right One In that had the actor submerged in a giant pool in front of us. I’m sure it’s like a pool where they put cleaners etc in it.
GavestonPS said: "I said I didn't doubt the claim was made on the tour and might even be true in terms of the posting of a guard. What I questioned was the need to protect elevator tech- nology from the Japanese, who had their own elevators on their own carriers. Such as the one at at the link below, which was converted from a battleship be- ginning in 1942.
Where in their initial post did they mention the Japanese???
In our millions, in our billions, we are most powerful when we stand together. TW4C unwaveringly joins the worldwide masses, for we know our liberation is inseparably bound.
Signed,
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/statement
After a show leaves a theatre and the show cut up the theatres deck for lifts, do they replace the deck?
In our millions, in our billions, we are most powerful when we stand together. TW4C unwaveringly joins the worldwide masses, for we know our liberation is inseparably bound.
Signed,
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/statement
^Usually the theatre's actual deck is removable, and/or removable in sections. So the trapped areas of the stage already exit. There is a steel understructure that holds up the actual deck. The show deck is placed on top of the actual deck and/or the actual deck is removed in sections, with the show deck replacing those sections.
Call_me_jorge said: "After a show leaves a theatre and the show cut up the theatres deck for lifts, do they replace the deck?"
I think it depends on the show. If I remember correctly, the producers of Billy Elliot put something like $1 million in a locked account for use when the show closed in order to renovate the Imperial back to how it was previously.
The troubled broadway production was never going to exactly duplicate the original production. The staircase and the fire were going to be (they are both central to the plot) but I'm pretty sure they weren't going to excavate under the Broadhurst, so no sinking into the basement. I sort of remember a proposed London production was cancelled after they started to dig down in the basement of the the theatre to accommodate the staircase and hit water. That staircase has a mind of its own and is not to be messed with
Yes it was a 3 million dollar effect that was axed for Broadway (before the whole show was!). You can read about it and the Shaftesbury excavation here.
RippedMan said: "In regards to Sunset, I think it’s because the mansion set - which was massive - lifted to reveal the sets underneath, which was quite impressive as it was essentially the entire stage. And to this day, I don’t think we have seen a show as massive."
Thank You for the response. I remember when I saw the show on B'way in 1996, and the mansion was rising everyone in the audience seemed to gasp. That really was a massive stage and in retrospect, it did take away from the musical itself.