"Whiplash"

We see lots of the Palace Theatre building, 630 S. Broadway, in "Whiplash," Damien Chazelle's film about the music business set in New York starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons (Sony Classics, 2014). Much of the building, however, isn't easily recognizable. Miles goes to see "Rififi" with his dad. The Palace is standing in for an unnamed New York theatre. We even have snow in the gutter. 

 

The very shy Miles at the snackbar buying popcorn and Raisinets from Melissa Benoist. He'll later ask her out. And eventually breaks up with her when he determines he can't both have a girlfriend and also become the best he possibly can as a drummer. The snackbar and concession equipment was brought in by the production. 

 

 

Miles and his father, played by Paul Reiser, in the Palace auditorium before the show. Miles is mixing the Raisinets in with the popcorn. 

 

 

Miles is enrolled at the Shaffer Conservatory. The next morning we're at a practice in the school's Nassau Band practice room. The scene was shot on the fifth floor of the office building above the Palace. J.K. Simmons, head of the Conservatory's esteemed Studio Band, pops in on his quest for new talent and hears Miles play. 

Miles in a hallway at the school. We're in the corridor adjacent to the Palace's basement lounge and restrooms. 

 

Stopping outside the door of the Studio Band practice room.  If you actually looked through a door in this direction you'd be looking into the plenum area under the auditorium's main floor, not the lovely wood-paneled room we see in the film. In the background are the stairs up to the house right side of the lobby. 

 

A peek through the door. And J.K. spots him looking. The vista we see is actually the practice room set that was constructed on the Palace's stage. 

 

Another Palace basement corridor shot. But this time we're back in the lounge area near the restrooms. Here it's dressed as sort of a library study area. The house right stairs are off to the right. 

 

 

Miles venturing into the Shaffer Conservatory Studio Band room, a set built on the Palace stage. That's the stage floor we see in this shot.

The Shaffer dorm room Miles had was another set constructed at the Palace. A blood red corridor leading to private practice rooms was done in the stage basement of the Palace, using the existing color there. 

 

 

 

Another scene in the Palace basement lounge area. Simmons later gets fired for his abusive behavior toward students. 

 

Later Miles sees a sign outside a jazz club advertising that Simmons is playing. He peeks in. The set used the ticket lobby of the Palace. Beyond the entrance doors we're actually looking into the theatre lobby. 

 

 

A chat in the nightclub after J.K's set. The table is up against a wall in the Palace ticket lobby.

See the pages on the Los Angeles Theatres site about the Palace Theatre for photos taken all over the building. It's a 1911 vintage house that opened as the Orpheum.

 

 

A New York City street view, shot at 4th and Main. Sorry, no theatres in this shot. Unless you count the blue lights on the left, hanging on the building that's on the site of the Muse Theatre, 417 S. Main. On the right it's the Hotel Barclay. 

 

There were two days of shooting in New York and two in Santa Clarita for a car rental scene and the house that Miles' father lived in. Seventeen days were spent downtown at the Palace, Orpheum and the Hotel Barclay. The lobby of the Barclay was used for the set of the bar/restaurant where Miles meets the lawyer to tell stories of his abuse at the Conservatory. Other Barclay locations included the post-Conservatory apartment for Miles and the coffee shop where he breaks up with his girlfriend.  

 

At the end of the film we go to Carnegie Hall. We get a nice exterior shot of the real thing but inside we're at the Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway.  J.K. has asked Miles to play at a concert and he doesn't suspect that J.K. knows he was the one who helped get him fired.

 

 

Before the Carnegie Hall concert. The shot was done in the trap room at the Orpheum, looking toward stage left. 

 

 

An interesting bit of theatre geography. We're backstage and somehow Miles can peek out a door and see the lobby. It's the Orpheum. And you certainly can't get this view from backstage. Nor could you at Carnegie Hall for that matter.

 

 

J.K. walking onstage. He'll go over to Miles and tell him he knows that he was the rat. And then they play the first number -- a song for which Miles hasn't been given the charts.

 

A shot from the back of the main floor. 

 

A view into the house from onstage. Miles had left the stage after the first disastrous number. But then he changed his mind and returns to play the way on his own terms -- and also to embarrass J.K.

See the Los Angeles Theatres pages about the Orpheum Theatre for a history of this 1926 vintage vaudeville house along with several hundred photos. It's a design by G. Albert Lansburgh, who also did the Palace that was used in earlier scenes.

See the terrific page about the film on the site Set Decor where they discuss the shoot with set decorator Karuna Karmarkar. The production designer was Melania Paizis Jones. Sharone Meir was the cinematographer.

On IMDb: "Whiplash"