Another triumph for Rodgers and Hammerstein was The King and I. It was no less a triumph for Mielziner. For Jerome Robbins’ Ballet, "The Little House of Uncle Thomas," Mielziner provided gigantic tassels on each side of the stage plus curtains and lighting to accompany the ornate ballet set to Rodgers’s music.

Reproduction from the original owned by the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization NFS 

33. A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN [1951]

The musical, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn based on Betty Smith’s novel, was written by Betty Smith and the remarkable George Abbott. The music was by Arthur Schwartz and the lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Brooks Atkinson called it "a darlin’ show in a hospitable mode with a liking for its people and locale. Of Mielziner’s settings he writes that "they derive from nostalgic sentiment for a neighborhood and its people." This design if for the laundry scene set on the roof.

Courtesy of Paul Stiga NFS 

34. A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN [1951]

This design for "Cissy’s House" is another of the settings for this musical which starred Shirley Booth. It is the claustrophobic apartment of an Irish-American family in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn.

Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC 

A comic lampoon, Top Banana starred Phil Silvers, one of the theatre’s top clowns. The Johnny Mercer score and Mielziner’s sets and lighting had to play second fiddle to Silver’s top banana. Chapman writes in the Daily News: "The sets, devised by Jo Mielziner, are just right for the show, being bright and sassy." These two renderings show a thumbnail sketch of the set and a ground plan which shows the placement of the scenery on the stage.

Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC 

36. TOP BANANA [1951]

Mielziner created this rendering of a ballet scene which was ultimately cut from the final production. The dark background emphasizing the brightly lighted dancers shows his intense interest in the effects of lighting on scenery and actors.

Courtesy of Paul Stiga NFS 

37. ME AND JULIET [1953]

Me and Juliet was a "backstage" show, which required twelve different scenes, some of which revealed behind-the-curtain activity while the "show" was taking place on stage. Mielziner designed a fake backstage on curtains complete with dummy lamps, light bridge and equipment, all seemingly "worked" by actors playing stagehands.

Courtesy of Jules Fisher NFS 

38. ALL SUMMER LONG [1954]

Robert Anderson’s drama about an insecure 12-year-old is based on a novel by Donald Wetzel. John Kerr, Ed Begley, June Walker, and Carroll Baker were in the cast. Directed by Alan Scheider, it was produced by the Playwright’s Company. The two renderings shown here are of the same locale but each is drawn to show the various effects of lighting and projections on the scenic structures. Once again Mielziner used the exposed structure of the house to emphasize the ominous mood of the drama.

Courtesy of Paul Stiga NFS 

39. FANNY [1954]

The musical Fanny, by S. N. Behrman and Joshua Logan, was based on the trilogy of Marcel Pagnol. The large cast included Florence Henderson, Ezio Pinza and Walter Slezak Though a simple story, director Joshua Logan was not concerned with economy. He turned it into a huge show full of splendors. Mielziner even designed a full-rigged ship for one of the scenes. Here are sketches of two of the many sets Mielziner designed for the production. The top is the Fish Stall set and the bottom is a transitional scene leading to the ballet.

Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC 

40. SILK STOCKINGS [1955]

Cole Porter’s musical with book by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath and Abe Burrows was an instant hit and starred Hildegarde Neff and Don Ameche. The story of a Russian commissar (Neff) who finds out what it is to be a woman when she visits Paris gave Porter the basis for one of his last great musicals. The NY Times reports that Mielziner "raced through big rooms and corners of Paris with capacious settings that somehow reflect the broad fun of the central idea." This preliminary sketch is for the Commissars Office.

Courtesy of Paul Stiga NFS 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was another collaboration among playwright Tennessee Williams, director Elia Kazan, and designer Jo Mielziner, and reflected what happens when sparks fly among superbly creative people. Nothing in the set was superfluous, yet it evoked a southern mansion in the most economical terms and gave Kazan a fluid space in which to direct.

Courtesy of the Estate of Jo Mielziner (Reproduction) NFS 

42. THE LARK [1955]

For The Lark. Jean Anouilh’s version of the Joan of Arc legend, Mielziner designed a series of low randomly-placed platforms covered in blue plush set against a backdrop (or cyclorama) of thin muslin stretched on a frame. On it, he projected a rose window and other images including this battlefield to signal changes of scene. Lighting was the principal element in this production

Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC 

43. PIPE DREAM [1955]

The stage adaptation of Steinbeck’s novel, Sweet Thursday, was another collaboration between Rodgers and Hammerstein and Mielziner. The set represented is that of the flop house, the home of many of the denizens of Monterey’s Cannery Row.

Courtesy of Paul Stiga NFS 

44.. LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL [1957]

For this dramatized version of the Thomas Wolfe novel, Mielziner returned to a skeletonized house representing Eliza Gant’s boarding house in Ashville, NC. In the center of the set he placed a small turntable for the scenes that took place within the house. Almost all of the walls were made of painted scrims. Mielziner writes that in the bedroom scene shown here "young Eugene and Laura are seen illuminated by the warm revealing light of dawn, and yet the rest of the house seems to be still asleep and unaware of the young lovers in their tiny bedroom."

Courtesy of Jules Fisher NFS

Wake Forest Theater homepage compiled by Jonathan Christman