“I love things that turn into other things before your eyes,” acclaimed stage designer Bob Crowley says. “The audience is suddenly part of the process.”

        In Aida, an enormous blue wave of silk is the River Nile, which suddenly lifts skyward to become a bazaar. Later it transforms again, into the tent of warrior Ramades.

        At another point, a strange and strangely familiar shape descends. It is the reflection of palm trees along the Nile's edge — reflected in the “water,” the trees are upside-down and shimmery.

        “It's like the cardboard box we all played with as children. It became a castle, then a racing car,” Mr. Crowley explains with great verve, chatting by phone from London. “When things change in front of us it reminds us we didn't leave our imaginations behind when we stopped being children.”

        Aida is designed to be a show that rocks, from its concert lighting to its fashion runway costume design. It isn't Hollywood epics about Moses or Cleopatra that inspired the costumes. It's Elton John.

        “It's very much Elton John's event,” Mr. Crowley says. “The pop world and Elton's own iconography are very much part of the piece. I think he identifies with Amneris.”

        Mr. Crowley chuckles as he elaborates. “She loves shopping; he loves shopping. Look at her closet. Of course, he hasn't been in it for years, except to change clothes five or six times a day.”

        There are Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian influences to the costumes, but there's also a hint of Versace.

        The Egyptians wouldn't look out-of-place alongside Twiggy during the mod era. Amneris is a fashionista. And don't expect to see knobby male knees below short skirts. The guys are fashion mavens in long, collarless jackets over pants, basic black with bold red accents.

A young audience

        Perfectly matched to Mr. Crowley's Tony Award-winning scenic design is Natasha Katz's Tony Award-winning lighting design. She says phone from Chicago that in designing Aida, “We were keenly aware of (attracting) a younger audience.

        “Visually, it's what's happening to a teen-age audience. It's MTV — they don't need realism onstage. It's a beautiful thing. They can make all sorts of leaps.”

        Scenery and lighting, she says, “work on a poetic level. It gives you a feeling. It doesn't tell you where you are. Rock 'n' roll underscores it and elevates it.”

        Ms. Katz's learning curve has included lighting concerts for Shirley MacLaine and Ann-Margret, lighting installations at Niketown New York and London, and EFX! at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas as well as Broadway.

        Mr. Crowley, longtime associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is a master of non-representational design and holds Tony Awards and nominations for shows including Carousel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Capeman, The Iceman Cometh and The Invention of Love. He won the 2000 Tony for scenic design for Aida.

        He had just returned to London from the Chicago opening of Broadway-bound Sweet Smell of Success (on which he again collaborated with Ms. Katz.)

        It all goes back, he says, to an early ah-hah! “I grew up on what I suppose was Victorian theater, lots of backdrops and things coming in from the wings.

        “Then I saw a Oliver, very influenced by the Berliner Ensemble (founded by Bertolt Brecht in 1949). It was sculptural, merely suggestive. It was a revelation. I thought, "This can work!' ”

        Because the action of Aida flows seamlessly, some scenes actually overlapping, there is great use of fabric — “I love things being terribly fluid.”
       

Rock atmosphere

        Because it's Elton John's event, Aida unashamedly borrows from rock concerts, especially in its lighting design. “(Director) Bob Falls would say, "Walk into Times Square. You're assaulted by imagery,” Mr. Crowley says.

        “We wanted that kinetic energy transported to the stage. Young people are accustomed to watching image after image, sometimes simultaneously. The world is moving so fast now, and we wanted to match the speed of that flow of information.

        “And that it does stop and the show puts a spotlight on a great performance. It's the energy or rock and the intimacy of musical theater — extremes brought together.”

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