‘Hamilton’, ‘Beetlejuice’ landscape designer David Korins opens exhibition

David Korins, the set designer behind “Hamilton,” “Beetlejuice” and “Dear Evan Hansen,” heads to Tucson, Ariz., with a new exhibition titled “Stages of Imagination: The Iconic Broadway Designs of David Korins.”

The exhibition, which opens this weekend at the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures, runs through May 31, 2025 and invites visitors on an immersive journey through Korins’ work.

Korins, who has worked on the Academy Awards, “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Here Lies Love,” “The Who’s Tommy” and more, was invited by the museum’s executive director William Russo to present his work.

“I said: I wanted to go deeper and look at five projects,” says Korins Variety. “If people look at five projects, they can see that they all look very different and the outcome is very different. But they will also be able to see similarities in the spirit of collaboration and how people come together to create pieces.”

Korins chose five musicals: “Hamilton,” “Dear Evan Hansen,” “Beetlejuice the Musical,” “The Who’s Tommy” and his most recent project, “Here Lies Love.”

In putting together the exhibition, Korins had in-depth conversations with the show’s directors, actors and writers. “There is no such thing as set design by David Korins. “When you see ‘set design by David Korins,’ hundreds of people come together to make thousands of decisions,” he says. “What we all see as the final set of ‘Hamilton’ is many artists working together to create this extraordinary thing. What I like about the exhibition is that we pull back the curtain. We amplify the voices of model makers, illustrators, craftsmen, builders and artists.”

The exhibit features original models, sketches, paint raises, and early ideas about how Korins and the craftsmen work behind the scenes to transform the pages of a script into a grand Broadway production.

Among the items on display are Korins’ notes from “Hamilton.” “Back then it was the ‘Hamilton Mixtape.’ I read the piece and made all these little notes. I brought them into the interview, and those little things became the set that became the platform for that show to happen,” says Korins. “My original sketch for ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ is here. That’s the one [director] Michael Greif unfolded, put his finger on it and said, “That’s the one I want to explore.” That set went all over the world and won the Tony and Olivier awards.’”

Korins hopes the miniatures will inspire audiences, explaining: “These models are tools for communication, and they are tools we use in the rehearsal rooms to tell some of the most important thematic stories of a generation. In these five shows, trauma, love, marriage, rebellion, revolution and death come together. These are all extraordinarily big stories launched from these small, tiny environments.”

As part of the exhibition, Korins will also be in residence for a number of weeks, giving master classes, design workshops and symposia for the public and design students.