After changing its lighting and sound suppliers at the last minute, the producers, Theatrical Management Group (TMG), put the job out to tender across Europe with PRG Europe's Croydon office winning the contract. Alan Thomson, Loz Wilcox and the team at PRG Europe, along with production electrician Simon Needle had only two weeks between getting the contract and having to ship to Frankfurt.
Simon Needle explained that to accommodate the huge lighting rig within the turnaround times - just one and a half days including traveling between each gig - they decided to use pre-rigged truss which was, supplied by PRG Europe."
Lighting designer Charlie Morrison and associate lighting designer, Josh Monroe, wanted to maximize the versatility of the relatively simple set, which consists of only two truss-like portals laden with lights and a large band bridge upstage. With a strong projection element to the show, using both front-of-house PANI projectors and rear-projected slide imagery, also supplied by PRG Europe, a cyclorama was crucial in creating a wide-open look for some of the scenes, especially the rock 'n' roll numbers. To contrast with this, a series of red sliders were also specified, which when closed create a confining, oppressive effect for the more intense, intimate scenes.
With the band sitting upstage on the bridge, the main character, Tommy, is often up there with them, so they had to be brought into focus when necessary. To do this, strong silhouettes of the band against the very vivid and often changing cyclorama were developed, along with a 'split screen' effect. For the 'concert' sections of the show there is a fair amount of exposed equipment dotted around the set, including moving lights and four large towers of Pars to create a truly 'rock 'n' roll' feel.
Charlie Morrison chose an automated rig with lots of Vari-Lites because: "They give us great flexibility in being able to section off pieces of the cyclorama as well as the ability to project imagery on to it when needed. There isn't a lot of depth between the cyclorama and the Vari-Lites, so the zoom optics were instrumental to the kind of coverage we needed. They are also incredibly bright and the colour mixing is top notch, so we were able to get incredibly saturated and vivid colours."
Michel Boersma added: "PRG Europe did the impossible and I am hugely grateful to them for it."
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
