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Joan Marcus
Joan Marcus
Joan Marcus
LD Kevin Adams uses lighting to give a visual semblance of
cinematic close-ups and wide shots on the Broadway stage.
Shown here, Jennifer Ferrin and Sam Robards.
Monochromatic lighting frames a farcical moment shared by Arnie Burton, Cliff Saunders and Sam Robards.
Left to right: The entire cast of The 39 Steps: Sam Robards, Arnie Burton, Cliff
Saunders and Jennifer Ferrin.
framing works well in scenes with the minimalist
“sets,” and they help draw away from
the fact that they have little dressing.
“I like that scene where Hannay takes that
woman that he meets back to his place because
it’s very film noir and high contrast and
has shafts of light,” remarks Adams. “It’s full of
intrigue. That scene is not as humorous as the
other scenes, so it’s not as brightly lit and is a little
more mysterious. It was all fun to do. I hadn’t
had much experience with as many different
kinds of smoke as the show needs, so at times
during those train sections there are seven different
kinds of smoke machines going, from tiny
little machines that you can hold in your hand to
a big thing the size of a VW. I just don’t have the
patience for that kind of thing, getting all those
things to work the way they should and at the
times they should. That was a lot of tech.”
Adams says he learned a lot more about
smoke on this show. It began at the Huntington
Theatre in Boston, moved to the
Roundabout Theatre in New York, then soon
transferred to the Cort Theatre, where it now
resides. “Doing that at the Roundabout was
tricky because they have a complicated air
system in their renovated theatre,” the lighting
designer remarks. “It’s one of those contemporary
theatres where the air intake is above
the stage, so you’re trying to have smoke flow
down beneath the air handlers, but it just gets
sucked right up. It’s really hard to get smoke
into that stage area because you have to force
it down, and it clears out very, very quickly. So
it was a delight to go to the Cort Theatre, which
doesn’t have that kind of an air system.”
Low Budget Illusion
In terms of set adjustments, Adams notes
that the Roundabout and the Cort are similar
in size. “We had to get a little larger with our
show with the Roundabout, which probably
didn’t help too much, so we were able to go
back to the less wide production at the Cort
that we had done at the Huntington. At the
Roundabout I had three Vari*Lites that I used
for all these different specials. I cut those VLs
for the Cort because I had more room for
specials, and I just wanted to keep the front
of house as simple as possible because I was
hoping we would be in there for a while.”
Ultimately a lot of time and effort went into
creating the illusion that The 39 Steps was a lowbudget
production. It’s not like Adams just put
up a couple of lights. He sums up his philosophy
on the show: “It’s building out of different kinds
of effects and constantly, in that three-walled
empty set, finding different ways to tell stories
or to keep the audience on their toes just to
keep the production moving along.”
Anyone who has seen The 39 Steps on
Broadway will not soon forget its frenetic
comic energy, intense lighting, effects and
lively performances.
2008 NOVEMBER PLSN
21