Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

104 Chapter 5 Designers and Technicians
5. Pask’s design for the Broadway 2015 Something Rotten, a musical farce about musicals—and William Shakespeare
as a young playwright—consisted mainly of 17 painted drops, mostly based on what he called a “Tudor ghetto”—a
“downtrodden collage of Tudor buildings and a theater at the center of it.” Here, Christian Borle plays Shakespeare
for a crowd of Elizabethan spectators while on a platform surrounded by medieval lanterns. © Joan Marcus
6. “The real star of the show is Scott Pask’s astounding set . . . so solid and hyper-real you can almost smell the sun
hitting the asphalt,” said one review of Pask’s design for Pulitzer finalist Lisa D’Amour’s Airline Highway, set in a
rundown hotel in New Orleans. The play’s 23 actors, directed by Joe Mantello, include hookers, addicts, beatniks,
and strippers. The play was initially produced by the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago; it re-opened in New York in
2015. (reviewer: Hugh Iglarish, Newcity Stage) © Michael Brosilow