When the Screen Is the Character: Notes on Video Design in Musical Theatre
Peter Nigrini's projection design for the original Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen did something that projection design in musicals had rarely done before: it became load-bearing. The screens weren't atmosphere. They weren't scenic wallpaper. They were the mechanism through which the audience understood how a lie moves through a digital ecosystem. You watched Evan's letter replicate and mutate in real time, cascading across surfaces that felt less like a set and more like a nervous system. The design wasn't illustrating the story. It was telling part of it.
Peter Nigrini's projection design for the original Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen marked a significant shift in the role of projections in musicals: it became a load-bearing element. The screens weren't merely atmospheric or scenic filler; they were the primary mechanism for illustrating how a lie spreads through digital channels. As Evan's letter replicated and mutated in real time, it cascaded across surfaces that felt more like a dynamic system than a static set. By doing so, the design didn't just illustrate the story – it told a crucial part of it.
Since 2016, projection design has become a standard budget line item in musical theatre productions across the board, from Broadway to regional houses and community theatres with projectors rigged to the tech booth ceiling. However, Nigrini's work raised a critical question that remains inconsistently answered: is the screen a character or merely a backdrop? This distinction is crucial, as a backdrop primarily establishes setting, while a character conveys stakes. Most productions, even strong ones, default to using screens for setting, mood, or solving scenic design problems – a valid but fundamentally different approach from Nigrini's innovative work.
The most intriguing developments in projection design are currently happening in mid-tier regional houses, where companies have sufficient budget to invest in robust projection infrastructure but can't afford top-tier designers. These rooms are hotbeds of experimentation, driven by necessity and the fact that younger, visually fluent directors are more willing to integrate screens into storytelling rather than just using them as support. Over the past year, I've seen productions where video design played a genuinely dramatic role, pushing the boundaries of what's possible when projections are treated as an integral part of the narrative.