Bill Groom (‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ production designer) on creating Broadway-sized sets for the final season’s industrial musicals [Exclusive Video Interview]
Bill Groom has provided sumptuous, period-accurate sets for the entire run of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” but the final season of the Amazon comedy required the designer to go big with his designs. He is once again nominated in the Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More) category for the episode “Susan.” This installment required the creation of several extravagant theatrical sets. “It was probably the largest amount of work we did all season,” offers Groom. Watch the exclusive video interview above.
A core location in “Susan” is a business expo which houses several industrial musicals. Not only did each set have to contain the requisite amount of detail and flair that “Maisel” has been synonymous for in its design, but they also had to house original musical numbers. Dancers dressed as flowers come to life in a garden, a quintessential housewife dreams up the perfect man in her retro-futurist kitchen, and a fleet of chorus-boys-turned-garbagemen sing (and tap) about proper waste management.
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“We had a couple of stages the size of a Broadway stage on each end of the hall that we created for the industrials,” explains Groom of the massive space he had to work with. Each stage was outfitted with intricate mechanics to pull off the kind of scene changes one would expect from a full fledged musical on the Rialto. “We had moving elements that moved in and out and from upstage downstage, and it was fun,” says the production designer. “And people, while we were shooting it, people were like, we should really put this on Broadway. This belongs on Broadway!”
At one point, the garbage can tap dancers depart and a giant heap of trash emerges center stage. Emily Bergl’s Tess is queen of the garbage pile, flanked by backup dancers as she belts out a torch song. The eye-catching set piece has several disguised platforms for the dancers and is stuffed to the brim with all manner of detritus. “Our painters did a great job, and it was all permanently affixed to this armature that we built,” describes Groom. “And that was all on a wagon, a theatrical wagon that would move upstage, downstage and back again.”
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As Groom describes the construction process of the trash heap and other intricate sets, such as an ornate automat which was created from scratch, it’s clear that a major element in creating the right set is finding the right time to finish. “I’ve always said that the things that don’t work are when enough hasn’t been done or when too much has been done,” reveals the production designer. “I often tell crews that I’ve never worked with before, just so you know, when you think you’re finished, you’re not.”
Now that the hit series has concluded its run, Groom is looking back on a world, and community, he is greatly fond of. When asked what his favorite part of the experience was, he quickly replies: “The camaraderie of the team. It was just such a great team, this show. And I don’t just mean my team in the art department, but every department.” He developed a shorthand with his collaborators, which made designing a joy. “At some point we didn’t even have to talk very much,” offers Groom. “I mean, we’d get the script and we would all kind of approach it in our Maisel way. And it just almost always worked. And I think it’s rare to find that. That’s probably what will be missed the most.”
Groom is a four-time Emmy winner for “Boardwalk Empire.” He has earned five additional nominations for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
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