MEDIA AND PRINT REVIEWS (SELECTED)
Legally Blonde The Musical. Rainbow Stage (Winnipeg Free Press)
Sean Mulcahy’s spot-on costumes range from Ivy League chic to electric spandex leggings and Malibu-flavoured togs. HOLLY HARRIS
Sisters of ’78. Blyth Festival (Ontario Stage)
Sean Mulcahy has created a suitably grim rendition of the Fleck sweatshop. A clever revolve stage left opens to reveal Maeve’s kitchen. He has also obviously consulted archival footage to provide period-perfect costumes for the cast. KELLY MONAGHAN
https://ontariostage.com/sisters-of-78-blyth-festival/#:~:text=Sisters%20of%20’78%20is%20powerful,other%20moments%20during%20the%20show
Sisters of ’78. Blyth Festival (Northern Arts Perspective)
The set was a thing of theatrical magic, capturing the factory floor with its large and dangerous machinery, dirty industrial windows and a locker room away from the prying eyes of management. The factory also transitioned perfectly into a small-town bar where the women who worked at Fleck – which produced automotive wiring assemblies in the ‘70s – would meet to voice their frustrations with working conditions, plan union meetings and strategies, and blow off steam.
A separate piece of the set, a kitchen plucked straight from the late ‘70s with its bright-yellow wallpaper and garish green furniture, was built so it could spin in and out of view of the audience, making the scenes featuring Maeve (Madison Hayes-Crook), Andrew (Aiden Altow), Margaret (Cara Hunter) and Christine (Gloria Garratt) feel seamlessly woven into the narrative fabric of this production. GALEN SIMMONS
https://northernartsperspective.ca/2026/06/18/blyth-festival-review-sisters-of-78-is-an-authentically-canadian-story-about-standing-up-for-whats-right/
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Neptune Theatre (TWISI Review)
Sean Mulcahy’s costume design helps to tell us so much about the characters too. George is probably the same age as Anthony Black is in real life but his clothes give him a frumpy and homespun quality that makes him look much older and stands in contrast to Nick and Honey who exude timeless class, and Martha, who changes from an elegant party dress into much more casual but also specifically youthful attire. While Nick and Honey seek to capture the esteem given to grownups, Martha wants to prove she can be as hip and cool as any twenty year old. AMANDA CAMBELL
www.twisitheatreblog.com
In Seven Days The Grand Theatre (Entertain This)
One of the highlights of the production is a hyper-realistic set that is a carbon copy of an upper-middle class home in the more mature suburbs of London, Ontario. The level of detail is uncannily familiar and creates an intimate atmosphere that makes the conflicts within the household feel realistic. The bright lighting typically used throughout the show illuminates every tension, leaving the characters with few places to hide their secrets from their family. (Eden Eidt)
https://www.entertainthisthought.com/in-seven-days/
Shrek! Neptune Theatre (Chronicle Herald)
Costume designer Sean Mulcahy succeeds in bringing classic characters to life with colour, texture and what must be millions of sequins on Lord Farquaad alone. The wood-patterned leotards on Pinnochio (Jeigh Madjus) and cookie cutter outfits of the conformist Duloc Greeters are especially nice…Jacob MacInnis stars as Shrek and his prostheses are truly remarkable.
The Comedy of Errors. Canadian Stage, High Park
The costumes …The women’s in particular really pop on stage, with their bright colours and varied shapes; I drooled particularly over the gown worn by Christopher Allen as the Courtesan, which looks gorgeous on his towering form. LIN YOUNG (MOONEY ON THEATRE)
Driving Miss Daisy. HGJT. (Mooney on Theatre)
The set of Driving Miss Daisy in the Greenwin Theatre was a peaceful and immaculate home. It was clearly a place of wealth, or at least one of expensive taste.
One of the most impressive aspects of the play was how it depicted the passage of time. The ageing of the characters was done really well. Set and costume designer Sean Mulcahy managed to slowly show the physical changes of several characters over a span of 25 years. ELISSA BARNARD
Freud’s Last Session. HGJT. (Globe and Mail)
When Lewis meets him, the 83-year-old doctor and inveterate cigar smoker is near his end, battling an excruciatingly painful oral cancer that has rotted away part of his jaw. Portrayed with gentle sympathy by Coleman, he’s in a state of continuous agitation as he shuffles about his red-draped, artifact-cluttered study (assiduously designed by Sean Mulcahy). DANA EWACHOW
(Toronto Star)
The Production. Sean Mulcahy has designed a set of Freud’s study complete with many collectables, busts of famous people, skulls, book, three lamps, an ornate desk, rugs on the floor, a chaise for patients stage left and heavy drapes that cover two windows that look out into the garden. The study is well used and worn. It does have its own order.
Both Freud and Lewis are gracious and respectful of each other. Sean Mulcahy has designed a brown three piece suit for Freud. Layne Coleman as Freud is a bit stooped, and has the walk of an old man—Freud is 83. Coleman plays Freud as a bit irascible and a touch irritated because Lewis is late. The schedules of trains is terrible what with the air raids etc. Or it could be misplaced anger because Freud is in such terrible pain.
On the other hand, Lewis as played by Brendan Murray is dapper in cream coloured pants a shirt, tie and light tanned vest. Lewis is one sharp dresser. KAREN FRICKER
Brighton Beach Memoirs. (Toronto Star)
It must also be said that the set by Sean Mulcahy — a two-storey home made up of four rooms and furnished with no less than two Persian rugs; an assortment of books, vases, and lamps; four single beds; and a variety of throw pillows — is far more lavish than one can reasonably expect from a show of this scale. The details are so polished that there are even family photos hanging on the wall outside the boys’ bedroom door. That door is closed for most of the production. RYAN PORTER
Actually (Toronto Star)
Sean Mulcahy’s set design of a raised stone circle surrounded by stone pathways and strips of lawn perhaps references a particular outdoor location at Princeton. To me it suggests a Greek amphitheatre — a space where the public comes together to bear witness to the culture’s shared concerns. The circle also evokes the cyclical nature of the play’s structure, which returns us to the original encounter without any concrete answers but newly alert to the importance of the concerns it raises. Karen Fricker
(Mooney On Theatre)
Sean Mulcahy’s beautiful set mostly evokes an ancient Greek theatre with only vague hints of a college campus, furthering the message that both participants are trying to speak their truth while simultaneously being put on stage and expected to act a certain role. ILANA LUCAS
https://www.mooneyontheatre.com/2019/09/21/review-actually-harold-green-obsidian/#more-53852
A Few Good Men. (BROADWAYWORLD.COM)
In part to make it physically accessible, the set design (by Sean Mulcahy) for this play is quite interesting. There are no steps on the main set, and instead a tilted ramp-like platform on stage acting as the floor to the courtroom, offices, etc. For much of the play, justice appears to be tilted and unbalanced and so this works well as a visual metaphor for the world these characters are operating within.
The superb design, direction, and performances in this production should make it as difficult for audiences to miss as it was difficult for this reviewer to avoid a pun involving the words “you can’t handle the truth” in this review. In other words, this one is hard to pass up. Go see it. LAUREN GIENOW
(WELLINGTON ADVISOR)
More than three quarters of the play takes place in the courtroom and set designer Sean Mulcahy took the challenge in stride.
The curtain didn’t close once, and core props on the set remained on stage for the duration. It was the configuration and use of the props that indicated to the audience where the scene was taking place and with a tilted floor none of the courtroom subtleties were missed by the audience. JAIME MYSLIK
http://intrepidtravelogue.com/a-few-good-men-review
The production benefits from a handsome and efficient set by Sean Mulcahy and effective lighting by Kevin Fraser, both reliable Drayton veterans.
The stage version is far less linear than the film, a challenge director Skye Brandon aptly tackles without overthinking, making use of swift transitions and great help from Sean Mulcahy’s set design which is impressive in scale and realism while remaining usefully structured for both versatility and sightlines. Drayton’s investment in the production is evident both in the expansiveness of the set and the detail of Jennifer Wonnacott’s costumes. KELLY MONAGHAN
Salt Baby (THE SPECTATOR)
The story involves a number of quick scene changes, and Sean Mulcahy’s set design facilitates that with a simple elegance. The stage is divided into three main locations; SB’s bedroom, her father’s living room, and a generic outside space, all set against the backdrop of a lattice of family pictures bound by rope. The imagery of framed memories and the ties that bind adds a powerful aesthetic.
https://www.thespec.com/entertainment/stage/2022/09/19/hamilton-theatre-aquarius-salt-baby.html
The set by Sean Mulcahy is vivid and compelling. Several large framed photos are suspended up stage. Many frames are empty. Linking all the frames together is a heavy chain. Brilliant. The empty frames are the holes in Salt Baby’s life, the missing people and bits. The notion of family is strongly linked by the chain, but those empty frames present a painful absence that Salt Baby wants to fill. LYNN SLOTKIN
https://slotkinletter.com/
Midsummer; A Play With Songs. (Capitol Critics Circle)
All of the technical elements of the production work to effectively immerse the audience into the world of Midsummer. The set, designed by Sean Mulcahy, is a thoroughly authentic rendering of a typical British pub, complete with bars, a large wrap-around booth seat, and TVs at the back showing football. The tables and chairs set up before the main seating area for a few spectators to have a closer experience are also a nice touch. NATASHA LOMONOSSOFF
Anne Of Green Gables (Toronto Concert Reviews)
The sets by Sean Mulcahy included a movable ‘Green Gables’ that rotated to become the rail station, a painted back-drop of a PEI shoreline and a mechanical horse and buggy that ingeniously travelled across the stage carrying Anne (Emily Robertson) and Matthew (Larry Mannell) home to Avonlea. Costumes by Robin Fisher perfectly suited the turn of the century period of the show. DAVID RICHARDS
A vivid backdrop of PEI scenery, along with an abundance of wooden-cut trees, by set designer Sean Mulcahy makes for an appropriately romantic stage space. NATASHA LOMONOSSOFF
Renovations for Six. (The Spectator)
Above the stairway, bare lathing protrudes, suggesting more than rampant redecoration. In so many ways, renovation and its disturbing upheaval, so prevalent in Sean Mulcahy’s superbly imagined set, becomes a visual metaphor here for the lives of Foster’s engaging characters.
Bend it Like Beckham (ONSTAGE)
Visually speaking, this production is stunning. Sean Mulcahy’s costumes are boldly coloured and really give a sense of place and/or culture. The traditional Indian wedding outfits are a feast for the eyes. Random sports jerseys scattered amid crowd scenes gives a real sense of the sports-focused nature of London. PAUL LOVE
Halfway There (Ontario Stage)
The entire action of Halfway There unfolds in the welcoming confines of Junior’s Diner. The handsome set, one of the best I’ve seen at Drayton, is by Sean Mulcahy. It’s very nicely lit by Siobhán Sleath, and with a fraction of the candlepower available to places like Shaw and Stratford I might add. Costumes by Julia Holbert are unassuming and just right.
https://ontariostage.com/halfway-there-at-drayton/
Quiet in the Land (Ontario Stage)
“Set designer Sean Mulcahy has provided an ingenious set dominated by two moveable set pieces that are reconfigured in different ways to create both interiors and exteriors.” KELLY MONAGHAN
https://ontariostage.com/quiet-in-the-land-blyth-festival/
ELF! THE MUSICAL (Couchtime with Jill)
In the program, set designer Sean Mulcahy said he was inspired by classic pop-up books. They completely achieved that look, and it really added an element of fantasy to the experience.
https://couchtimejill.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/elf-the-musical-at-neptune-theatre/