In 2014 at St Helens Theatre Royal, Regal Entertainments presented Neil Simon’s Broadway smash hit, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, a side splitting story of self-discovery bringing eccentric comedy characters to the stage with a hilarious script.
Starring Brookside’s Steven Pinder and Corrie’s Debra Stephenson in lead roles, the play chronicles the misadventures of Barney Cashman, a married seafood restauranteur in the throes of a mid-life crisis, with a sudden desire for passion and adventure his actions have embarrassing consequences.
I was hired to design the collateral for the marketing campaign. The main prerequisite was to deliver an artwork that was ‘comedic’. To achieve this I took inspiration from comedy movie posters, using a minimalistic background with subtle details, allowing the visual currency of the cast to stand out and attention to be focussed on the depicted characters varying personalities. This was reinforced with playful typography selections and a bold colour palette.
As Debra Stephenson was cast in three roles a composited approach was necessary to feature them all together, to make this believable universal lighting and shadows needed extra consideration in Photoshop.
