David Gallo has been designing scenery for live entertainment for 25 years. He won the 2006 Tony Award for The Drowsy Chaperone, and his work as the original set designer for August Wilson’s later plays garnered him two additional Tony nominations. Broadway shows he designed in the current season include A Catered Affair, Xanadu and Company. Recently, David was selected to represent American set design at The Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial and his work is part of the national archive at The Smithsonian Institute.

1) The fantastic convention of The Drowsy Chaperone is that this lavish spoof of the escapist musicals of the 1920s literally bursts to life in a lonely man’s drab New York apartment. The audience is completely transported and enraptured by the wacky story because of your — as one critic  put it  — “yummy eye candy”. What inspired you when creating the look of the show?

When I first read the script I was struck with one thought: “I know this guy!” I have an old friend that is obsessed with undiscovered musicals. William spends hours in his apartment listening to obscure recordings (on vinyl of course) of long lost works and has an encyclopedic knowledge of musical theater in general. He has always been my “go to guy” for theatrical things that might have drifted into the mists of time. In addition he has lived in the same Hells Kitchen apartment for over 30 years: long before that Theater District neighborhood became the fashionable enclave it is now.

My first stop was a visit to his rustically appointed apartment. Trusty camera and sketch book in tow I documented the remarkable details available there.

The obscure posters and photographs on the wall.  The scraps of long forgotten scores and theatrical designs literally stacked to the decaying ceiling. The pieces of elegant drapery hung over peeling paint and antique furniture.  There was even a bathtub right in the middle of the kitchen!  (which is a detail that is mostly lost in this newly renovated neighborhood.)

In William’s old apartment I found a mine of long forgotten beauty and Broadway history and that is where I started my work.

2) Gorgeous, stylized sets drop from the rafters, furniture and set pieces rise up from the stage. What were the challenges, logistically, with the scenic elements?

Once I had established the look of the apartment as the “container” of the show I was free to allow the 20’s period scenery to intrude. The challenge was twofold: how to pace the transformation of the drab apartment into the “magnificent world” of  “The Drowsy Chaperone”, and what exactly would this 20’s musical actually look like…

The scenery for the fictitious musical “Drowsy” is as old fashioned as I could manage within a modern stage. I drew upon the work of Joseph Urban, a classic designer from the 20’s, for the bulk of the show. His painterly look combined with old school techniques split the right balance between historic beauty and new age stagecraft. It was my desire to adapt the style of a great designer with the needs of a modern musical.  I avoided all the modern high tech solutions currently available in favor of techniques that would have been common to a designer in the 20’s.

3) Characters enter from the most unusual places in the tiny flat. Was director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw more involved in the design and implementation of the sets than directors of other shows you’ve designed?

Casey and I wanted the transformation to be motivated from the apartment itself. That is why the actors make their entrance from the dirty refrigerator center stage. A link between the drab world of the man and the fantastic world of the ‘play” was desired by both of us.

 I have a framed letter over my desk that I wrote to my grandmother when I was around 12 or 13. In the letter I am describing how I just “joined a new club at school that puts on plays and I am learning to be on the stage crew and help make the scenes and create lights and sound effects”.

I guess that letter is pretty much the earliest piece of evidence that this was to be my future.

You see I was bitten by the design bug in middle school when the Drama Club director there showed me that theatrical design was a fusion of all the creative impulses that I was struggling with at that time. His focus showed me a specific discipline that was natural to me and my talents.

5) Do you design with pen/pencil and paper or on a computer?

I am a paper and pencil kind of guy. I find I can do more with the traditional tools and they keep me honest. The great artist Bob Ross coined the term “happy accident” and I would defy you to find a working designer that did not benefit from those “mistakes”.

It’s not that I avoid the computer work, and we as a studio are devoted to our machines, but in the end I always feel I get the best results with nothing more than a pencil, paper, brush and paint. I leave it to my assistants to transfer the work into the digital age.

6) Who or what has inspired you?

This is always a difficult question. When you stand on the shoulders of giants, the pyramid becomes huge at the bottomless pit of influence. Inspiration comes from so many angles. As a set designer, I have my direct debts to the great ones of the past 100 years: Mielziner, Aronson, Jones.

Primarily I am influenced by music. The work of the great Blues masters and other American artists allows me to free myself to do what needs to be done.

7) When not designing a show, you teach Scuba Diving and your passion is Shipwreck Exploration. What is it about exploring Shipwrecks that floats your boat?

The exploration of shipwrecks allows me to directly view history in its most raw form. As a part of a team that has dedicated itself to solving the mysteries of uncharted wrecks I have a direct contact with the past. The wrecks we dive are unknown. Most are war relics. I enjoy the mystery.

8) Who first turned you on to diving?

My wife Sarah was the first to turn me on to recreational diving. I moved on to more technical diving after a few years.

9) Have you referred to a particular wreck or diving experience when designing a show?

I was happy to add an underwater scene to the second “Blues Clues” show for Nickelodeon.

10) Is there any relation between you and Oceanographer Dr. David Gallo of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, another pioneer in ocean exploration?

No, but I did write a fan letter to him a few month’s ago. He was kind enough to write back. I think if we had the chance we would change places for a while.

The Drowsy Chaperone production photos by Joan Marcus

Other photos courtesy of David Gallo Design

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