'Kiss of the Spider Woman' Production Design Echoes Classic Movie Musicals

The Kiss of the Spider Woman production design team sits down to discuss their and Bill Condon’s vision for the Broadway adaptation.

Looking at the Kiss of the Spider Woman production design, viewers may be initially unaware of its deep connection to classic movie musicals. Sure, many discerning viewers caught the references to Singin’ in the Rain baked into Jennifer Lopez’s show-stopping performance of “Gimme Love!,” but there are deeper cuts imbedded within the film’s extensive production design.

Director Bill Condon, production designer Scott Chambliss, and set decorator Andrew Baseman are all students of classic Hollywood musicals. This extensive knowledge perfectly meshed with Spider Woman‘s main character, Molina (Tonatiuh), who escapes the terrors of prison life for the cinematic life of their inspiration, Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez).

So, along with Singin’ in the Rain, we receive visual nods to other classic musicals such as Broadway’s Coco, Small Town Girl, The Band Wagon, and other MGM musicals. Not just nods, but in many cases, their sets are built in the same abstract manner of their inspirations.

“For me, that was a huge part of the joy of designing this film was going into that vocabulary of design for film that is, to me, that the abstraction of that and the poetry that is within that abstraction gives you room to dream,” Chambliss explained. “When you remember these numbers, at least for me, I remember them as much more elaborate than they really are. They’re so suggestive. When I finally started seeing some of these musicals that I treasured since I was an early teenager on the big screen, I discovered, ‘Oh my god, there’s almost nothing in that set’.”

Bizarrely, many younger critics faulted the film’s design because it looked inauthentic and artificial. But that’s the literal point. Molina’s recounting of Luna (and her alter ego, the Spider Woman) are all realized in deliberate homages to the sets of classic Hollywood musicals. As such, the production design needed to recapture those decidedly more antiquated, more sparse, and yes, more artificial appearances so prominently featured within the older Hollywood aesthetic.

But the film doesn’t all take place in Molina’s fantasy world. Several scenes take place within the confines of Molina’s harsh prison reality. That offered Chambliss and Baseman a unique challenge.

“It’s clearly two extreme opposites, and contrast is key. Focusing in on what exactly those contrasts are made up of is the task of production design itself,” Chambliss said. “For both [Baseman] and I, who love the old musicals that are part of the fantasy world of this movie, we came at the project with a lot of information and a rich history of learning about that period of musical filmmaking.”

Here, in a conversation with The Contending, Chambliss and Baseman describe the vast influences of and challenges inherent in bringing Kiss of the Spider Woman to the big screen. They talk about writer / director Bill Condon’s influences and structure for the film. They also talk about the parallels between Molina’s prison cell and their outside apartment, which we do eventually see. Additionally, they reveal how Molina’s prison cell helps define their character. Finally, they reveal the inspiration for the gorgeous theater-set sequence that closes the film and how budget constraints ultimately led to something more artistic and visually stunning.

Click here to listen to my chat with Kiss of the Spider Woman production design team of production designer Scott Chambliss and set decorator Andrew Baseman!