At one point in one's life, one should do a A Christmas Carol, says eminent set designer Ming Cho Lee. Evidently Lee has arrived at this precise point in his long and distinguished career. Lee's artistic vision - one that has brought him accolades for almost half a century - will frame McCarter Theater's brand new production of Charles Dickens' classic story, celebrating the 20th year that the perennial favorite has been presented in Princeton. Performances continue at McCarter to Thursday, December 24.
Lee is frank about how challenging he finds this production of A Christmas Carol.:
"There's a lot of story to tell, and there are so many things in the play that are magic driven," he says. "I felt very strongly from the beginning that A Christmas Carol is not a very pretty show. The journey that Scrooge takes in order to become a more humane human being presents him as a product of his time. The Industrial Revolution is shown at its worst - with the exploitation of children and people starving. It's a very dark period. I wanted the darkness of this time to be reflected in my designs." He's willing to admit that his conception may, indeed, be darker than other productions.
Lee says there's a saying in contemporary theater that "a good set designer is sometimes the best dramaturg." It is the designers, not the actors, he explains, who initially meet with the director to decide the show's approach. "We ask ourselves: `What is the point of view? Is it contemporary or set in another period? What statement do we want to make? And what is the payoff of the show?"
When I asked what exactly he wants his sets to convey to the audience when the curtain rises, I didn't expect the answer I received: "I want my sets to look good." Elaborating further, Lee explains that conveying the spirit of the piece is primary, and reducing the design from being totally decorative to express the essence of the piece helps to make a total world in which all the events take place.
At 70 years of age, Lee remains active as both designer and teacher. Born in Shanghai, the New York resident won the coveted Tony Award for his awesome set for K2, and served from 1962 to 1973 as the principal designer for the New York Shakespeare Festival. He teaches at Yale, where he has been professor of design and co-chairman of the design department at the Yale School of Drama since 1970.
Although he says he loves designing for Broadway (shows that include the Tony-nominated, but lasting-only-one night Billy, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Shadow Box, and another legendary one-nighter, La Strada), Lee has received most accolades for his settings for the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, and New York City Opera. These, as well as for his designs for the dance companies of Jose Limon, Martha Graham, Gerald Arpino, and Alvin Ailey, have made Lee one of the most influential designers in the United States.
"I believe that your work is informed by your life experience, and your life experiences are informed by your work," says Lee, conceptualizing life as a circle. He talks about how different a designer he would be if he were not a teacher. "Teaching sharpens my work, keeps me on my toes. Teaching forces me to be aware of what's going on and what's in other designers' minds. But, if I didn't design professionally I would be less of a teacher."
Having earned the title "Dean of Designers," Lee isn't above expressing his concerns regarding the production during a lively phone conversation. "It's a very difficult show to design," says Lee. "There is a lot of magic that I am required to deal with, and I hate it."
After years of seeing other productions, he say he was never really frightened by Scrooge. "I saw this horrible production at Madison Square Garden that is all about people flying and musical numbers. This is not doing Dickens justice," he says. Yet he concedes that there are, indeed, a lot of ghosts that need to appear and disappear. You can be sure that Lee's disdain for the usual stage magic has inspired him to create magical elements that we haven't seen or dreamt of before. Lee also expresses concern over whether this big production is straining McCarter's resources. Considering his wide experience designing for opera, it is hardly surprising to hear him say, "I hate designing a huge production that could bankrupt a theater." He then candidly adds, "They are having a hard time getting it done."
Like all anxiety-plagued artists, he worries about the shortage of available labor and the time remaining before opening night. A little cautious about all the things left to do in a short time, Lee thinks that audiences will probably see a more complete production of Carol next year.
"Every theater that attempts to do A Christmas Carol discovers how huge a show it really is," he says. In the case of the McCarter's stage, he explains that the backstage space is okay but really not big enough to service the large proscenium opening. "If you are doing a show that has modest technical demands, it's a good stage," he says. "But by the time you are doing A Christmas Carol, you have a little problem fitting everything into the space. But we are doing it."
"There is the London street, the exterior and interior of the counting house, the exterior of Scrooge's house, his bedroom, a school yard, a grave yard, Bob Cratchit's place, Mr. Fezziwig's place," much of it punctuated with the comings and goings of ghosts. His listing and descriptions are punctuated with a laugh, as he realizes anew the enormity of the production. "That's a lot. That's a mini-musical." Lee says working with director Michael Unger has proved a good fit. "He comes to the show with a lot of history and knows it really well. There are things that I knew he would not give up because they worked in the past production." Lee is pleased that both Unger and David Thompson, the adapter of this latest version, endorsed his darker conception. He presented four different models for the set design, and the trio made the choice together. "A setting doesn't necessarily come from someone having one great vision," says Lee, "but needs to evolve and be discovered."
Whether to go for an expressionistic or a realistic edge is a choice that Lee says depends on how the designer reacts to a play. In this case, "there are a lot of strange angles that call for a tinge of expressionism. Although, in this story, you are never quite sure whether we are dealing with reality or a figment of the imagination, there is definitely the need for the supernatural."
"Although my color palette for the show is pretty much black and white - like a photograph - my instinct is for the less literal, the less cumbersome. But given the requirements of so many scenes, with lots of magic, it was important to have a more fully realized design." It was Eugene Lee's (no relation) setting for Sweeney Todd, that Lee says gave him his inspiration for the images of London's 19th century financial district that he is using to frame his Christmas Carol. Ming Cho Lee is also famous for pioneering the artistic use of pipe scaffolding in such shows as The Two Gentlemen of Verona on Broadway and Peer Gynt for the New York Shakespeare Festival. "I look at other designers' work that I admire and say how can I use it. I'm a shameless stealer," he admits. Other working designers whom he admires include Richard Hudson of The Lion King and Bob Crowley of Carousel. The new McCarter production brings together a host of creative talent. Costume design is by Jess Goldstein, Lee's former student at Yale who now teaches costume design there. You could call this a family affair with Stephen Strawbridge, also a former student and now co-chair with Lee of the design department at Yale, doing the lighting design. The biggest challenge for Lee in A Christmas Carol was approaching a production that he sees as "too big." "There must be a simpler more streamlined way to do it, but I have not discovered it," says Lee, admittedly perplexed by whether the show should be principally magic driven or more reflective of the times.
Voicing his strong feelings about all those "ye olde shoppey" productions there are out there that drive him crazy he admits, "I'll only stop worrying about it after I see it on the stage."
The new production features Broadway veteran John Christopher Jones as Ebenezer Scrooge, leading the cast that includes Robert Ari, as Mr. Fezziwig; Kim Brockington, as The Ghost of Christmas Present; Caren Browning, as Mrs. Cratchit; Angel Desai, as Fan; Mark Niebuhr, as Jacob Marley; Judy Reyes, as Lily and Belle; Simon Brooking, as Bob Cratchit; Jayne Houdyshell, as Mrs. Fezziwig; Mikel Sarah Lambert, as Mrs. Dilber; James Ludwig, as Fred; and Sean McNall, as Young Scrooge. The highlight of every McCarter production of A Christmas Carol, are the 12 area children who fill the stage in a variety of roles.
When I ask Lee why we don't see more of his work on Broadway, Lee's answer is humorously blunt: "If producers don't call you, you don't do the work." Lee is also candid. "For whatever reason, I do my least good work on Broadway. Perhaps it is because I am not fond of working under that kind of pressure... You can do terrific work in Minneapolis, Louisville, Los Angeles and Washington, yet on Broadway, you end up putting all your effort into something that can close on opening night."
"That is not why I got into the business," says Lee, who is somewhat astonished how many of his opera designs go on and on, like those for Boris Godunov, which the New York City Opera has been using for the past 26 years.
"As I grow older I have fewer preconceptions about theater designs. I'm a little exhausted. I'd like to stop designing for about a year. But you know, if someone calls me to do a Broadway show, I think I'd do it."
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