Stage to PageMore Than Eloise: Hilary Knight’s Iconic Broadway PostersThe famed illustrator puts his working collection on display in Hilary Knight’s Stage Struck World at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
By
Matt Smith
May 11, 2017
“Can you tell me where I could buy this wallpaper?” asked a recent visitor at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. NYPL exhibit curator David Leopold cocked his head and smiled, “It’s not for sale.”
In fact, it’s not wallpaper. It’s the pièce de résistance of Hilary Knight’s Stage Struck World, the splashy new exhibition at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts now on view through September 1. “It’s not your typical museum show,” says Leopold. The one-of-a-kind experience showcases photographs, video footage, and found objects from the artist’s life (and home); but the most exciting piece for theatre-lovers is that corridor plastered in show posters—from early drafts to final art.
Since 1965, Knight applied his knack for observation to the illustration of hundreds of posters for a variety of Broadway shows, films and high-brow cabaret acts. A life-long observer himself, Knight’s art will stop even the least observant in their tracks.
“Nobody takes the time to really see things anymore, or appreciate all that’s around them,” he says. “I’ve made my life’s work through observation.
“That’s what theatre is,” the vivacious nonagenarian continues. “It’s a spectacle… it’s a live event. Theatre exists to be seen.” And so does Knight’s artwork.
Knight’s passion for theatre first ignited at age five, when his mother took him first to the circus, and then, upon moving from Roslyn, Long Island to New York City, to Jumbo, his first Broadway show. “He was completely captivated right from the start,” Leopold says. “It really set the tone for his entire life.”
Influenced by performers like Sabu, Carmen Miranda, and Lena Horne, Knight got his start as an amateur costume and set designer under legendary producer George Abbott at the Ogonquit Playhouse. “He loved that, but he felt that it wasn’t the right canvas for him to express creatively,” explains Leopold. “[It was] too big; he’s much more of a detail kind of guy.”
Enter Knight’s neighbor D.D. Ryan and Diana Vreeland, then an assistant editor of Harper’s Bazaar. Vreeland had met famed cabaret performer Kay Thompson who had a voice in her head for a literary character—a certain precocious little girl who wreaks havoc on her home within the Plaza hotel—and she needed an illustrator.
Knight was swept up in Thompson’s sparkle, and the pair produced four Eloise books from 1955 to 1959. But his passion for theatre still lingered in the background.
Harry Rigby, himself just starting out in his producing career, commissioned Knight’s first show poster: Half a Sixpence. Now, he’s produced enough to plaster the library.
“I hope this will bet people interested [in my life] and intrigued that I do do other things,’” says Knight of the display.
“If he had done nothing but Eloise, we would still know who he was. But I also think if he had done nothing but theatre posters, we’d know him just as well. He’s got so many distinctive elements [in] his work, you look at it right away, and you know it’s a work by Hilary Knight.”
Take a sneak peek at the exhibit in the gallery below:
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Go Inside Hilary Knight's Stage Struck World at the New York Public Library
Go Inside Hilary Knight's Stage Struck World at the New York Public Library
The Eloise illustrator reveals his collection of Broadway show posters in this exhibit through September 1, 2017.
19 PHOTOS
Hilary Knight's Stage Struck World at the New York Public Library
Hilary Knight's Stage Struck World at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
“This show was a tremendous flop. But it’s my favorite poster of them all,” says Knight. “It’s very simple and direct in the coloration, much like the show. It shows what the production is truly about. This man is the central force of the piece.”
“With Busby Berkeley being involved, [the design] was in the spirit of his movies—what his movies would look like,” Knight says. “Flashy chorus girls, very glamorous, 1920s era. It was a lot of fun.”
“Harry [Rigby] was really smart about Debbie [Reynolds]. Coming off the success of No, No, Nanette with Ruby Keeler, he knew he needed a star. [Reynolds] almost didn’t do it, but Harry was able to lure her in. She made that show what it was. She made it last—much like Merman did with Gypsy, and Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller did with Sugar Babies. She was a true theatrical star (and she gave a fabulous performance). We knew we wanted [the design] to highlight that.”
“This was for the revival. I had seen Merman, and she was fantastic, and I took a little bit [of inspiration] from her,” Knight explains. “My aim was to highlight the star—Angela Lansbury, whom I always had admired from afar—because of course, it’s all about Mama Rose.”
Marc J. Franklin
“The concept [of the show] was incredible and was something I wanted to do so badly. I had a meeting with [director] Geoffrey Holder, and [composer and lyricists] Forrest and Wright. It was an African version of Arabian nights, and the poster was to have this half-girl, half-leopard concept that I liked very much,” says Knight. “The original was to be blue, but Forrest came in one day and said, ‘I had a bad dream last night about blue.’ So, we went with this brighter color instead.”
Sugar Babies
Sugar Babies
“I drafted a design with red ostrich feathers to [accentuate] the drag aspect. [Director] Arthur [Laurents] had a talk with me, and he said, ‘This isn’t a show about drag queens. This is a show about love and involvements and a bond between two people—a family,’” says Knight. “So he went a different way. The final one which they ended up using was beautiful, but I didn’t do it. But funny enough, it still uses the red ostrich feathers.”
La Cage aux Folles
Marc J. Franklin
“There is nobody like Julie Wilson. She was at the absolute top of the top of cabaret performers—a very interesting person, and that voice!” exclaims Knight. “The poster’s not cabaret, it’s a theatre piece, but I like it, because it shows her as she is. It’s very elegant and chic. And that show revived her whole career.”
Broadway Barks
“I’ve known Bernadette [Peters] for years. We’ve been great friends, and she’s been so admiring and supportive of my work. She came to the opening [of the exhibit],” beams Knight. “[In 2013], she asked me to do it. She’s such a dear friend, and I love animals, and I love what she does with the organization. How could I say, ‘no’?”
Jo Sullivan and Emily Loesser Together Again for the First Time
Colette
Hilary Knight's Stage Struck World at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is located within Lincoln Center at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of Terry Allen Kramer.
