Reviews of Work by James Dardenne

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CHICAGO: A MUSICAL VAUDEVILLE

Riverside Theatre - Vero Beach, FL

January 2017

 Florida Theatre on Stage

Pam Harbaugh

Scenic and lighting designers James Dardenne and Yael Lubetzky set the stage for vaudevillian style story telling. Enormous red drapes and glaring amber foot lights color the bloody wantonness of the jail’s prisoners (a superb “Cell Block Tango”) and accent the public’s garish thirst for sensationalism. Add to that Kurt Alger’s spot on racy costume design you’ve got a boat load of flashy visuals.

SMOKEY JOE’S CAFE

Riverside Theatre - Vero Beach, Florida

October 2018

Florida Theatre on Stage

Joan Taddie

Salisbury (director DJ Salisbury) delivers a new and inventive look to the revue’s set design. Working with his accomplished scenic designer, James Dardenne, Salisbury’s set  represents pieces of a giant deconstructed jukebox. He also collaborated with lighting designer Yael Lubetzky to include the pink, orange, purple and green neon lights found in the jukeboxes of the 50’s and 60’s. A picture of the jukebox that was the model for this innovative set is on the cover of the production’s program. The diamond and triangular glass pieces on the jukebox front are the models for the large geometric pieces that move after each number into a new formation.

Two other interesting set design notes: The staircase represents the needle in the deconstructed jukebox, and the movable circular structure that holds the musicians represents the turntable.

Salisbury and Dardenne pay homage to the original and most commonly used set design in most productions of this revue, by installing Smokey Joe’s Café on stage to begin Act 2. The deconstructed jukebox returns to finish the performance. 

A CHORUS LINE

Riverside Theatre

January 2016

Florida Theatre on Stage

Pam Harbaugh

Scenic designer James Dardenne works with lighting designer Andrew F. Griffin to deliver a great “wow moment” during the curtain call, which is the most electrifying number, if you will, in the entire show.

Before and after curtain of this show, a ghost light illuminates Riverside’s stage. A theater superstition holds that the ghost light appeases the souls who have trod the stage before. If there are two such spirits who should be happy right now, it would be those of Marvin Hamlisch and Michael Bennett. What they did for love continues to thrill.

 

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

Olney Theatre Center, Maryland

January 2014

The Washington Post

Nelson Pressley

Director Jason Loewith unleashes his cast on a big, sleek set (by James Dardenne, who also designed the projections) that suggests the bustling industrial power of World Wide Wickets — the pressurized setting of the show — while leaving ample room for big production numbers such as “Coffee Break” and “Secretary.”

 

DC Metro Theatre Arts

Amanda Gunther

How to create a dazzling multi-purpose set: See Scenic and Projection Designer James Dardenne’s guidebook. Dardenne creates an incredible series of projections to help welcome the audience back to 1961; a showcase of black and white photographs of men at the office, women at home with the supper and children, and other iconic notions of a time long gone. It’s Dardenne’s overall scenic design that allows the enormous World Wide Wicket Building to exist within the confines of the stage, each space—from J.P. Biggley’s Executive Office right down to the Mail Room—looking unique and yet uniformed. Dardenne’s ingenious use of the dual-wrapped staircase creates multiple levels within the building all viewable at the same time, creating an atmosphere conducive for the show’s corporate attitude.

 

STOCKHOLM

59E59 Theatres -  off-Broadway

March 2014

New York Times

Ben Brantley

The designers James Dardenne (set), Mike Riggs (lighting) and Janie Bullard (sound) have created an environment that credibly morphs from yuppie playpen into house of horrors.

 

Theatre Reviews Limited

David Roberts

James Dardenne’s claustrophobic set successfully counterpoints the rough corners of the minds of this troubled couple and serves as a trope for the multilayered domain of the human psyche: although the superego is in short supply, the id and the ego loom large across Dardenne’s stark gray set illumined by the shafts of light (glimmers of hopefulness beyond the destructive behavior) provided by Mike Riggs’ splendid lighting.

 

WHAT WE KNOW

Teatro Circulo - off-Broadway

December 2013

 Theaterpizzazz.com

Marcina Zaccaria

… Scenic Designer James Dardenne’s work is ingenious.  Like something from a small farming community blasted into a post-modern painting, the set leaves enough space for surprise.  The look of black cookware is quite cool while actual food onstage feels quite warm.  Food comes from the openings in the center of the table.  Bright vegetables and plants brighten the space.  Tables rotate through the space, and chairs on castors roll around to provide the best portraits of the cast.

 

MY FAIR LADY

Paramount Theatre, Aurora, IL

September 2011

 

Chicago Tribune

Chris Jones

The setting from Jim Dardenne is expansive and quite lovely and the transitions are elegant.

 

Chicago Theatre Beat

Lawrence Bommer

Working with a budget that generously permits cunningly efficient, elegantly detailed rolling set pieces (by James Dardenne), period-precise costumes (by Melissa Torchia) and lovely lighting (by Michael Rourke), powered by a 21-piece union orchestra under Sean Stengel’s surefire musical direction, and featuring a cast as right as their roles, this My Fair Lady is craftsmanship raised to genius on Galena Boulevard.