Jason Pikscher, Broadway technical director for the Paramount Theatre in Aurora shares some behind-the-scenes information Monday with the Rotary Club of Aurora, at Two Brothers Roundhouse.
It is generally accepted, one of the many reasons the Paramount Theatre Broadway Series has been successful is the teamwork behind the scenes to bring amazing sets. He said approximately 95% of the sets are built by their crew. To put the size of the sets into perspective, a normal set for the Paramount would fill two to three semi-trailers.
Pikscher said they typically spend $110,000 – $180,000 on the set construction and $1.5 Million on the production as a whole from soup to nuts.
His favorite set was for the Les Miserables production because of the unique engineering challenge. His least favorite, and most problematic set was for Grease. The most complex set was for Mary Poppins because of the illusions.
Jason Crane/The Voice