Scenic Designer Tony Cisek on his designs for Black Pearl Sings!:

In Act 1, we focused on the lack of potential for these two women. When we meet them, their choices are very narrow, and we gave them a bleak, barren landscape. In Act 2, their choices and possibilities multiply. It’s not that things are hunky dory; it’s just that there are more options. It’s more varied, it’s more dense, but it is still a complicated world.

The apartment [in Act 2] is described as the apartment of a bohemian arts patron, filled with a collection of exotic, eccentric art objects, many of which are probably new to Pearl. For the concert … the apartment gently, quietly tracks away, and our New York world comes alive, so we get transported to a more magical kind of Times Square.