Unlikely, but true; it seems that Elton’s enthusiasm for the musical form re-awakened the composer’s own excitement. To this mix, add the unlikeliest of subject material, a boy’s football team in Ireland in the heights of the trouble. The result is The Beautiful Game, hailed by some critics as Lloyd Webber’s best musical, and drawing comparisons with West Side Story from others.
A creative team was then assembled from the world of opera: director Robert Carsen, designer Michael Levine and lighting designer Jean Kalman. For those familiar with his work - summed up, if over-simplified, by describing it as a 4K HMI fresnel in each corner of the stage, plus some low Par cans from the circle front as front-light - Kalman was perhaps the most unlikely choice of all, his style about as far from the brightly-coloured, tightly paced stereotypical ‘musical’ lighting as it is possible to get! But The Beautiful Game isn’t that kind of show. A workshop of the production, staged in what became the show’s actual venue, the Cambridge Theatre, used an empty stage with the lighting rig flown up to grid height. The real production simply finesses that concept: fake versions of the side walls were built within the real side walls to give concealed entrances and exits. A fake back wall includes moving panels to reveal the pure, distant countryside in one song, whilst the proscenium arch was distressed further, the floor was altered to allow a petrol-bomb flame effect and drainage for the overhead rain curtain (both made by Any Effects), and some flown items, including a set of stadium lights, for the big football match number (made by HELL) were introduced. Vertigo carried out all of the rigging, under the direction of production managers Simon Marlow and Stewart Crosbie. The concept was cold harshness, and Kalman followed his normal style to provide it, the shock value when stronger colours occasionally creep through therefore being all the greater.
He did allow associate lighting designer Alistair Grant to introduce him to new tools though: when the moving yoke HMIs he originally sought weren’t available in time, other options were investigated. As a result the show became one of the first to use Vari-Lite’s new VL2416 washlights, with 14 of the 1200W discharge units with variable beam spreaders in the rig; these were supplemented by 18 VL5Bs, all provided by VLPS in London. Kalman has also fallen in love with the DHA product range on the show: 26 Digital Light Curtains are spread all over the place: in the overhead rig, again flown way up out of sight, on side booms and with one unit even mounted on the lower circle front - surprising, but surprisingly effective! The overhead units were fitted with a selection of frosts in their scrolls, allowing their beams to be spread to suit different moments in the show. Also out front, at the top of the mid-auditorium booms, are two DHA Digital Beamlights; much of programmer Stuart Porter’s time at his Wholehog 2 was spent producing cues to nudge these lights around the stage following the actors! Kalman also used 12 Martin PAL1200s to provide shapable beams. This portion of the rig was supplied by The Moving Light Company, with the conventionals (including around 120 Source Fours, 100 Par cans, two 5K fresnels and five 4K HMI fresnels) from White Light. The installation was masterminded by a team led by production electrician Pete Lambert, and the show’s lighting is now overseen by Dave Sadler.
For the audio side of the show, Lloyd Webber turned to a more familiar collaborator, Martin Levan, who has been designing the composer’s shows since Cats. Levan’s design is based around his familiar combination of Tannoy 3836 and T40 and Meyer UPA-1C and USW-1 loudspeakers, with UPM-1Ps used as front-fills; the rig (supplied by Autograph) a
