Autograph's award winning Simon Baker, recently honoured as LDI's sound designer of the year, was chosen to design the show by production company Theatre Partners after their collaboration on 125th Street. Simon is working with the unusual situation of the entire cast being actor/musicians, who play all their own instruments live with no orchestral backup, resulting in a much more complex and intuitive system design.
Autograph have supplied a Cadac F-Type mixing console, as well as three additional digital Yamaha D1000 desks, one for foldback, one to pre-mix all on-set microphones and the third for a multi-track pre recorded mix. An extensive and almost exclusive range of Meyer Sound loudspeakers have been chosen for this fast moving rock musical, including the M1D ultra-compact cabinet as the main system, with MSL-2s as a central cluster while several more are positioned on stage for sound effects. A number of UPM-1Cs and UPA-1Cs have been employed for foldback, and a further 50 UPM-1Cs are installed around the auditorium for delay and surround sound effects.
The show uses a large volume of microphones for both cast and set - 20 Sennheiser SK5012s for the cast and 16 SK50s for live instruments, along with 30 Sennheiser compact low distortion e604s installed into drainpipes around the set, each of which have been cut and tuned to emit varying musical notes when struck. The most demanding microphone positions are located on the jail's cell bars. Simon decided on the use of C-ducer microphones; less than 1mm thick the mic is flexible and ideal for wrapping around the bars, picking up the vibrations of the set and adding further vigour to the sound effects.
Jailhouse Rock celebrates 50 years of rock 'n' roll and features a rich catalogue of classics from the 1950s. The show opened at the Plymouth Theatre Royal in mid February, the Palace Theatre Manchester will be its next stop, before settling at London's Piccadilly Theatre in the spring.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
