As show openings pile up, there’s a flurry of deadline, behind-the-scenes work for Neil A. Mazzella’s Hudson Scenic Studio.
On a recent morning, Ellis was at the storied Belasco Theatre on West 44th Street, where a crew was working around the actors arriving for a rehearsal of “Girl From the North Country,” which restarted Oct. 13.Tagging along with Ellis provided a true nuts-and-bolts portrait of backstage life in the theater, because he’s in charge of the nuts and bolts. And loving this world is a requirement to be in Mazzella’s employ.
A truism of the physical world plays out in all the nooks and crannies of a theater: Things fall apart. The natural deterioration of machinery and material in a playhouse in which upkeep had basically ceased leads to damaged wiring and moth holes in costumes, among other problems.“We had to schedule dry-cleaning like we never had to before,” Mazzella said. Leaks have been discovered in some theaters; issues peculiar to putting on a show have cropped up in others.
The elephant is long gone, but the job of maintaining a healthily operating backstage is forever. “The cast wants to know what we’ve done to make it safe,” Mazzella said. “That means cleaning it and keeping it clean top to bottom.” So it goes in this season of renewal, of touching up scenery and replacing casters on turntables. Mazzella made a stop at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on West 43rd Street to see how work was progressing on “Mrs. Doubtfire.” One of the few new musicals this fall, it was just getting on its feet in March 2020, when the pandemic brought down the curtain. Its second life began with a preview on Oct. 21. But before that, an order had come in to Hudson to redo one of the sets.