HSL supplies many of Kenwright's theatre shows and tours, but what clinched this one for them as suppliers was that they came up with a unique set and lighting concept that could also be integrated with the existing lighting rig servicing the Palladium's current resident production, The Sound of Music
Project manager, HSL's Mike Oates reports, "The brief included creating a design for the show that resembled the TV series in some ways, but that also had a bit of rock 'n' roll attitude and individuality of its own. It also had to be got in and out and rigged in a day." HSL contacted Leeds-based Production North who have a large stock of set elements, and asked them to collaborate with the set.
Together, they came up with a set based on a 40ft wide, 8ft deep and 7ft high top section, flanked by a dramatic sweeping staircase, 32ft wide at the bottom, tapering to 8ft at the top. Left and right of this were two band risers housing the 12- piece backing band on several different levels. Ben Levitt joined the HSL team as set carpenter to make sure everything went together smoothly.
They utilised the house automated lighting system consisting of Martin Professional MAC 700 profile and wash fixtures, Vari*Lite VL1000 ARCs and MAC TW1 tungsten washes. To this, HSL added a 10 x 12m SoftLED backdrop, and trimmed the front of the risers with ColorKinetics iColorTiles.
For floor lighting, they added 10 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs and six ColorWash 700E ATs, along the back of the stage, together with an assortment of other LED fixtures including i-Pix Satellites, JTE PixelPARs and Pulsar ChromaStrips.
The extra lighting, LED sources and the house rig were all integrated into a Jands Vista T4 console supplied by HSL for the show, which was programmed and operated by Mark Jones.
(Jim Evans)
