David Mitchell, Set Designer, is Dead at 79

David Mitchell, a prominent Broadway and Off Broadway set designer of the 1970s and '80s, died on Monday in Los Angeles, the New York Times has reported. He was 79.

Born in 1932 in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, Mitchell attended Kutztown State Teachers College, then studied set design at Boston University under the tutelage of Horace Armistead, winner of the first Tony Award for set design. Coming to New York, Mitchell worked as an assistant to Ming Cho Lee, which led to a long relationship with the Public Theatre.

Mitchell's Off Broadway designs included a 1967 Hamlet, starring Martin Sheen; Bruce Jay Friedman's black comedy Steambath; David Rabe's The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel; and Miguel Pinero's prison drama Short Eyes. He made his Broadway debut as the scenic supervisor for Charles Gordone's No Place to Be Somebody. It was followed by Mrs. Warren's Profession, starring Ruth Gordon and Lynn Redgrave; the hit musical I Love My Wife; the blockbuster hit Annie; The Gin Game and Foxfire, two vehicles for Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy; the musical Barnum; the Neil Simon trilogy of Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and Broadway Bound; and the original Broadway production of La Cage aux Folles. Nominated several times for Tony Awards, he won for Annie and Barnum.

In 1995, Mitchell designed the scenery for the Las Vegas spectacle EFX, at the MGM Grand. He returned to Broadway only once more, for the Johnny Mercer revue Dream, which has a short run in 1997. He also designed for New York City Ballet and was production designer for two films - My Dinner with Andre and the Paul Simon vehicle One Trick Pony.

The Times reports that he is survived by is survived by his two children, Jenny Lee Mitchell of Manhattan and David N. Mitchell of Forest Hills, Queens.