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October 2011 entertainment, presentation, installation

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Foo FightersLSi reports from Köln, Germany

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Technical FocusThe VL880 Spot luminaire

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Classic Gear: The Vari*Lite • PRG’s Richie Gorrod interviewed . . . and more!

Rise Above . . .LSi follows the Spider-Man saga

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SPIDER-MAN/PETER PARKERWITH MARY JANE

SPIDER-MAN FLIES OVER THEAUDIENCE IN THE AUDITORIUM

THE GREEN GOBLIN MAKES AN APPEARANCE

POW!

MEANWHILE, IN THE OSCORP LABORATORY . . .

ARACHNE’S LOOM

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David Barbour tracks Spider-Man’s long andcrooked road to Broadway success . . .

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark finally opened on Broadway on

June 14. Insert your own joke here. Or better yet, don’t. For in

spite of everything - the ballooning budget, the delays and

postponed openings, the swap-out of producers, the injuries,

the jokes by late-night comics, the New Yorker cover, the

replacement of key members of the creative team - the truth is

that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is looking more and more

like a hit.

Since its opening in June, the musical has been routinely grossingapproximately $1.8 million each week against a capacity of $1.9million. If the box office can keep up this torrid pace - admittedly a bigif - Spider-Man stands a chance of making back its record-breakingbudget of $75 million in a couple of years. In any case, the show’sproducers aren’t sitting still; there’s talk of future productions,including a possible sit-down edition in Vegas and/or an arena tour.The story of Spider-Man, the musical, is far from over.

Back StoryIt began in 2005, when Julie Taymor, whose production of The LionKing long ago entered into Broadway legend, and U2 front men Bonoand The Edge signed on do to a musical version of Spider-Man.(Marvel Comics had announced its intention to a Spider-Man musicalas early as 2002.) Taymor was to write and direct; Bono and the Edgewould provide the score. Soon after, however, Tony Adams, theshow’s producer, died unexpectedly; his associate, David Garfinkle,took over, presiding over a budget that had grown to well north of $25million before it became clear that he hadn’t sufficiently capitalized theproduction. This occurred in the summer of 2009, and construction ofthe set and structural work on the Foxwoods Theatre was halted,leaving the show in limbo.

At this point, an executive shuffle took place, with control of theproduction shifting to Michael Cohl, formerly of the concert touringgiant Live Nation and the producer behind U2’s touring spectacles,and Jeremiah Harris, technical supervisor on dozens of Broadwayshows and chairman/CEO of PRG, the global lighting, sound, scenery,and video colossus. With new capitalization - and a budget that wasnow reportedly $65 million - everyone went back to work: theproduction was rescheduled to open 21 December 2010.

As the world now knows, several months of turmoil unfolded, withtechnical delays and a series of minor injuries to cast members,culminating in the spectacular fall of Christopher W. Tierney, one ofseveral cast members who stand in for Spider-Man during certainaction scenes. As the show became a national talking point and aspreviews dragged on with no opening in sight, the New York press putdown its collective foot, and most of the first night reviewers attendeda performance in February, subsequently filing a stunningly negativeset of reviews.

Seeking a way forward, the producers removed Taymor, replacing herwith Philip Wm. McKinley, who, among other things, has staged anumber of productions for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & BaileyCircus. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, an Off Broadway playwright who also

writes Spider-Man for Marvel Comics, was brought in to reworkTaymor and Glen Berger’s book; a new choreographer, Chase Brock,replaced Daniel Ezralow. After a short shutdown period, a new showemerged . . .

Aguirre-Sacasa’s script significantly revised the story while retainingthe show’s theme, based on the famous Spider-Man motto, “Withgreat power comes great responsibility.” Much of the original showwas cut and reworked, the extra time gained used to refashion thenarrative, which now consists of a two-part battle between Spider-Manand the Green Goblin, and which focuses on Peter as he struggles toreconcile his two identities.

If anything, V2.0 (as the production team calls it) relies more on theshow’s spectacle and flying effects, a decision that results in a muchstronger audience response. Taymor famously described Spider-Manas a combination of rock opera and circus, and that’s a pretty gooddescription of what is now taking place on the Foxwoods Stage. If it’snot the show that anyone set out to do, it is, nevertheless, a show thataudiences want to see.

In any case, another Broadway show with such ambitions is unlikely tohappen any time soon. What follows is the story of how the designand technical team managed to rise above (as one of the show’ssong puts it) all the noise and negative buzz to accomplish theirremarkable work . . .

A comic book come to life George Tsypin has designed scenery at virtually all the major operahouses of the world. His productions for the Metropolitan Operainclude War and Peace, The Gambler, and The Magic Flute, the latterstaged by Julie Taymor. On Spider-Man, he says, he and Taymorbegan with a single, simple concept out of which everything elseevolved.

“Clearly, we wanted to start with comic books,” says Tsypin, whobegan designing the show in early 2007. “I had never opened a comicbook in my life. I was surprised at what I saw, because it’s a differentway of reading. It’s so visual; in a way, you have to take in the entirepage, as there are so many events happening at the same time.Comic books are also very cinematic - you have a long shot followedby a close-up of the same event. I wanted to capture theseperceptions in my design.”

To create an on-stage world that was, essentially, a comic book cometo life, Tsypin deployed any number of techniques, including flatillustrated backdrops with big blocks of colour, drops that open up likepop-up books, and plenty of video imagery. Scenes range from anintimate view of Peter and Mary Jane on the landing of a fire escape,floating in a night sky, to spectacularly sinister cityscapes, dominatedby ominously tilting skyscrapers, to a vertiginous downward view fromthe top of the Chrysler Building.

The production’s scenery was built and automated by PRG ScenicTechnologies. PRG also provided the lighting, sound, and video gearfor the production, making it a total service provider for Spider-Man.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACOB COHL

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Among the issues with which the designergrappled were the relationship between the stageand auditorium, and the show’s extensive flyingsystem, which, he realised, had to be integratedinto the scenery. “In an ideal world, I would havetreated the entire theatre as one design,” hesays. “Ultimately, I couldn’t be more inclusive ofthe house.” He adds, however, that, with theshow’s large proscenium, which has the look of a projecting spider web, “I created a tunnel thatprojects into the house and psychologicallysucks the audience in; the barrier between thestage and the house is broken.”

Of course, the flying effects are what reallybreach the normal gulf between stage andaudience, and Tsypin says he knew from thebeginning that Spider-Man would need to fly.This mandate occasionally complicatedmatters, however, as design ideas clashed withthe scale of the rigging set-up. “The originaldesign had an upside-down subway train thatran above the audience,” he says. “It was cutafter it was built, because of the complexity ofthe flying system. I had to clear a great deal ofspace for it, and I collaborated closely on it withthe flying consultant [Jaque Paquin, who worksfrequently with Cirque du Soleil]; the set and theflying are basically one design.

“The big elephant is the integration of the flyingsystem,” Tsypin adds. “That’s what took solong. We had to conceive the logic of it. It’scompletely invisible - you see the wires, but notthe superstructure behind it. That steel structurehas to be 100% rigid; that’s why the theatre hadto be rebuilt.”

PRG’s Fred Gallo, the production’s technicalsupervisor, adds: “An enormous part of the jobwas what we had to do to the theatre. We weredoing things with flying that had never beendone before outside of the movies. Scott Fisher,of Fisher Technical in Las Vegas, did thesystem.” As opposed to old-fashioned flyingsystems, which feature a performer on a singlecable, Gallo says, “When the actor in Spider-Man is flying over the audience, he is tied to sixdifferent winches. There is one in each corner atthe front-of-house; they talk to each other andmove the actor, in plane, from corner to corner.A fifth winch raises and lowers him and a sixth

winch spins him around so he is facing the rightdirection. This requires an enormous amount ofcalculation.”

Interestingly, Gallo notes, the technology for theflying system was derived from the Las Vegasproduction of Phantom of the Opera; ScottFisher and his team worked on that production’sfalling chandelier effect. “It breaks apart in fourdifferent sections over the audience and fliesout,” Gallo says. “Fisher spent millions of dollarson software to make that happen. Here, theytook that knowledge and used it to create three-dimensional flying in the theatre.”

Reworking the theatre’s interior toaccommodate the flying system posed anotherset of challenges. Gallo also notes that theFoxwoods, which appears to be a vintageBroadway house, is actually a modern buildingsynthesised from the Apollo and Lyric Theatres,which formerly occupied the Foxwoods footprinton 42nd Street. “When it was built,” he says,“they kept the façade of the Lyric and created aplaster ceiling, dome, and proscenium fromparts of both theatres.”

The new design of the show required all ofthese landmarked items to be removed. Thiswas easier said then done, Gallo adds, noting

that the theatre is owned by The New 42ndStreet, a nonprofit entity established by NewYork State and New York City, which haspresided over the neighbourhoodtransformation in the last 15 years. “We neededtheir approval,” he says. The interior’s landmarkdécor was cut, crated and stored against theday when Spider-Man will be gone and it can berestored; until then, the pieces are kept in a bonded, climate-controlled warehouse.

More fundamental structural work involvedexpanding and deepening the orchestra pit toaccommodate the three scenic elevatorsrequired by Tsypin’s design. This meant digginginto bedrock under the theatre. Gallo, who hireda specialist company for the task, says: “Theonly easy method was to use dynamite, but weweren’t allowed to do that. Instead, we had touse jackhammers. The New 42nd Street broughtin engineers with strain gauges; if vibrationswere above a certain resonance, they’d shut usdown. Work was taking forever, so we brought ina big, construction-type jackhammer, which isrun independently by an operator located 20ft(6m) away. That worked for a couple of months,then we brought in drills and hydraulic splittersto split the rock out.” After that, a concrete sub-base was created for the three lifts.

Also, says Gallo: “We took the theatre’s stageout, which was relatively easy to do, as it wasbuilt to be removed.” The trio of lifts in the newlyinstalled stage can create ramps and platforms.“The ramps, which are trapezoidal, are 37ft(11.3m) long, and, when measured together, are38ft (11.6m) wide on the downstage side andapproximately 24ft (7.3m) wide on the upstageend,” he adds. “All of the stage ramps arehinged on the downstage line. The centre ramphas an additional ramp built into it that can goup another 14ft (4.3m).” This added articulationreinforces the illusion of forced perspective thatis used throughout the scenic design.

“The first time you see this effect is in theBrooklyn Bridge scene,” says Gallo, referring toa nightmare sequence in which Peter dreamsthat the Green Goblin has kidnapped MaryJane. “Spider-Man is running downstage in slowmotion as the platform rises from the edge. Heleans out and Mary Jane is seen hanging from

THE ‘POP-UP’ CLASSROOM SCENE

ARACHNE SUSPENDED HIGH ABOVE THE STAGE IN HER WEB

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the underside of the ramp.” The scene ends in a blackout.

The stage ramps actuate up and down, goingup to a maximum height of 14ft in under fourseconds. “Since the ramps had to moveextremely fast, a hydraulic system was deemedthe only sensible way to go,” says Gallo. “Weput in a hydraulic pump room specifically forthis show and then plumbed it with 4” (10cm)diameter steel pipe rather than hoses, becauseof the amount of oil that had to be pumpedaround the building. This is the largest hydraulicautomation system on Broadway.

“We have 145 motorised effects in the show,”adds Gallo. “A big musical typically has 50 or60.” The scenery is controlled by two of PRG’sCommander automation consoles - one forscenery and one for deck effects. “We have fourautomation techs who run the show,” he says,“two who run all the Fisher flying effects in thefollowspot booth, so they can see the stage,and two who run PRG’s Stage CommandSystem located on the stage right fly floor.”

In addition, Spider-Man probably sets somekind of record for set electrics, many of whichwill be discussed a little later. However, oneparticularly notable item is the stage deck,which, says Gallo, is an LED lightbox. “I can’ttell you how much development we wentthrough with that,” he adds. “We originallyimagined a lighting rig in the basement, usingincandescent units, which would shine througha Plexiglas deck. Eventually, we invented ourown LED lightbox.” The LED units weredesigned by PRG and built offshore.

Much of the time, the stage deck is unlit. It is litwhen, raised at an angle, the floor becomes partof the set for the climactic battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin (more about thislater). “We spent a lot of time researching thelighting for the stage deck lightboxes in theramps,” says Mark Peterson, a project managerfor PRG Scenic Technologies. “The Plexiglas topsare digitally printed on the underside in blacksand grays. The internal lighting not only had to bewhite but it had to be dimmable. There was noreal depth to be able to diffuse incandescentlighting properly, and there would be too muchheat. We decided to design our own version of a white 3” x 6” LED board, with LEDs on 1”spacing. This let us mount the LED boards intodifferent configurations to fit the trapezoidallightboxes. Because they are so shallow, we onlyhad 2” available to diffuse the LEDs, so wemounted diffusion filters directly underneath theprinted Plexiglas panels. We provided 250 LEDdimmers to deal with the enormous amount ofcircuits needed for the whole floor. Altogether, wehave about 9,000 LED boards in the floorramps.” These custom-designed LEDs are alsoused elsewhere, most notably in the eight LEDpanels that traverse the stage.

Of course, all of this requires plenty of power,which posed another set of challenges, saysRandall Zaibek, one of the show’s twoproduction electricians (along with JamesFedigan). “The theatre was equipped with 17400A disconnects,” he says. “Not that you wouldutilise everything in the theatre, but when we didthe math we had some issues. They had

a 4,000A main disconnect for the backstagefeed, but we found out from Con Ed that it wasonly being fed with 1,200A. Between the lighting,automation, video etc., the needs far exceededthe 1,200A feed. We were estimating we neededaround 4,000A to run the show. Unfortunately,what we found at the street from Con Ed, whichwas on 43rd Street, was a potential 800A that wecould bring into the theatre, which would bringour total power up to 2,000A for the backstagefeed. We got Con Ed to give us that extra 800Aand got everyone to rework their power needsso now we are running the show just under the2,000A being provided.”

“Other than the show being extremely heavy, itwasn’t a hard show to rig,” says Gallo. “But wehave about 125,000lb of electrics and scenery inthe air, which puts us at the limit of the theatre’scapacity. We had to install a lot of secondarysteel, and work with structural engineers toensure that we didn’t overstress the buildingsteel. The front-of-house flying requiredcantilevered secondary steel columns, structuralbucking of the roof, and diagonally bracing theroof trusses to create a stiff frame. Each fly line,after exiting the winch drum, runs through eightto 12 different muling sheaves to finally entersuper gimbles, designed by Fisher in exactly theright location in three-dimensional space. It wasvery important that all of the ultimate positions ofthe cable muling be correct in three dimensions,as we were providing three-dimensional flying.The Fisher engineers worked out the math forthe software in advance, and were counting onus for accuracy.”

Key moments Almost every scene in Spider-Man involvessome scenic effects. Certain pieces recurthrough the show, including a spider web drop -the web outlined in LEDs - and eight sceniclegs, four each at stage right and stage left, halfof which are lightboxes and half of which arevideo panels. But scene after scene yields manymore visual surprises.

It begins with the opening sequence, in whichPeter Parker is presenting a paper in his Englishclass on the topic of Arachne; the spider webdrop parts to reveal what is known in theproduction as the ‘loom’. In it, a number of

Arachne’s followers, attached to vertical silks,swing from upstage to downstage. As they do,a series of horizontal silks rise into place, as if a giant tapestry is being woven on stage.

“On the one hand, it’s a very simple effect,”says Tsypin. “You have girls on swings. But thegeometry of it is very tricky. The horizontalpieces are timed manually. The number of testswe had to do was unbelievable. The horizontalpieces are silks, but the verticals are a specialmaterial that had to be designed, tested andproduced especially for us. They had to becertified to carry that [human] load.”

Next comes Peter’s high school classroom,which Gallo calls “one of the most difficult”pieces in the show. It’s a total pop-up effect; a backdrop depicting the school’s exteriorcomes on stage; an oddly angled section opensup vertically to reveal a classroom interior. As thathappens, four desks, created in forcedperspective, roll onstage. “It opens so quicklythat you don’t realise what just happened,” headds. “It’s like a real child’s picture book thatopens up and all the desks unfold.”

The following scene features an effect that maynot be the most spectacular, but is, in someways, the most astonishing. Peter and MaryJane are walking home from school. The actorsare on a treadmill, and, behind them, a flatbackdrop, depicting the row houses of Queens,executes a series of pivots, showing thestreetscape from various perspectives. “TheQueens row houses are so lightweight. They flyin and we have counter-weighted jacks on therear to offset the weight of the panels as theypivot. They end up working very well,” explainsPeterson. The scene also features a whimsicalinside joke: On the bridge that flies in above, a tiny version of the No. 7 subway line passesover the action. “I was told that the PRG scenicstaff attached a little figure to the train, and thatfigure is me,” says Tsypin, amused.

Speaking of the scenery for the high school andQueens streetscape, Tsypin says, “Basically, I had one idea for the show: the pop-up book. I came up with it because Julie wanted to dealseriously with comic books. I’ve never donegraphic designs in my life - I always come up

MEANWHILE . . .

IN HIS BEDROOM PETER IS“BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS”

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with complex spatial ideas - and somehow I hadto combine these two concepts. A pop-up bookdoes that; it gives you a graphic imagerendered in space. I got every pop-up book I could. So many of them are so beautiful - and,to my horror, I realised how complex they are. It took us months, but we finally started comingup with interesting pop-ups. Then the next issuewas, how do you build them? I was told it wasn’timpossible - but, of course, I was working withPRG, and they were willing to experiment.”

Gallo notes: “I’d say to George, ‘It’s notimpossible, but it’s improbable that we can dothis. I’d never worked with George before, and I absolutely love the guy. He does things totallydifferently. Most designers sketch out whatthey’re thinking about and show it to thedirector. Then the assistants draft it, specify it,and finally make a model. George does theopposite. He makes 10, 12, 20 models until heis happy with what the design of the pieceshould look like. Then he has his assistantsdraw it. He’s an architect; those models reallyhelped us.” Speaking of the row house effect,he adds, “It’s extraordinary, like a picture bookthat keeps opening and opening. I can’t tell youhow much development went on in the shop toget lightweight materials and to figure out wherethe motors should go.”

In fact, a key part of the process involvedfinding lightweight materials for this and manyother scenes. The solution was carbon fibre;many of the set pieces, which split open, unfold,or telescope out, are made of carbon fibreframes with fabrics stretched over them. Galloadds: “Carbon fibre is used for fighter jets andthe masts of large-scale sailboats. We built avacuum machine to make it; it was a whole newway of working, but it was light and stiff, andwas what we needed. Of course, it’s soexpensive it would make your head spinaround, but this show had the money to do it.”

In one example, an Act II scene set in MaryJane’s Manhattan apartment uses fibre frameswith rare earth magnets that allow the walls tobe quickly assembled. “We are convinced that

future productions will benefit from theexperience we gained from this build process.The use of carbon fibre has opened new doorsof possibilities for us in scenic construction,”adds Peterson.

Probably the most talked-about sceniccomponent is seen in the climax, in whichSpider-Man and the Green Goblin meet for a showdown at the Chrysler Building, engagingin a battle on the side of a skyscraper that theaudience sees from a birds-eye view, gazing atthe Manhattan traffic below. The ChryslerBuilding is stored in a hanging position, pointingstraight down and folded in half. As it flies in, itactuates, opening to a total length of 50ft(15.2m), extending out over the fourth row of theaudience. At the same time, the stage floor risesup on an angle, revealing the lightboxesmentioned earlier. A drop, located far upstage,comes into place depicting moving cars in thestreet below. It’s a remarkably effective attemptat re-orienting the audience’s point of view - andit leads directly into the most daring of theshow’s flying sequences, as Spider-Man andthe Green Goblin duke it out over the entirevolume of the auditorium.

Tsypin notes that, for V2.0, “many effects had tobe reprogrammed, but the second version wasconceived with our involvement. Everyoneunderstood that you couldn’t just rewrite a scene and stick it in, as you might do in a normal musical. The new version was verymuch written with the set in mind. Still, we hadto make changes; I had to conceive a couple ofnew scenes, including one for the GreenGoblin’s new number, ‘A Freak Like Me NeedsCompany.’”

Gallo says: “In every show, there’s always onepiece that you’re worried about. In Spider-Man,every piece was another extraordinarychallenge; after you hung it, it performed amillion tricks. We were asked to do things we’dnever seen before - scenery that pops up andswivels down, and scenery, like Peter Parker’sbedroom, where the walls had to be so light.”

He adds: “We were rehearsing two shows - a regular Broadway show that happens on thestage and another that takes place in the air.The show in the air takes more time than ittakes to rehearse a Broadway show on stage. Itwas a continuous fight to get enough time torehearse two shows. That’s why we worked solong. It was eight in the morning to midnight formonths at a time: one of the hardest thingsabout this show was just being able to stickwith it.”

Villains in video Kyle Cooper, the projection designer, createdthe production’s original video content, much ofwhich focuses on the Green Goblin and TheSinister Six. Howard Werner, the production’smedia designer, says, “My job was to work withKyle and Julie and George to incorporate themedia into a Broadway show.” Ultimately, hewas responsible for the final look of V2.0.Werner is a principal with the lighting and videodesign firm Lightswitch, and, he adds,“Lightswitch staff - including Jason Lindahl, theproduction video electrician, and Phil Gilbert,the video programmer - was in the theatre for 12months, full-time. I showed up in August, 2010and worked until the opening in June. We werefull-on in support of the show from the momentthe video gear starting loading in during June oflast year.”

Cooper and Taymor have worked on a numberof movie projects together. He says that theirworking method was similar to that of their films.“She will tell me her ideas, and I’ll go away andmake books filled with storyboard frames,” hesays. “Sometimes they’re drawn, andsometimes they’re made of photo montages. I made a series of books for Spider-Man. For‘Sinistereo,’ I did a series of sequencesshowing, for example, Rhino [one of the SinisterSix] crashing into the Leaning Tower of Pisa.”He notes that, in many ways, the information inthe books was highly preliminary. “Because thecostume drawings [by Eiko Ishioka] weren’tfabricated yet, it was hard to be more specific,so we were kind of waiting. I met with GeorgeTsypin’s people and saw designs for the set, but

ALL THE “FREAKS” ARRIVE IN NEW YORK CITY

NINE PERFORMERS ENACT SPIDER-MAN’S STUNTS

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WEB-SLINGING ACTION MARY JANE’S IN TROUBLE . . . AGAIN!

I didn’t know what the costumes were going tobe. It was a little challenging.”

Finally, Cooper says, “The costumes started tocome together, and I went to New York with Julieand Danny Ezralow, and shot all of the villainsagainst green screens. Then I put them intoenvironments that were inspired by whatGeorge was doing, and I began to show herframes of what the video would look like.”

With the others, Werner played a key role in theselection of the projection format. “At the point I got involved,” he says, “there was the desirefor video projection; at the time, they thoughtthey would use RP surfaces. But, from a sanity-keeping point of view, LED panels were the wayto go. At that point, however, they couldn’t reallyafford a high-res surface. The delay in the showworked to our benefit because, during the timeit was shut down, LED products became lessexpensive.”

The eight LED panels, each 8ft (2.4m) wide by33ft (10m) high, are configured as four pairs oflegs, which track on and off stage. The 15mmSMD LED video product is part of the customLEDs specified by PRG. The legs are coveredwith black rear-projection screen to soften andblend the LED imagery. In addition, they arecovered with black sharkstooth scrim material;that way, when no video is displayed, theyessentially disappear; when lit, they look likestandard black fabric legs. Each leg weighs1,300lb, contains 100 video tiles, and can trackback and forth on stage in just about anyposition. One image can be spread across alleight legs, or each leg can feature individualcontent.

Feeding imagery to the legs are three PRGMbox EXtreme media servers - one for the eightLED panels; one for the projector mounted onthe balcony rail, which is used for front-projected effects; and one for practicalsonstage. There is something like 320GB ofcontent on the servers, not all of which is usedin the show. The Mboxes are linked to theproduction’s lighting console,

a PRG V676: “The V676, which handles thevideo and the moving lights, is linked to an ETCEos, which is the master,” he says, adding thatthere’s a MIDI Show Control trigger for thevideo. He notes that a significant number ofvideo cues are linked to lighting cues. “If I haveVideo Cue 222 and Don Holder has Light Cue222, the V676 will automatically take that cuenumber. We also coordinated with Don onvideo-only cues. When that happens, he createsa dummy cue in his cue stack; most of the time,however, I had something that would go alongfor the ride.” He adds: “There are somemoments when audio drives the bus.‘Sinistereo,’ for example, is locked to theorchestra; there’s a click-track started by theconductor, associated with SMPTE time code,which triggers the video desk.”

One major technical challenge involves allowingvideo content to track with the LED legs as theymove around the stage. Thus the video systemreceives positioning information from theautomation system that drives the LED walls.Encoders added to the SCS winches feed backeach video panel’s position to the Mbox. Thatway, the automation and the projection systemsknow exactly where the LED legs are at anytime; this allows for quick and accuratemapping of video content while the LED legsare moving.

PRG developed two modes for the Mbox’svideo output. In discrete mapping mode, thevideo projection tracks with the LED leg as itmoves, with the image appearing to beattached to the individual leg. Essentially, asingle pixel of video output from the Mbox ismapped to a single pixel on the LED outputand tracks with the screen. In projected mode,the output appears to be projected onto thestage, not attached to the individual leg, butsimply allowing the legs to move through theprojection. It’s possible for either mode to beset for each individual LED leg. “The way thatwe’re able to use content that the screensmove through, and content that is stuck to thescreens, coupled with front projection in andaround the LED screens, really gives us a

video composition with a lot of depth,” saysLindahl.

Werner says that collaborating with Holder was a real necessity. “We coordinated everything;there are moments when video is the key visualelement - and if there’s a colour schemehappening in the video, Don plays along. In thefirst act, video is secondary; in the walking-home-from-school sequence, the LED legs areused only to make fields of colour. Don set thecolours he wanted to use and I went along withit. The part that works the best is in momentswhen you don’t know which technology you’relooking at.”

Ubiquitous lighting “It was a process I will not forget,” says DonHolder, who began working on the show’slighting design in 2007, moving into the theatrein the summer of 2009. “Randy Zaibek and hiscrew were just about to begin prepping thelighting and doing the pre-hang, and, on 4August 2009 - I remember the date - they pulledthe plug. We started back up in the spring of2010, and everything moved really quickly afterthat. All of a sudden, I had a six-monthcommitment - and then it got extended anothersix months.”

By any standard, Holder’s task was enormous,as he was required to not only light the actiononstage, but also above the audience - and, aswe have seen, the production features adaunting number of set electrics. Even so,finding space for lighting was the issue, whatwith all the real estate taken up by the flying rigand scenery, and considerable ingenuity wasrequired to allow Holder to do his work. “Most ofthe drops measure about 50ft (15.2m) tall by70ft (21.3m) wide, and had to be lit absolutelyevenly from top to bottom,” he says. “The onlyway to accomplish this task was to light thegoods from directly behind. We had room onthe back wall, so I designed a massive goalpostsystem fitted with Altman Spectra Cyc LEDlights, [Philips Vari*Lite] VL2000 Wash lights,and [Martin Professional] Atomic Strobes. Theyall shoot through a muslin drop that acts as a

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bounce and as a diffuser, focusing directly ontovarious goods: a rear-projection screen that’sused as the cyc, the Oscorp Laboratory drop,the revenge drop, etc.”

With this system, the muslin bounce can fly out,allowing Holder to light directly through thedrops when he wants to see the sources. Forexample, the Oscorp Lab features a yellow sun;when, in that same scene, Norman Osbornebecomes the Green Goblin, the transformationis effected using Atomic strobes from thegoalpost. During the number ‘If the WorldShould End’ featuring Peter and Mary Jane onthe fire escape, there’s an effect with lightstreaming through a pinhole drop, creating astarry-night effect with moving beams of light. “I use VL2000 Wash lights mounted on the backwall goal post, programmed to slowly scanacross the rear of the pinhole drop,” saysHolder. “It’s an incredibly simple idea but veryeffective.”

Given the demands of scenery and rigging,Holder was dealing with a light plot that had to befit into any available space. Thus the rig istrimmed at over 40ft (12.2m) over the stage,because the fixtures must be positioned abovethe fly wires. In the house, followspots arenecessary to track the flying sequence; however,the theatre’s traditional followspot positions wereno good, because the units had to reach fromone end of the theatre to the other. This meant theinstallation of new positions for the show’s threeLycian M2 units. “I think of the followspots as thefirst layer of the flying lighting,” says Holder. “Theycan follow the flying anywhere in the theatre, andthey are incredibly helpful. The second layerinvolves tracking the flights with automated lightsusing positioning data received from the flyingsystem; finally, we put in the infrastructure so thatthe entire space is illuminated. In the end, most ofthe flying sequences use a combination of allthree techniques.”

In other scenes, he adds, other techniques mustbe used: “In ‘Bouncing Off the Walls’ we have[ETC] Source Four 10° units with hand cranks forthe scrollers; the stagehands stand in the wings,operating them. We use this same approach tolight all of the onstage flights, including whenArachne is flying. Three followspots isn’t that

many for a show of this size; with these auxiliaryunits, we’re pretty well covered.”

Holder adds: “Overhead positions are verylimited because of scenery and rigging; thebulk of the overhead plot is composed ofautomated lighting. This is the largest movinglight rig I’ve ever used - because the demandsof the production are so immense and space isso limited. There are about 160 units, andthey’re spread all over the theatre. As theshowevolved, Julie kept asking for a cool whiteHMI light on the actors - and that limited theuse of typical tungsten halogen fixtures. Thearc sources became more important, becausethose units give off the kind of light she waslooking for.”

Of course, as noted, Holder had to workintensively with Tsypin and PRG staff on setelectrics. Speaking of the city legs, MarkPeterson says: “The requirements were endless.Even though they were to be built as lightboxes,they could not be too deep, front to back. Theyhad to be internally lit with RGB colour, and alsoindividual windows in the front panel graphicshad to be able to be lit and controlled. Also, therear had to be able to be backlit with automatedlights, which also meant there could be noshadows from internal framing needed toprevent twisting or torqueing. It was both a lighting and scenic challenge.”

Holder adds: “The City Legs are only 6” (15cm)deep, but 9ft (2.7m) wide and 40ft (12.2m) tall.I’ve lit enough lightboxes to realise that it wouldbe difficult to provide even lighting with a rangeof vivid colours. We did several mockups atPRG. We tried mini-strips, but they wouldn’t fit inthe space. We looked at LED fixtures, anddecided on Philips Color Kinetics ColorGrazeunits. However, they didn’t solve the problemcompletely, because there were times the centreof the box would be dark, because you couldn’tget the light through such a narrow opening. Ineeded to backlight the legs as well.”

Holder seconds Werner’s comments about thecolour-matching process used to unite lightingand video. “Howard and I had a very goodcollaboration, making the lighting and video worktogether, especially in ‘A Freak Like Me’, which is

about using an iconic colour for each super-villain. A lot of the lighting and the video cues aredriven by the same console. It was a very intenseand involved collaboration. It was overwhelmingat times, trying to figure it out. When you see theend result, it doesn’t look complicated - it seemspretty effortless and transparent - but it took a lotof work to get it there.”

Holder and his team, including associatelighting designer Vivien Leone, wrote over 600cues. Discussing certain aspects of the rig,Holder says the MAC 700s “are small and fast;they illuminate a lot of the flying. They’re veryfacile units; they can accelerate quickly and theirmovement pattern is always smooth. He alsonotes that the Coemar unit “became veryimportant. It’s like a 1,500W ACL, with very richcolour production; I use it to do big strongslashes of light in the air.” The VL2000 washes,he adds, “are used to backlight many of thedrops and they illuminate the starscape in ‘If theWorld Should End.’ These wash units alsoanimate the text on the ‘revenge drop’ [lightingup words like “pow!”] in ‘Bouncing Off theWalls’.”

Speaking of control, Holder says: “We used thefirst 20,000-channel [ETC] Eos console for theconventional lighting, mostly for the LEDs. Theautomated lighting is controlled by a PRG V676,which is also driving the video system. We usedtwo V676s during the cueing, and now oneconsole runs both lighting and video. RichardTyndall, who programmed the lighting, didsomething that shocked some people. Peopleask me, ‘How did you light all the flying? Wasthere some sophisticated tracking system?’Actually, Richie did it with helium-filled partyballoons. We realised we’d get no time to lightthe actors, so, using the flight data from Fisher,he figured out the flight paths, their accelerationand deceleration, and, at each point along thepath of travel, Richie, aided by his assistant,Porsche McGovern, would create presets for allthe appropriate moving lights. These presetswere used to create a complex series of followcues, and then it was a matter of finessing eachstep along the path until it resulted in a smoothand continuous pattern of movement. At itscore, it’s a fairly simple solution; there were daysand days of party balloons.”

Somehow, during Spider-Man’s tumultuouswinter, Holder managed to light two moreBroadway shows, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia andStephen Adly Guirgis’ The Motherf**ker with theHat. This was possible, he says, because “afterFebruary 7th, the show went into a state ofinertia” while its future was being worked out. Headds: “I had a day and a half to tech Arcadia,and a week and a half of previews - afterworking on a show that teched for two months, itwas really thrilling.” Then, when Taymor exitedand McKinley took over, Holder, a longtimeTaymor collaborator, experienced feelings ofdivided loyalties. Ultimately, he says, “I wantedto see it through; that was very important to me.”

Holder quickly learned that the lightingapproach he had devised for Taymor’s vision -with lots of cool HMI lighting on the actors, setagainst backgrounds of deep colour - didn’t fitwith McKinley’s approach. Holder worked withMcKinley on the hit musical The Boy From Oz,

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THE CLIMACTIC BATTLE AT THE CHRYSLER BUILDING

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“so we had a working vocabulary.” Overall, hesays, McKinley “wanted the lighting to be lesscool and edgy and more textured andcolourful. I had to smooth out the edges,making it softer, lighter, and more kid-friendly.At first, I was taken aback; I thought, how can Ido this? We had taken a very specificapproach, and it was hard to accept thedirection show needed to take. Thinking aboutit, reading the new script, and seeing it onstage, I realised I had to get with the program.But if I told you it was easy, I wouldn’t behonest. On some level, I didn’t want to messwith Julie’s work. Ultimately, I tried hard to be a conscientious collaborator.”

However, he adds: “I feel good about what wedid. I feel that we have a strong point of view,visually, and, on many levels, we help to tell thestory. We went in there every day, trying to dothe best work we possibly could. It wasfrustrating and disappointing at times, and itwasn’t always easy to stay motivated. Theshow was expensive for a lot of reasons, butwe never veered off the path of what the designneeded to be. The sheer amount of technologyin the production is overwhelming, but I don’tfeel there’s anything in the show that we didn’treally need to do the job.”

Spidery sound In some ways, despite all the complex technicalchallenges listed above, sound proved to bethe most difficult aspect of Spider-Man,especially since the early, unauthorised set ofreviews complained that the production was, attimes, hard to hear. This seemed almostimpossible to believe, as the production’ssound designer, Jonathan Deans, had workedfruitfully in the Foxwoods Theatre several timesbefore, on such shows as Ragtime, The PirateQueen, and Young Frankenstein. Deansdeparted the production, early in 2011 to workon another Broadway musical, Priscilla, Queenof the Desert. Peter Hylenski, a former Deansassistant and a designer with more than a dozen Broadway shows on his resumé, tookover. As Simon Matthews, who worked asSpider-Man’s production sound engineerbefore leaving to take a full-time job with MeyerSound, notes, the road to getting an effectivesound system was a rocky one.

Interestingly, Matthews says, in one respect,the job of the sound design team was madeeasier. The pre-load-in structural work includedthe removal of the proscenium header andparts of the ceiling dome - architecturalelements that in the past have proven to beacoustical obstacles. But the scenic designand flying rigging system posed newchallenges that weren’t easily solved. “InVersion One, we had three things going againstus,” he says. First, unsurprisingly, was thebattle for space. “Everyone needed somethingin every location. The flying department neededlanding platforms. The lighting departmentneeded positions for side light.”

This, Matthews notes, was the nature of thegame: “We spent a lot of time negotiating whatlittle space there was on the proscenium. Wehad several versions of plans; we’d hangboxes, then something else would come alongand they wouldn’t work in those positions. Thatis the nature of this type of production; it’s aninstallation and you just have to roll with it.”

The second issue was Tsypin’s highlydimensional proscenium: “Because of itsangles - and the structure placed behind it tohold those angles in place - there was no roomto put loudspeakers. Where you could put

them, they wouldn’t be audible to theaudience. There’s not much magic to sound; if the speakers aren’t visible, they won’t beaudible to the audience.” The third issue, hesays, was that the proscenium was covered inwhat he describes as “a perforated RPmaterial, like, say, a perforated shower curtain.“Some materials can be used withoutimpacting the sound,” says Matthews, “but notthis.” He adds that, by the time it became clearthat there might be a problem, “some of thescenery was already built. At that point, youcan’t say, ‘That’s impossible’ - you have to fix itin the theatre.” Ultimately, he says, after a demo that proved how much the systemcould be improved, the speakers were broughtout from behind the proscenium, with many ofthem being retained in floor positions. Even so,it’s a very tight fit.

From the beginning, he says, Taymor’s visioninvolved three distinct treatments of sound:“the theatrical world of the main characters,the astral plane where Arachne lived and whichwas supposed to have a floating, surround-sound feeling; and the super-hero scenes,which was supposed to be very rock ‘n’ roll.”This idea, coupled with the show’s originalorchestrations, made the challenger harder:“We put in a set of pitch and delay effects inthe scene with Arachne’s loom; it was okay,but they wanted to hear every word.” Similarly,he says, in one of the Geek Chorus scenes,“the characters had three brief lines, but therewas also a horn fanfare going on.” Ultimately,he adds, “I think we did nine real systemdesigns, apart from various small changes andtweaks.”

The show’s main proscenium system consistsof Meyer Sound M’elodies - eight per side atleft and right - with Meyer JM-1Ps in a centrecluster made up of two rows of four. Originally,says Matthews, “Meyer Sound MICAs (for thesides) and L-Acoustics V-DOSC (for the centre)were specified, but the latter didn’t work wellwith the proscenium structure and, as thesystem was revised, the Micas weren’tavailable, so we went with the M’elodies.”

Anyway, he says: “The M’elodies were thesmallest boxes we could put in there and pull it

THE PROSCENIUM PULLS THE AUDIENCE INTO THE ACTION

THE PAGE FLIPPING COMIC BOOK EFFECT

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off. We knew they had enough punch for a theatrical event.” The surround system featuresd&b audiotechnik E8s, with more of the sameunits used in under-balcony positions; MeyerUPJs fill out the surround system. Overhead areeight Meyer CQ-2s, with UP jrs providing side- and cross-fill, and M-1Ds providing front-fill.Because the orchestra pit contains scenicelevators, the 18-strong band is found in twolocations. “The live room, which is off the traproom - formerly the green room - houses thestrings and horns. The core band room, withguitars, basses, percussion, keyboard, and a monitor mixer, is in the basement down the hall,on the stage-right side.”

Because of the musicians’ isolation, saysMatthews, “We went through a number ofiterations, looking for video monitors to allowthem to see each other and the audience. Wetried several things and went back to CRTprojectors. People wanted bigger screens, so weinstalled 42” LCD screens. We have a BarcoImage Pro to convert the image from its nativeresolution to fit the screens.” He adds that themusicians can see the audience, and a set of fourmics in the auditorium feed the audio to bothband rooms, each of which has a pair ofspeakers and a sub. In addition, the musicianshave Aviom personal monitor mixers, “becausesome numbers are on a tempo clock. There’s oneclick-track with vocals, but the rest aremetronome clicks that give them the first eightbars of a song.” This is necessary, he adds, tokeep everyone strictly in tempo during the flying

sequences, which are cued to the music. Also, hesays: “The Edge’s guitar style uses a lot of delayeffects, and they need to be timed to the musicas well. The guitar players - who are phenomenal- spent a lot of time working on this style.” Henotes that the guitar players use a Fractal AudioSystems Axe-FX all-in-one preamp/effectsprocessor: “Everyone is really impressed with it.You can say, ‘I want this pedal and this brand ofamplifier head,’ and it’s truthful. Prior to this, a model guitar box sounded like a model guitarbox. This was the first I’ve heard that can reallyfool your ears.”

The entire cast is on boom mics, says Matthews,citing what he calls ‘Simon’s Law of Centre’: Ifyou want the ultimate reinforcement, the mic mustbe as close to the performer’s mouth as possible.Commenting on the typical Broadway practice ofputting mics at the centre of performer’sforeheads, he says, “No sound comes fromthere.” The mic systems are Sennheiser, withSK5212 wireless systems, 3732 receivers andHSP-2 capsules.

Sound is controlled by a Meyer Cue Console,which features the first major D-Mitri system usedin New York. “We needed the recallability andfunctionality that we had become accustomed toin LX300 products,” he says, mentioning the CueConsole’s previous effects engine. “So we tookthe plunge and said, ‘Let’s get D-Mitri.’ It’s prettyawesome. Although it’s a magnitude of ordermore complex in many ways, it programs in muchthe same way as the LX300. We also do speaker

management using five [Meyer] Galileoprocessors.” The D-Mitri system also includes 48tracks of playback for sound effects. The on-stage monitor mix is generated through thefront-of-house console.

As you might imagine, communication is a criticalissue in Spider-Man, and the show makes use ofa Clear-Com Eclipse system. “There are twostage managers calling the show - one forscenery and flying and one for lights,” he says.“The first of them needs to be able tocommunicate with a great number of people; hehas the hot button, which connects to anyone inthe show who flies, via in-ear receiver. These arethe Navigator [the Fisher Technical automationcontrol system] cues; he’ll say, for example,‘Navigator 300 and go,’ and the performers knowthat they’re about to go to flight. With their in-ears,they clearly hear the stage manager call the cue.To conceive of that without the Clear-Com systemwould be very difficult; it gives you enormousflexibility and capacity.” Also used are Telex TR-82N wireless belt packs and a Clear-ComCellcom system.

Like everyone else involved in Spider-Man,Matthews says that the long hours and uncertainproduction schedule took their toll. “Everyone hadto figure a way to deal with the process,” he says.“I’m surprised everyone worked together as wellas they did.”

THE END

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