Little Shop of Horrors
“Czerton Lim's set design signals the wry turn the show takes immediately in depicting what urban life at the low end involves. The flower shop and its environs suggest desolation, while skyscrapers gleam in the background. Visually, a reality we've all read about is stamped on our senses, even though its cartoonish distortion here quickly places our expectations in the realm of comedy. Those expectations are repeatedly rewarded over two acts.”
Jay Harvey - Jay Harvey Upstage
”Everything about this show is top shelf, from the live band, choreography (Breon Arzell), scenic design (Czerton Lim), costuming (Izumi Inaba), lighting (Dawn Chiang) and sound (Todd Mack), with stage manager Nathan Garrison and assistant Becky Roeber keeping it moving from backstage.”
Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express
“The sumptuous, yet functional, set by Czerton Lim, together with attractive, accurate period costuming by Tracy Dorman create inviting visuals, and the sound design by Daniela Hart, Noel Nichols, and Bailey Trierweiler is a winner with train noises combined with a dramatic instrumental soundtrack that will keep your ears busy throughout.”
Tony Curulla - The Post Standard
Clue
Syracuse Stage brings the hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery play, Clue, to our main stage. Artistic Director Bob Hupp and Scenic Designer Czerton Lim (The Play That Goes Wrong) talk with Melissa Crespo about big plays that feel like musicals.
“The set, visible to the audience as they take their seats, is delightful. The manor house onstage with its leaded windows, inlaid floors, and dour portrait of an unnamed forebear feels immersive…Speaking of Tim Curry, the set design by Czerton Lim nods to the iconic actor with a massive portrait of that aforementioned Boddy forebear that bears a striking resemblance to Curry: I didn’t notice (not having seen the film), but my sharp-eyed theater companion remarked on it.”
Linda Lowen - The Post Standard
“Scenic designer, Czerton Lim, creates the perfect 3-D version of the original board game. Upon entering the theatre, the audience sees a classic gothic foyer, complete with crystal chandelier, mahogany woodwork, marble stairs and a tiled floor fashioned to replicate the spaces on a game board. As the play progresses, the set becomes a character in itself as it transforms into the rooms of the mansion required by both the game and the play. His design is beautiful and functional. It not only provides a setting but also helps establish the humor and tempo of the play. It always surprises and delights.”
Dan and Julie Izzo - Broadwayworld.com
“Scenic designer Czerton Lim pulls out all the creative stops in giving us a set with multiple slamming doors, secret passageways, moving walls, and tributes to the game and movie (yes, that is Tim Curry as Mr. Boddy in the painting).”
Wendy Carson - Plays With John and Wendy
“At first glance, the IRT set looks impressive but bare, as if all we were going to see was the hall and quite a few doors…Of course, the IRT never disappoints with their set design, and the mansion created by scenic designer Czerton Lim is a character unto itself, with its many moving parts allowing us to see several rooms, at different moments.”
Veronique Duprey - A Seat on the Aisle
Link to WishTV.com Local News interview with IRT’s Production of Clue
The Play That Goes Wrong
“…Lines are lost, corpses won't stay put and the set is a clockwork of malfunction. Another Stage veteran, Czerton Lim ("Matilda the Musical," "Talley's Folly," "Disney's Beauty and the Beast" and "Elf the Musical") designed "The Play That Goes Wrong" set and worked with technical director Randall Steffen and props designer Mara Rich to create a self-destructing Haversham Manor for the cast.”
”Our approach to this design was to treat the set itself as a living, breathing character - filled with its own distinct personality, contradictions, eccentricities and 'human' foibles, trying to do its best with the situation it finds itself with the actors onstage," Lim said. "In fact, I believe the set 'thinks' it is the actors onstage mucking things up badly, while also finding itself guilty of the occasional attention-grabbing stunt to garner the audiences' favor and applause."
A. A. Cristi - Broadwayworld.com
”While this play-within-a-play is ostensibly intended to uncover Charles’s killer, the play becomes a high-tension “will they survive this?” disaster scenario not only due to missed cues, flubbed lines, absent props, and inexperienced performers, but also due to a set that practically lives and breathes malice, seemingly intent on harming the hapless drama society players.”
“The Play That Goes Wrong” goes beautifully, terrifyingly, edge-of-your-seat-in-suspense wrong because of the work of set designer Czerton Lim, technical director Randall Steffen, and props designer Mara Rich. Lim has described the set as “a living, breathing character...filled with its own distinct personality,” and like everyone else onstage, it wants the show done -- and does everything it can to “strike the set.”
Linda Lowen - The Post Standard
”Designer Czerton Lim provides a traditional wood-paneled grand manor, lit by Matthew Webb; you’ll also come to appreciate the work of Jacqueline Herter (sound design) and Mara Rich (properties), as the set basically falls apart magnificently for the next few hours.”
“Everything that can go wrong in this community production does: doors fail to open, elevators crash, mantels give way and sconces fall –– even the entire upstairs study collapses, while its occupants try to keep from tumbling. But these amateur actors gamely carry on, faking it when props fail or disappear.”
Central New York Magazine May/June 2021
Art Profile: Scenic Designer Czerton Lim, pp. 96-99
“I’ve always admired the amount of work and artistry that happens behind the scenes of a live performance…That’s why I loved peeking behind the curtain with Czerton; he’s such a humble, talented guy who just loves the theater and creating worlds for audiences to get lost in.”
Talley’s Folly
“...and Czerton Lim's set is a perfect realization of [Lanford] Wilson's stage directions, which call for 'a Victorian boathouse constructed of louvers, lattice in decorative panels, and a good deal of Gothic Revival gingerbread.”
Terry Teachout - The Wall Street Journal
”Jason O'Connell as Matt Friedman captures your attention as soon as he opens the play on Czerton Lim's always detailed and breathtaking set design.”
Natasha Ashley - Broadway World, Central NY
“Played upon a single, decorative set by Czerton Lim embellished with evocative lighting that creates a palate of soft, myriad colors by Dawn Chiang, “Talley’s Folly” seems a perfect choice for a virtual rendering given its limited space, characters, and mood. The set, a used-to-be-fancy boathouse by the river, functions almost like a third character.”
Tony Curulla - The Post Standard
”Talley's Folly is a delicate play that needs a delicate hand — Wilson describes it as a "waltz" in his script — and Robert Hupp's production certainly does have that kind of romantic musicality. It's beautiful to look at, with a handsomely crumbling Southern Gothic set by Czerton Lim, recognizable period costumes by Suzanne Chesney, and the kind of lush, redolent lighting (by Dawn Chiang) that signifies that love will happen here. It’s just so nice to see a full stage again…”
David Gordon - Theatremania.com
The 10 Best Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Virtual Theater Productions of 2020
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
“Czerton Lim’s otherworldly set design brings to mind a pop-up picture book with elements sliding in and out, transforming into a town square, a castle banquet hall, the deep dark woods, and a high parapet open to the starry heavens, all matched by projections designed by Katherine Freer and lighting by Thomas C. Hase.”
Linda Lowen - The Post Standard
”Belle's very own story unfolds in the magical castle. That is exactly what the castle is in this production of Beauty and the Beast, magical. Czerton Lim's set design delivers breathtaking detail and allows for effortless scene changes. Lim always delivers mesmerizing sets but he has certainly outdone himself with this production. Katherine Freer's projection designs enhance the set features and allow every detail of the classic story to come to life right before your eyes. Speaking off the magic coming to life, Thomas C. Hase's lighting design and ZFX, Inc.'s flying effects allow for that famous and wondrous transformation to take place. The final result of all the stage effects is nothing but breathtaking.”
Elf the Musical
“Czerton Lim once again shows off his creativity with impressive scenic designs that effortlessly transitions from scene to scene and complement Katherine Freer's projection designs.”
Natasha Ashley - Broadway World, Central NY
“Scenic designer Czerton Lim comes in with constantly changing sets so that — whoosh! — we zoom from the North Pole to midtown Manhattan, the Empire State Building, Macy’s and the Rockefeller Center ice rink. And with the iconic gold statue of Prometheus looming above, members of the chorus are skating on the pond. Then, whoosh again, and we’re back into the fast-moving action.”
James MacKillop - Syracuse New Times
Winner of the 2019 Syracuse Area Live Theater (SALT) Awards for Best Set Design of a Musical
Nominated for the 2019 Broadway World Central New York Awards for Best Set Design of a Musical
Ghost the Musical
"San Diego-based (Stephen) Brotebeck has a dream team of MGR veteran designers and conductor Jeff Theiss. His production happily avoids the visual frenzy of the 2012 New York version: Czerton Lim’s set captures the mood of the film via a spacious two-level loft space with arched windows and a brilliant backdrop of skyscraper tops converging, as if seen from street level.
Lit superbly by Dan Ozminkowski, the stage lets us see dramatic action frontally and simultaneously from another perspective, looking upward. The result quietly echoes the two planes of reality merging here: quotidian human life and ghostly limbo."
"Like so many stage plays based on movies, Ghost calls for about 50 scene changes in two hours. The skills of scenic designer Czerton Lim and lighting designer Dan Ozminkowski produce a magic show worthy of applause even without a single musical number."
James MacKillop - Syracuse New Times
Nominated for the 2017 Syracuse Area Live Theater (SALT) Awards for Best Set Design of a Musical
Parade
"The artistic elements of the show are some of the best that have graced the stage at the Merry - Go - Round Playhouse. The set by Czerton Lim evokes power and intensity before the show even begins. The audience sees chairs hanging from the rafters, which are constantly carried in and out by the performers. The lighting by Jose Santiago adds another layer of intensity to the thought-provoking production, while the costumes by Tiffany Howard and wig designs by Al Annotto help bring the complex characters to life within a specific historical era. This production of Parade is brilliantly done. Although it's a large-scale production, the staging is still very intimate, which makes it all the more absorbing. It is truly special."
Natasha Ashley - NY Theatre Guide
"It’s a powerhouse production, creatively staged: many of the show’s 31 characters (perfectly costumed by Tiffany Howard) are onstage simultaneously. Czerton Lim’s three-tiered wood and metal set is grim and foreboding, opening with eight straight-backed chairs and one table suspended over the bare boards like strange fruit. Jose Santiago lights the action emotionally, murkily, in yellow and red tones, shaping haunting effects on the backdrop outline of an enormous, thick-branched tree."
"Visual highlights include Czerton Lim's very workable, multi-level set design that begins and ends the piece with several props suspended in a visual tableau creatively denoting the parameters of the action, while Tiffany Howard's period costume design puts us solidly into the beginning of the 20th century."
Tony Curulla - The Post Standard
"Show director and festival Producing Artistic Director Brett Smock brilliantly arranges his ensemble about designer Czerton Lim's stage, a spiderweb of stairs and platforms with Leo often occupying its vulnerable middle."
Nominated for the 2017 Syracuse Area Live Theater (SALT) Awards for Best Set Design of a Musical
Crazy For You
"We switch between 1930s New York City—where Bobby Childs, yearning to dance, tries to avoid the family banking business—and Deadrock, Nevada, where Polly Baker, postmistress, is the only woman in a dying town. Completed by Dan Ozminkowski’s lighting, Czerton Lim’s crafty, cartoonish backdrops set the stage perfectly. Out West, there’s another comic wink, where the facing buildings—the former theater turned post office and the local saloon—actually spell out “Dead” “Rock.”
"The set design by Czerton Lim captures the contrast between Bobby Child’s life in New York City and the life in Nevada in perfect detail, including a car that moves across the stage. The costumes by Tiffany Howard flow beautifully in every dance number, enhancing the emotion of the music as well as the performances. All of the artistic elements come together to create a beautiful and captivating story."
Natasha Ashley - NY Theatre Guide
Nominated for the 2016 Syracuse Area Live Theater (SALT) Awards for Best Set Design of a Musical
Sweeney Todd
"Director Igor Goldin has marshaled (and handsomely staged) enormous talent here, starting with the design. Czerton Lim’s striking two-level set is an abandoned pie tin factory, all concrete and metal, disturbingly dingy. Not a detail is missing, from high filthy windows and overhead ductwork to grim oven below—straight from your worst nightmare.
Lim’s versatile set—effectively lit by Ben Hagen—serves as Todd’s and Lovett’s shops, the judge’s home, his court, an insane asylum, and the streets of London—all equally sinister, which is the point. Goldin has “updated” the tale to post-World War II, the most significant effect being Tiffany Howard’s costuming, which puts the street and factory women in grey tailored suit-dresses, suggesting automatons. With such a rich set, the tale has only to unfold."
"(Igor) Goldin updates the setting to post-World War II London, with members of the chorus punching a time clock as they enter Czerton Lim‘s industrial-looking, multi-level unit set. (In a lovely touch, Todd’s murdered victims punch out as they walk off the set.)"
West Side Story
"Scenic designer Czerton Lim's sets yield fold after gritty fold of 1950s New York City, and (Parker) Esse cleverly stages the rumble at the climax of act one behind steel caging to isolate its primal participants from the audience — and to blur the daylight between their punches and their recipients' faces, no doubt."
"No one here is trying to reinvent the wheel, save for Czerton Lim’s atmospheric and versatile settings. This production has gone back to 1957 to remind us why West Side Story is still great and why it still matters...Lim’s set angles buildings like German expressionism so that the walls are pressing down on these kids. The buildings also fold out and extend in smart ways that are fun to watch as they change onstage. Best of all is the stage backing, a low angle vision of a Brooklyn brownstone, a vision that’s more Martin Scorsese or Spike Lee than the 1950s."
The Diary of Anne Frank
"Czerton Lim’s scenic design is also just as much a character in this show and one that helps to capture the overall theme. It is a four-level set, framed in by wall corners. There are stairs in different spots throughout and it faithfully reproduces the cramped feel of so many people living in such a small space for more than two years. "
On the Town
"There’s a charming innocence to three gobs seeking adventure and romance in this magical town—and Czerton Lim’s stunning set, brilliantly lit by Dan Ozminkowski, captures it all. A weathered American flag becomes the framework for the set pieces: huge letters spelling out New York in an old postcard font, with a Manhattan skyline silhouetted beyond. The set is, in fact, a 1940s postcard come to life, as video projections (by Brad Peterson) on the letters swiftly take us from one locale to another—the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Coney Island, a string of nightclubs. The effect is lively and dazzling, and adds emotional tones—the endless loneliness of the subway tunnels; warplanes in formation soaring in a pale sky."
"The artistic staff makes this production seem like you are really traveling through New York City with the high-energy cast. Czerton Lim’s scenic design of cut out letters, spelling New York in the background, works out amazingly, along with Brad Peterson’s projections of the subway system, advertisements, water, and ship yard. There is one moving piece of set, “city,” that serves as a taxi-cab, couch, seats on the subway, piano, etc. This transforms many of the scenes with ease and professionalism. Bravo to the creative artistic team, the end result was breathtaking."
Natasha Ashley - NY Theatre Guide
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
“Czerton Lim’s dazzling sets, all within a series of swirling Art Deco frames and magically lit by Adam Frank, are some of the most stunning seen here in years. The cruise ship Ile de France, both dockside and deckside; luxurious staterooms and ballrooms; the streets of Paris and the Eiffel Tower itself - simply breathtaking.”
“Scenic designer Czerton Lim enhances Blondes’ world of high times and swanky swells, where staterooms are the size of Fifth Avenue luxury suites, all the better for porthole peeking and inevitable misunderstandings.”
Bill DeLapp - Syracuse New Times
“Happily, like the movie, the Merry-Go-Round’s production of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” consistently rises the material. Overall, production values are lush, with lavish period costumes by Garth Dunbar. Perhaps the most impressive element is the sleek scenic design by Czerton Lim, featuring a set of art deco arches framing the action. The sparkling shipboard scenes look like the jaunty covers of 1920’s magazines, and a view from under the Eiffel Tower is spectacular.”
Interview about the design process for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Singin' in the Rain
“Scenic designer Czerton Lim has come up with an elegant modular set that is able to encompass several Tinseltown locations, particularly a very effective and fun version of Graumann’s Chinese Theatre, a lovely park setting, and various soundstages.”
Bryan VanCampen - Ithaca Times
“This production at MGR Playhouse is handsomely mounted, pleasing to the eye as well as the ear. Czerton Lim’s set designs capture the feeling of Hollywood slickness, glitz and glamor whether the setting is Graumann’s Chinese Theatre, a studio boss’ mansion or a sound stage.”
Medea
“Theater Mitu's production of Medea is stunning visually. The set, lighting, and costume design are wonderful examples of what can be done in a small space with imagination and vision. All the physical elements of this production are highly sculptural and appealing.”
Jane Titus – nytheatre.com
Man of La Mancha
“Even though the action takes place in a dungeon and the cast members, including the title character, are supposed to be outcasts, La Mancha has the lushest-looking set MGR has had all summer…There are forbidding stone walls, menacing shackles, gleaming soldiers’ helmets, fetid beggars and gypsies, and the drawbridge to hell, or at least the Spanish Inquisition.”
James MacKillop – Syracuse New Times
A Number
“The production has an elaborate set, designed by Czerton Lim, suggesting an aspirational suburban interior albeit one where the wallpaper resembles microscope slides of DNA.”
Juliet Hindell – Exuent Magazine
“Czerton Lim’s set includes wall panels that initially resemble abstract patterns, but reveal themselves to be DNA sequences. It’s a subtle underscoring of the play’s themes, and it's effective.”
Mark Sullivan – Capital NY