Natasha Katz is the lighting designer. When she asked Stuart Porter to programme the show for her - the two have previously worked together on Beauty & The Beast - Porter wanted to use a grandMA system, a decision Katz was happy to support. Porter has increased his specification of the grandMA, and on this show he uses a grandMA full-size, a grandMA light for backup and four MA NSPs. A tablet PC running grandMA remote software is also used to run the lights from stage.
The rig contained over 100 moving lights - a mix of 62 Vari*Lite VL3500Qs, 60 VL2500s and 18 VL500s, all supplied by White Light. The many LED elements are ensconced in the set, with several custom scenic pieces designed and built by Howard Eaton Lighting (HELL). They include seven fibre optics with dimmer, colour wheel and twinkle disk functions and 160 other differently-sized LED panels, built to resemble stained glass windows of the abbey in which the principal stage action ensues. These RGB LEDs work off a grandMA virtual dimmer RGB profile for ease of programming.
Another 28 RGB LED strips are embedded in the bar area, the steps and even integrated into a sofa, again on a virtual dimmer, with a total of nine DMX universes being run from the console. The grandMA also triggers an Obsession that drives the show's generic lights.
(Jim Evans)
