UK - It has taken Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express 22 years to return to the stage since it pulled out of the West End in 2002. This time, the production’s new home is at the Troubadour Wembley Park which has been specially adapted to create an immersive performance experience, with Unusual Rigging on board to handle the venue and production’s rigging requirements.
Working for production manager Mark Carey from Shedworks Studio, the Unusual team were asked to install a number of items for the show requirements. Alex Taylor, production rigger at Unusual explained: “As part of our brief, we were asked to provide all of the LX, Sound and Video trusses, the trusses for the sound baffle, three technical working platforms for all the LX racks and to devise a method of lifting up a halo into position, being careful to get the height and angle just right.”
Rigging Starlight in a studio space rather than a theatre also had its challenges, height being one of the main issues. As the show is so large, it crosses over between both studio spaces within the venue. Getting the required trim height for the flown items that cross this space took some thinking in order to work out how to achieve the height that was required.
Access was also a challenge that had to be overcome. During the early stages of load in, the Unusual team had a clear space and was able to use MEWPs to access all of the required areas. However, as trusses began to be installed and other parties came in to start their aspect of the work, space became more limited. Fortunately, the venue is equipped with many catwalks across the roof, making it slightly easier to get around.
Jeremy Featherstone, senior design engineer on the project added: “Every venue has its challenges good and bad. This one has a large weight load allowance, which is great for all the hanging items that the show required. Space was another factor that helped the load-in of the show. Unlike some West End theatres where you are limited to just the stage area and sometimes the temporary deck in the seats, at Troubadour you have all of the studio’s floor space to play with, alongside the large load dock and storage space outside and the ability to use the FOH space for all the road boxes.”
Despite the advantages of the studio space, getting the required trim height for some of the flown items was quite the challenge, along with keeping ahead of the other departments in the production team, and ensuring that the truss was ready for them to carry out their work. In addition to this, around 90% of the show hoists are motor up. Running in all the required cable for the hoist was an enormous challenge. “We had team discussions with all parties to line up what needed to be completed first to help overcome any problems, and we were in talks with Mark daily to make sure that minor issues were sorted out before they became problems.
In total Unusual installed 140 motors, 400m of show truss, 100m of show truss spreaders and 60 D/H. “It’s a pretty massive show – probably four times the size of something we’d rig on a West End theatre stage,” commented Alex.
Mark concluded: “This was a complex job due the amount of equipment trying to share the roof space and with a very short lead time. As always, the Unusual team were brilliant in adapting the rigging plans to accommodate the changes through the design process and on-site. It was brilliant working with Alex Taylor and the site rigging team who were an integral part of delivering the show to such a high standard.”
Keep an eye out for an in-depth report on Starlight Express in an upcoming issue of LSi.
