Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2009 - 40

That designer was Oliver Smith whose fifty-year career spanned
one of the most creative periods in American theatre and included scenic designs for Broadway musicals, revivals, straight
plays, operas, ballets, and films. During his most prolific period, Smith sometimes designed ten to twelve productions a
year, and his list of collaborators reads like a "Who's Who" of
theatre celebrities, including such artists as George Abbott, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Agnes de Mille, Lerner and
Loewe, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. In an interview with the
New York Times' longtime theatre critic Frank Rich, taped for
the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Smith admitted that he was fortunate to be working at the same time that
Broadway's greatest composers were working and when musicals emphasized dance in a way that has since diminished.
What was it that made Smith so sought-after as a collaborator? Certainly his professionalism, along with his talent, made
him the designer of choice for many Broadway productions.
According to his devoted friend, chorographer Agnes de Mille,
Smith's scenery was always delivered on time and worked for
the productions (de Mille 1968, 174). As he said of theatrical deadlines, "This ship has to sail!" (Baird 2006). Smith was
cool and unflappable when dealing with the tender egos of the
theatre as well as when he was under pressure himself. While

Hello, Dolly! was out of town before its Broadway opening,
Smith was on vacation, thinking his job was finished. During
those tryouts, however, one song was cut and another, "When
the Parade Passes By," was added, necessitating a new set design for the number. When his assistant called him with the
problem, Smith famously designed a new set over the phone.
His extensive knowledge and photographic memory of the
styles and color palettes of various artists enabled him to direct
his assistant to the exact pages of books to use as research and
color samples (Wagner 2006).
Though perhaps best known for his painted drops, Smith
was able to work in a variety of styles-romantic and painterly,
realistic, three-dimensional and sculptural, or abstract. Ironically, Smith never actually studied scene design; as a student
at Penn State University, he started as an architecture major,
but eventually switched to fine arts and designed scenery as an
extra-curricular activity. A painter himself, he took inspiration
for his designs from artists such as Bosch, Breugel, Turner, and
Constable, but the result was pure Smith. Having been born at
a time when European styles influenced the art of the theatre,
Smith matured into an artist whose American vision, painterly
use of color, and ability to define and manipulate theatrical
space with clear lines and unexpected perspectives illuminated

Embassy Promenade rendering (watercolor) for My Fair Lady (1956). Scenic design by Oliver Smith.

theatre

design

technology

W I N T E R

2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2009