Production designer Jamie Walker McCall explains how she re-created the «comic book pop» of 44th Street for the opening sequence of Ryan Murphy new musical
Much of Ryan Murphy’s star-studded “The Prom” is set in Indiana, around the high school that is the location of the film’s title event. But the first 13 minutes of the movie take place on a block of the Broadway theater district in New York. That’s where Meryl Streep and James Corden are introduced, having flopped in a musical of the Eleanor Roosevelt story. They seek refuge at the famed Sardi’s restaurant across the street, teaming up with Andrew Rannells’s bartender and Nicole Kidman’s showgirl, and setting the plot in motion. During the first two musical numbers in the film (now streaming on Netflix), that stretch of 44th Street is dazzlingly bright and alive. True to form, the location itself lent a bit of theatrical flair to the proceedings. After the production was denied permits to shoot on the actual spot in New York City, “Netflix was like, ‘Well, why don’t we build Broadway?’” Murphy told TheWrap. “So that’s what we did. I could not believe how real it looked. We built all those theaters and marquees. There’s a tiny bit of CGI work at the end, at the horizon. But most everything that you see is really us.” For the job of rebuilding New York, Murphy turned to production designer Jamie Walker McCall, a frequent collaborator whose credits in the Murphy-verse include “Pose,” “The Politician,” and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.” Over a period of about six months, McCall transformed a four-acre empty lot in downtown Los Angeles into the bustling city block of light bulbs, yellow cabs and theater marquees in “The Prom.” She explained to TheWrap how she did it. Also Read: ‘The Prom’ Film Review: Ryan Murphy Revisits a Midwest High School for a Musical Lesson in Tolerance What was your reaction when you found out you’d be building New York in L.A.? Funny enough, when I got the call to do “The Prom,” I was working on “Pose” and I’d been staying right near Rockefeller Center. I just popped over to see the musical of “The Prom,” which was still playing on 48th street. And afterward I just kind of roamed the streets of the theater district. I was looking for which block was the most inspiring, or what elements could be pulled together. Where did you go? I walked a lot around the area of 44th and 45th streets.
