“Welcome to Chippendales” is many things – a true-crime, rags-to-riches cautionary tale set against a tide of American cultural change, for starters – but the eight-part Hulu limited series is above all a love letter to the prop masters, art directors and costume designers who supply our favorite big- and small-screen stories with their immersive power. While the hit ordered on Nick De Noia (Murray Bartlett) by Chippendales founder Steve Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani) is intriguing enough, the show’s procedural-like approach to the business of stagecraft is what makes it absolutely engrossing.
We meet Indian immigrant Steve Banerjee in 1979 Los Angeles at the gas station where he works, illuminated by an all-too perfectly garish yellow sign. Kelly Allen (House Beautiful) writes that the show’s sets and colors blend “an intensified version of reality with dreamt-up atmospheres.” Steve’s spartan lifestyle belies dreams of smoking jackets and velvet couches. After rejecting a promotion,...
We meet Indian immigrant Steve Banerjee in 1979 Los Angeles at the gas station where he works, illuminated by an all-too perfectly garish yellow sign. Kelly Allen (House Beautiful) writes that the show’s sets and colors blend “an intensified version of reality with dreamt-up atmospheres.” Steve’s spartan lifestyle belies dreams of smoking jackets and velvet couches. After rejecting a promotion,...
- 7/6/2023
- by Ronald Meyer
- Gold Derby
“Welcome to Chippendales” had its Hulu premiere on November 22, earning rave reviews for Robert Siegel‘s limited series starring Kumail Nanjiani, Annaleigh Ashford, Murray Bartlett, and Juliette Lewis. The dramatic true story currently holds an impressive 93 freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes, signaling overwhelming approval from critics.
The series is inspired by the book Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders by K. Scot Macdonald and Patrick MontesDeOca. It tells the origin story of Somen “Steve” Banerjee (played by Nanjiani), an Indian American entrepreneur who started the stripper troupe, Chippendales.
Early buzz for the show has already launched it into the awards conversation. In our Golden Globes predictions, “Welcome to Chippendales” ranks sixth for Best TV Movie/Limited Series, Nanjiani is in seventh for Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actor and Bartlett and Lewis both sit in 10th position for Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress, respectively.
See Why...
The series is inspired by the book Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders by K. Scot Macdonald and Patrick MontesDeOca. It tells the origin story of Somen “Steve” Banerjee (played by Nanjiani), an Indian American entrepreneur who started the stripper troupe, Chippendales.
Early buzz for the show has already launched it into the awards conversation. In our Golden Globes predictions, “Welcome to Chippendales” ranks sixth for Best TV Movie/Limited Series, Nanjiani is in seventh for Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actor and Bartlett and Lewis both sit in 10th position for Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress, respectively.
See Why...
- 11/22/2022
- by Vincent Mandile
- Gold Derby
Designing and constructing sets from scratch is just half of a production designer’s job. Depending on the project, there’s also scouting for location shooting. And sometimes, you can’t shoot as is, like on “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”
“It’s all fantasy, so we can’t go down the street in Auckland and find a place to shoot,” Ramsey Avery tells Gold Derby during our Meet the Experts: TV Production Designers panel roundtable with Matthew Davies (“Five Days at Memorial”), Mark Scruton (“Wednesday”) and Richard Bloom (“Welcome to Chippendales”). “We ended learning how to make a sheep paddock outside of Auckland look like something else. What we would look for is a couple things: one, what are the bones? Does it have really good graphic shapes in terms of what we’re trying to have this scene say? Where’s the light coming...
“It’s all fantasy, so we can’t go down the street in Auckland and find a place to shoot,” Ramsey Avery tells Gold Derby during our Meet the Experts: TV Production Designers panel roundtable with Matthew Davies (“Five Days at Memorial”), Mark Scruton (“Wednesday”) and Richard Bloom (“Welcome to Chippendales”). “We ended learning how to make a sheep paddock outside of Auckland look like something else. What we would look for is a couple things: one, what are the bones? Does it have really good graphic shapes in terms of what we’re trying to have this scene say? Where’s the light coming...
- 11/17/2022
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
Say “Chippendales” today and most people will probably picture ab-tastic men in leather pants and tiny bowties, but the origin story and early years of the dance troupe were much darker and tragic — one with which “Welcome to Chippendales” production designer Richard Bloom was quite familiar. “My mother’s a big fan of true crime and murder shows, so I think I’d seen a podcast or a ‘Dateline’ about it,” he tells Gold Derby at Meet the Experts: TV Production Designers panel (watch the exclusive video interview above).
Premiering Tuesday, Nov. 22, the Hulu limited series tracks how Steve Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani) turned his failed backgammon club into Chippendales in 1979. The male striptease revue was an immediate success and the entrepreneur partnered with two-time Emmy-winning choreographer Nick De Noia (Murray Bartlett) to further develop the show. But their divergent principles and egos clashed, culminating with Banerjee ordering a fatal hit...
Premiering Tuesday, Nov. 22, the Hulu limited series tracks how Steve Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani) turned his failed backgammon club into Chippendales in 1979. The male striptease revue was an immediate success and the entrepreneur partnered with two-time Emmy-winning choreographer Nick De Noia (Murray Bartlett) to further develop the show. But their divergent principles and egos clashed, culminating with Banerjee ordering a fatal hit...
- 11/17/2022
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
Four top TV production designers will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022/2023 awards contenders. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Tuesday, November 15, at 4:00 p.m. Pt; 7:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Joyce Eng and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.
RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.
This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following contenders:
Five Days at Memorial (Apple TV+)
Synopsis: Doctors and nurses at the intensive care unit of a New Orleans hospital struggle with treating patients during Hurricane Katrina when the facility is without power for 5 days.
Bio: Matthew Davies’ career has included “The Samaritan,...
RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.
This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following contenders:
Five Days at Memorial (Apple TV+)
Synopsis: Doctors and nurses at the intensive care unit of a New Orleans hospital struggle with treating patients during Hurricane Katrina when the facility is without power for 5 days.
Bio: Matthew Davies’ career has included “The Samaritan,...
- 11/7/2022
- by Chris Beachum and Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
Former TV critic Andy Greenwald had seen the demands of being a showrunner firsthand. When he finally got the chance to call the shots on the USA Network series “Briarpatch,” that opportunity brought everything that comes with overseeing the production of 10 hourlong episodes of TV.
“There was a day in the airport when I was flying back to Albuquerque because we had to crash [Episode] 2 through post to get it to Toronto,” Greenwald told IndieWire. “I think we’re filming 5 and 6, and we were prepping 7 and I was writing or rewriting 8, 9, and 10 and I was at Lax at 6 in the morning and I was like, ‘This…This is awful.’ And then I thought, ‘The only thing worse than this would be not doing it.'”
Despite that occasional solitary heavy workload at an airport boarding gate, Greenwald was far from alone in this process. After he wrote the pilot — the making...
“There was a day in the airport when I was flying back to Albuquerque because we had to crash [Episode] 2 through post to get it to Toronto,” Greenwald told IndieWire. “I think we’re filming 5 and 6, and we were prepping 7 and I was writing or rewriting 8, 9, and 10 and I was at Lax at 6 in the morning and I was like, ‘This…This is awful.’ And then I thought, ‘The only thing worse than this would be not doing it.'”
Despite that occasional solitary heavy workload at an airport boarding gate, Greenwald was far from alone in this process. After he wrote the pilot — the making...
- 2/13/2020
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
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