Three-time Tony-winner Eugene Lee was at his home office in Rhode Island, contemplating a scenic design career that has spanned almost five decades—his first Broadway production was Wilson In The Promised Land in 1970. Ten years later, he designed the premiere production of Sweeney Todd, with a half dozen other shows on the Great White Way in between. After another dozen, including the original version of Ragtime and a revival of Show Boat, Lee designed the sets for Wicked in 2003, and close to another dozen since. Wicked is of course still running, celebrating its 15th anniversary in New York and on the road.
But Lee wasn’t thinking about Broadway, or the national tour of Wicked, when we chatted; rather, he was reflecting on a project he referred to as “Barry Diller’s island,” a public park designed by British architect Thomas Heatherwick, to be built on pilings in the Hudson River off the shores of Manhattan, with causeways to get to there. “After several lawsuits, we thought the project was sunk, then there was an article in The New York Times that said it was starting up again,” says Lee, who notes the project could open in about three years. “There will be an 800-seat theatre and other spaces, and would be a fun place to do Show Boat again,” muses the designer. “A theatre in the Hudson, if that’s not a good location for Show Boat…”
As Wicked hits 15, I asked Lee what makes it so successful. “I don’t know,” he says, “but whatever it is…The show opened on Broadway to mixed reviews. I said to my theatrical lawyer, ‘What do you think,’ and he thought maybe two years. When it first opened in San Francisco, it sold out right away from word of mouth. Then in New York, there is something very special—people connect to it in a special way…We made changes for the best when we moved to Broadway. When it opened in London, they said a few years. Wrong again!”
Lee notes that Wicked has been kept in great shape both on Broadway and on the road: “A lot of shows go on the road and aren’t kept in good shape. The producers and management care about Wicked. I have my office in Rockefeller Center, so I stroll down and take a peek in the door from time to time. The set was built in Canada, and it has worn very well, such as the deck made of solid maple, which has taken on a good look. You couldn’t ask for better distressing. I hope they take the show to China. I’d love to go with it.”
Which brings us to Rockefeller Center. Lee has more than just an office there; he has been the scenic designer for Saturday Night Live since the beginning in 1974. “It started before some of the people in my office were born,” Lee points out. “I also did The Tonight Show, which I liked with its little buildings, the brick. SNL is very simple from my point of view. There is read-through scheduled at 3pm on Wednesday. We read the scripts, and they decide what they want to produce. It’s a great show for writers, and they come to us for sets,” says Lee.
“We draft in the old-fashioned way. We talk to actors, writers, directors, get as much info as we can get, and draft by hand. If lucky, we get out by midnight,” explains the designer. “Then, we come in early Thursday and do the music set, go on camera at 1pm, rehearse the music, do promos, and then little sketches without the scenery, still being built, but put some flats up so they know how big it is, where the doors are…”
Lee recalls that he used to use Thursday night to have a nice dinner. “Now we seem to go later,” he says. “We stop around 9pm or 10pm. When we come in the next day, Friday, we have painters, and scenery has arrived from the shop and set up by the night crew, a holdover from live television days. They save up a lot of time, and they are great and will fix things if we make mistakes. On Friday, the producer has a meeting once we go off-camera, and he talks to the heads of departments, to make sure everyone is on the same page. By now, there are a lot of costumes and makeup and some last-minute things. The monologue is written at the last minute, for example. Then on Saturday, we do the equivalent of a tech rehearsal. That’s the first time the executive producer has seen it. Then there is a dress rehearsal at 8pm with an audience.”
SNL does 22 shows a year, two shows then a week off, with new sets for the Olympics and Super Bowl this year, keeping Lee and the design team busy. But after the dress rehearsal, Lee’s driver picks him up at 30 Rock, just as the show begins. “I leave a few designers in case there is a problem,” Lee says. “I get home in Rhode Island and stay there until Wednesday, when I take the Acela by 1pm and stay at the Yale Club. It’s nice to have a club in New York.”
A fun design for SNL was the rolling lectern for the Sean Spicer spoofs with Melissa McCarthy, built by Monkey Boys Productions, a frequent set provider for Lee. “We had to make it light enough so she could move it. When it came into the audience, we got lightweight chairs that wouldn’t hurt anyone,” Lee says. “They took it on the road. When something works, work it.”
Lee’s debut with SNL, almost 45 years ago, came as a surprise. “I was living on my sailboat in RI, and they called me and said we have a Canadian producer who wants to meet you. I didn’t know much about TV. But the sets sit on little stages, and I think my contribution was the overall layout of the studio. We have the best stage crew ever,” says Lee. “Originally, I had a crew that did live television. Now we have their ‘children’ and a lot of new writers, which is kind of great. Lorne is a great producer, and we always try to please him, but he doesn’t think scenery should get in the way!”
Lorne is of course Loren Michaels, the producer for SNL who is also thinking beyond the set these days. “He has a lot of land in Maine, thousands of acres of wild blueberries,” notes Lee. “I was in his office about something, and he had a photo on his cell phone, but didn’t know what I was looking at. He bought machines that make pencils, and I said ‘That’s really interesting.’ He responded, ‘You could run my pencil factory.’ He’s always had a thing for pencils. I had dinner up there and can tell you there’s not much up there in northern Maine, so I built a little house up there so I’d have a place to stay in case I run the pencil factory.”
Having also worked for Trinity Rep in Providence, near his home in RI, for 50 years, Lee is currently designing a production of Ragtime with just 14 people in the cast, as well as for Pier 55. “I am building a model with Patrick Lynch, who has worked with me for 17 years, for Pier 55. I want to have a carousel that you pedal, based on a vintage French carousel, but I want to build one from scratch, using LED lights with small generators to make the energy, right in the hub of the wheels. I try to have fun. I try to have a good time,” says Lee, who also enjoys long relationships with his colleagues. “Like forever,” he quips.
