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ichael Mayer’s transfor-mation of Green Day’sGrammy Award-winning

album—14 million copies soldworldwide—has arrived on Broadwayin a blaze of controversy. Reviewershave called American Idiot everythingfrom a “thrillingly raucous andgorgeously wrought Broadwaymusical” (The New York Times) to “ahalf-exploitative, half-lobotomizedattempt to fake a youthgasm” (NewYork Magazine). It earned three DramaDesk Award nominations (includingone for outstanding musical), withMayer winning for outstandingdirection of a musical. It was for threeTony Awards—but, mysteriously, andto the consternation of more than afew members of the theatrecommunity—Mayer was notnominated. (In the event, the showtook home two Tonys; one forChristine Jones’ set design and onefor Kevin Adams’ lighting.) At thesame time, it continues to postsolid—if not blockbuster—numbers atthe box office; as we go to press,tickets are being sold through thebeginning of 2011.There have been few, if any, rock

musicals like American Idiot. Not agroovy nostalgia trip (like Hair), aspoofy jukebox tuner (like Rock ofAges and Mamma Mia!), nor acurated museum of golden oldies (likeJersey Boys and Million DollarQuartet), the show at the St. JamesTheatre presents a startlingly nihilisticvision of American life in the GeorgeW. Bush era. Its three protagonists—Johnny, Will, and Tunny—grow up ina suburban strip mall culturedominated by consumer aspirationsand trashy tabloid media. Frustratedand angry—and lacking any concretedreams or goals—the three vow toescape, but, sadly, they end up onthe road to nowhere: Will is sidelinedwhen his girlfriend becomespregnant; he spends his days in a pothaze, watching his new family slipaway. Tunny, duped by aggressivetelevision commercials, enlists in the

Army; he is sent to Iraq, where heloses a leg. Johnny ends up in the bigcity, where he falls for the winsomeWhatsername; he also meets thesatanic St. Jimmy, who entices theyoung couple into drug addiction.The book—by Mayer and Green

Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong—expandson the central scenario devised forthe album, which follows the misad-ventures of the young Jesus ofSuburbia in the big city. Johnny—amodified version of Jesus ofSuburbia—provides the central focuspoint, with Will and Tunny’s less-detailed stories amplifying the show’sthemes of disillusionment and loss.Like most rock operas, American Idiotis essentially a song cycle; eachnumber illustrates another step in itsyoung protagonists’ painful progresstoward self-knowledge.The process of turning a concept

album into a concept musical isn’t aneasy one, and the success ofAmerican Idiot can largely beattributed to the vision of MichaelMayer, which has resulted in aremarkably unified production. Thedirector also guided SpringAwakening—another high-conceptmusical about troubled youth—toBroadway, and American Idiotreunites the Spring Awakening teamof scenic designer Christine Jones,lighting designer Kevin Adams, andsound designer Brian Ronan, addingthe video/projection designer DarrelMaloney to the mix. But where SpringAwakening used edgy, soulful indie-rock music to forge a link betweenthe tormented adolescents of the19th century and today, AmericanIdiot is an act of punk provocation inwhich sound, lighting, and videoimagery form a furious assault onone’s senses.

American Idiot played a triumphantengagement at the BerkeleyRepertory Theatre in the fall—following a developmental workshopat the Powerhouse Theatre atVassar—and always hoped to openon Broadway in April. That time frame

became more complicated whenSherie Renee Scott’s musical memoir,Everyday Rapture, secured a last-minute, end-of-the-season booking atRoundabout Theatre Company.Scott’s show, which was seen atSecond Stage in the spring of 2009,was also directed by Mayer anddesigned by Jones, Adams, Ronan,and Maloney. Suddenly, in addition toopening American Idiot, the sameteam had to prepare a second—ifmore intimate—Broadway show, inless than two months.

Strip mall suburbiaIn designing the set—with itstowering walls and dozens of videoscreens—Christine Jones, a notablytext-based designer, poured overAmerican Idiot’s music and lyrics; inaddition, she sought out any and allcommentary made about the albumby the members of Green Day. (Inaddition to Armstrong, they are MikeDirnt and Tré Cool.) The designersays, “A phrase of Billie Joe’s stuckwith me: ‘It’s all about the energyinside you, the pulse inside yourhead.’ We knew from the beginningthat we were making a piece oftheatre, but it had to have the energyof a concert.”Therefore, she says, “I distilled the

lyrics the way I distill texts, andlistened to the album as much as Icould, to ingest it.” In her research,she drew on a number of sources,looking at images of televisions,loudspeakers, and people thrashingto rock music. She also drew inspi-ration from images of undergroundclubs, and warehouse lofts designedto serve as working/living space forartists. “I built collages with thoseimages,” she says. “The collages areremarkably true to the set; whenpeople look at them, they think theyare the set.”Her research also informed the

set’s unusual height. “Tom Hulce [thelead producer] joked that I obviouslyhad the Metropolitan Opera in mind,”she says, adding that she made the

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Photo:PaulK

olnik

Copyright Lighting&Sound America July 2010 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html

www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • July 2010 • 61

support of the Berkeley staff, theHudson staff, and our crew at thetheatre, led by Donald Oberpriller [theproduction carpenter], wasphenomenal. Berkeley Rep did a kick-ass job of building, painting, anddressing it out there. Neil Mazzella hasvery high standards; the fact that hethought the set we brought to NewYork had integrity was a truecompliment to everyone at BerkeleyRep. The team in New York made surewe could get it into the theatre, andmake the show work as smoothly aspossible.” Additional specialty propswere built by The Spoon Group.In addition, says Jones, “It is inter-

esting to note what a significantcontribution to the environment theclothes [designed by Andrea Lauer]make. People have no idea howmany costumes are in the show.There are full costume changes forthe ensemble almost every threeminutes, with every new song. Inaddition to projections, video, and

lights, the costumes were workingtheir butts off to take us where weneeded to go.”

Jones also cites the supportprovided by Hulce and his producingpartner, Ira Pittelman; Darrel Maloney,for his video and projections; themembers of Green Day, and, of

course, Mayer. She also mentionsanother, more unexpected name: “Iworked for Tony Walton when I firstgot out of school, and I marveled athis commitment to detail. I don’t thinkthat Tony’s work would naturallycome to mind as having been inspira-tional for a set like this, but the

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collages before a theatre had beenchosen. Anyway, she adds, “Themusic is big, and it felt like the spaceneeded to be big—big and dense.Billie Joe talked about a warehousewhere he once lived; I imagined hisflatmates scattered around such aspace, along with the rats that theyapparently killed with a BB gun.”Adding a sense of density are thecollages that cover the set’s walls;about them, Jones says, “I looked atclubs, like CBGB and 924 Gilmore,where Green Day got started. Theseplaces are covered with layers ofposters and stickers.”Overall, Jones says, “I wanted it to

feel like a space where a rock concertcould happen, but I wanted it to feellike it could be Johnny’s bedroom,too.” To secure this effect, sheconsulted with experts: “In addition toEd Coco, my associate, who does allthe drafting, I hired Damon Pelletier towork on the model, because I had afeeling he would have a good instinctfor the kind of space I was trying tocreate. As I showed him research, hesaid that it looked exactly like hisbedroom when he was growing up. Alot of the carpenters and our guitaristscommented that we got the posters—the cacophony of them—right.”Other aspects of the set include a

clunker of a car, hanging, nose down,from the upstage right corner. Also, astairway, with four landings, is builtinto the upstage left corner; itprovides a staging and entrance/exitarea for the cast. Musicians arestationed on the third and fourthlandings. To suggest variouslocations, additional set pieces roll onstage. These include a couch forWill’s living room and a set of hospitalbeds for Tunny’s convalescence. An

onstage piece of scaffolding becomesthe bus that brings Johnny and Tunnyto the city in the number “Holiday.”The stage is filled with stereo gear

as well. “I found lots of great imagesof speaker stacks while looking atresearch of underground clubs andgarage-band garages, as well as thebedrooms of teenage boys, whichwere stacked with equipment,” saysJones. “They provide the feeling, Ihope, that the show is going to blastout at you; they also provideadditional levels for staging.”Another big-ticket scenic effect

unfolds during the number“Extraordinary Girl.” Tunny is in thehospital, recovering from his accident,and, in a dream sequence, he takespart in a lyrical aerial ballet with theExtraordinary Girl, who is dressed in aburqa. (She is, in fact, a vision of thenurse who cares for him, and whoeventually becomes his lover.) “Thatwas Michael’s idea,” says Jones. “Atthe top of the number, there aredrums that sound Middle Eastern.Michael had the image of Tunnymeeting a woman in Iraq, andimagined her coming from nowhere,from inside his head.”And, of course, Jones quickly

realized the use of video screens “feltlike an essential element, for story-telling, as well as for the pure energyof images they could deliver.” Forty-three video screens are built into thewalls of the set, where they provide anonstop cascade of imagery. It’s adesign concept that works on manylevels. It provides a workable, tone-setting environment for the show’sthree storylines, and it also serves asa canvas for the assertive lighting andvideo effects.Interestingly, Jones says, “The set

changed very little from the originalBerkeley production.” Even moreinterestingly, she says that theBerkeley Rep is bigger than the St.James. “The ground plan remainedidentical onstage; offstage, we had tomake do with much less space inNew York. The crew was phenomenalat figuring out how to store items likethe scaffolding and hospital beds.”For Broadway, she says, “We alsoadded 5' more to the height. Theproscenium is about the same heightin both spaces, but I wanted the topedge of the wall to completelydisappear, and Neil [Mazzella, ofHudson Scenic Studio] said, ‘Yes, wecan do that.’ The rake of theaudience is much flatter at the St.James than it was in Berkeley; weadded 5', but it felt like 15'.”Two elements were added for New

York: One is a wall of fluorescenttubes seen in “East 12th Street,”when Johnny, now off drugs andseparated from Whatsername,becomes an office worker. Originally,the wall was seen in the number“Favorite Son,” in which a televisionarmy recruiter literally bursts out ofthe screen, urging Tunny to sign up.“While [the tube wall] helped to focusthe space, we felt it distracted fromthe celebrity who comes out of the TVto become the army general,” saysJones. “Michael and I talked aboutusing it in the office scene of ‘East12th Street,’ which already featuredprojections of fluorescent tubes. ThenKevin Adams had the inspired idea touse grey gel on the tubes, which wasnot only beautiful, but perfectlydreary.” The second new element—aframe of halogen bulbs—was used inthe number “Rock and Roll Girlfriend,but was eventually eliminated.However, says Jones, “After we cut it,Michael and I had the rather goodidea to take it down the street anduse it in Everyday Rapture. It worksperfectly for that production!”Overall, says Jones, the road from

Berkeley to New York was“remarkably smooth.” She adds, “The P

hotos:StephenJoseph

Top: Jones’ towering set, filled with video monitors, is splashed with saturated color by Adams, using the VLX units. Below: Maloney’slarge-scale projections are sometimes used to cover the set as well.

“A phrase of Billie Joe’s stuck with me: ‘It’s allabout the energy inside you, the pulse insideyour head.’ We knew from the beginning that wewere making a piece of theatre, but it had tohave the energy of a concert.” — Jones

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in their hospital beds. One sees heartmonitors on the video screens; as thenumber begins, with its Middle-Eastern drum motif, the blips on thescreens are transformed into Arabiclettering. “We always had the blip,”says Maloney, “and, one day, Michaelsaid, ‘I think it should be Arabic.’ Wedid it, and it was up there two dayslater.” Such quick turnarounds werenew for the designer, who was usedto another sort of time frame workingwith his film and television clients: “Inmy other career, I would produce lessmaterial in a year than I did in twomonths for this show.”Maloney notes that the complexity

of the system grew between Berkeleyand New York. “In Berkeley, we hadsix channels for 38 monitors. In NewYork, we have 43 monitors with 43channels,” he says. “That way, I cando individual images on each screenif I want. It’s far more exciting to put43 different neon signs, for example,on the stage. In ‘Jesus of Suburbia,’

you see 43 little pieces of a garbagedumpster—that makes it more inter-esting.” Also, many of the videoscreens, the designer says, “aretreated to look like old televisions,” sohe used Adobe AfterEffects to treatthe content differently for eachscreen. “There are some really badcolor television looks and some cableglitching,” he says. “The video on the‘70s-era screens tend to shift toyellow, like bad color television of thatera, while the ‘50s screens featureblack and white.”Delivering the images are 15 Green

Hippo Hippotizer HD V3 mediaservers, supplied to the production byLos Angeles-based SenovvA, Inc. andsupported by Green Hippo SpecialProjects division. [Green Hippoproducts are distributed in NorthAmerica by TMB]. Twelve HippotizerHDs are specially configured, runningcustom software, each outputtingfour 1280 x 720 feeds to the 43 HDSony monitors built into the set. The

remaining three HD Hippotizers utilizeGreen Hippo’s new UberPan featureto create an ultra-HD scenicprojection across the surface of theset via three sideways-mounted 20KBarco R20 projectors. All the HDHippotizers, plus one HippoCritter, asmaller, rack-mount server, arenetworked by Hippotizer’s Zookeepersoftware, running a timeline triggeredby the show’s lighting controlconsole, an ETC Eos.Like Jones, Maloney feels that the

intensive application of details is a keyto the production’s overall effect.“When people see the show more thanonce, they’re intrigued by how manylayers there are,’ he says. “I don’t thinkthere’s any point in the show where thedetails are meaningless.”

A rock show at the MetRamping up the energy even furtheris Kevin Adams’ lighting, whichprovides a full complement of vibrantcolor chases, eye-searing blinder

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execution of it was definitely inspiredby his passion.”That attention to detail took on

unusual dimensions. “My favoritething to do at Berkeley was to put onheadphones, listen to music, andwalk around the set, drawing on it,and sticking up things I had foundaround the offices and the streets,while the crews worked around me,”she says. Recalling that story aboutArmstrong and company hunting therats in Armstrong’s loft, she notes, “Iput a BB gun on the wall of the set, inaddition to a piece of piece of paperlike the one that Billie Joe says theyused to keep score.”Also, Jones says, “I invited

carpenters to bring in posters fromtheir own bands to add to the walls,and asked people like Sam Ellis [ofHudson Scenic], one of our projectmanagers, if he would contribute atreasured item to our space. Anybodywho worked on the show was invitedto make their mark—and, while 90%of those marks are not visible, I hopethey work collectively as part of theenergy that is the show.”

The media blitzProviding a significant portion of thatenergy is Darrel Maloney, thevideo/projection designer. He fills allof the screens in Jones’ set with a

nonstop array of images, includingtabloid TV newscasts, test patterns,strip malls, home movie footage, busstations, and blocks of color. At othertimes, he blasts the set with giantprojections of nighttime urbanskylines, color bars, and splatteredpaint. The video sequences reinforcethe show’s point about the junk-filledmedia culture inhabited by thecharacters. The projections add tothe production’s size and audacity.Interestingly, Jones notes that

Maloney was a fellow student with herat NYU’s department of design, but,Maloney adds, “This is my first theatreproject in years. After NYU, I opened acompany [Atmosphere 13], which didpost-production on motion graphicsfor film, commercials, and television.”In 2006, he created a short projectionsequence for Jones, who wasdesigning Joseph Merrick, TheElephant Man, for Minnesota Opera;last year, he got together with Jonesagain, creating another projectionsequence for Everyday Rapture. Whileworking on that production, he alsogot to know Michael Mayer, which ledto American Idiot.“When I was up for the job,”

Maloney says, “I brought in someideas about projections and content.It all started with the song ‘AmericanIdiot,’ with its images of the media

and the war. We talked about how tomake the monitors an integral part ofthe show.” Later, when work began,he says, “We’d meet every day andgo through the show, scene byscene. They’d say, ‘What’s the videohere?’, and I’d come up with ideas.By then, we knew it would be acombination of projections and video.We all had a pretty unified aesthetic,and, without overtalking anything, wewere able to figure it out.” Thedesigner also created a website thatallowed him to demo images for therest of the creative team.Out of these discussions, an

approach emerged. “Basically,”Maloney says, “we ended up usingimages to help tell the story, andsometimes to set the location. Forexample, when we get to the 7-11parking lot, there are 7-11 signs,along with secondary mixes to giveus a feeling of what’s going on.‘Jesus of Suburbia’ features ananimation using graffiti stencils of asuburban street. Basically, there’severy kind of moving image in theshow. We shot some stuff in [‘FavoriteSon’], and also some suburbanimages—strip malls and stuff likethat—for ‘Jesus of Suburbia.’ We alsohave live video as well.”Then there are the big projections,

which cover the walls of the set. “Thefirst time we see them is in ‘Holiday,’when the three leads are on a journey,”Maloney says. “They’re used in‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams,’ tocreate a sense of the city, and in‘Holiday,’ to give the sense of a roadtrip. In ‘St. Jimmy,’ they’re used as agraphic design element.” Overall, hesays, “The storytelling with the projec-tions is less subtle and more aboutbroader strokes.” The video is subtler,he adds, because each image appearsrepeatedly on relatively small screens:“If you’re projecting on top of that hugeset, it takes very big, bold, images.”One of the most striking

sequences takes place in“Extraordinary Girl.” Tunny and someof his wounded colleagues are resting

Note how the walls of the set are covered with a collage, an idea that Jones derived from looking at images of rock clubs like the leg-endary CBGB.

Photo:KevinBerne

Photo:PaulK

olnik

This shot, from the Berkeley production, shows the impact of the video screens.

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felt from the beginning, he notes:“The first number, ‘American Idiot,’ isa prologue, and Michael Mayer said,‘Let’s roll out the spectacle of ourshow.’ At the beginning of the song,the VLXs are pointed at the upstagewall, and they strobe between abunch of colors. It’s so fast it’sabsolutely brain-melting—from blueto green and green to red. Then, inthe middle of the song, they’repointed at the actors, and it’s sobright that it really looks fabulous. Atthe end, they swing out at theaudience. I had no idea I could do somuch with them.”The rest of the rig includes approx-

imately 220 ETC Source Fours andSource Four PARs in various modelsand degree sizes; two ARRI 5Kcompact Fresnels; 12 Arri 2Kcompact Fresnels; ten 6'' Fresnels;one Arri 4K compact HMI Fresnelwith one Wybron Eclipse douser; 12ministrips; 15 mini-tens; 14 PhilipsVari*Lite VL2416 Wash units; 25VL3500Q Spots (“a beautiful unit touse,” says Adams); five DataflashAF1000 strobes; two Wybron large-format scrollers (for the 5K units); 46additional Wybron scrollers; threePhilips ColorKinetics ColorBlast 12s,controlled by one City TheatricalPDS-375 wireless DMX receiver andone City Theatrical wireless DMXtransmitter; one MDG Atmospherehazer; three Ultratec Radiance hazers;six JEM DMX fan; 11 Diversitronicsstrobe cannons; and three Lycian1293 followspots.As mentioned earlier, the lighting is

controlled by an ETC Eos console. “Iwanted a user-friendly board thatcould program both moving lights andconventionals, and could allow for asingle programmer instead of two,”says Adams. “I also wanted a consolethat would be easy to work from if thisshow transferred to another theatre. I

enjoy having an intuitive board that isnot overly complicated to use, bothlive and in blind. For me, the Eos is alow-stress board to work on.” Headds that he and his programmer,Victor Seastone, “easily pre-programmed the entire show—eventhe curtain call—in about four days.There are about 500 cues.”In contrast to the expansiveness of

the opening, Adams also achievessome tightly focused effects. Forexample, there’s the aerial ballet,which, he says, “took me a long timeto figure out. In Berkeley, you couldsee the strings holding the actors,but, as I took units out of the number,it looked just awful. Then Michaelsaid, ‘Let’s make the spots tight ontheir faces and shoulders,’ and itreally worked out. Michael and I havebeen working together for 17 yearsnow; it’s a really great collaboration,because we’re always helping eachother up the hill.”Overall, Adams says, “In trying to

counter Spring Awakening, which wasso meticulously focused, weembraced maximalism. We wanted tolayer image over image over image.At times, the picture is so big and sopurposefully busy your eye doesn’tknow where to look. There are manypoints of focus. It was our intention todo that; in some numbers, there are12 strobes—and three narratives—coming at you.”

Beating the drumIt’s never easy to create a sounddesign for a rock musical, especially apunk-rock musical, in a traditionalproscenium theatre, but, for BrianRonan, there were other challenges,as well. For example, he says, “We’renot using the orchestra pit. Everychoice I made was built around thefact that the drummer is located atcenter stage, unprotected by any

shields. That was Michael Mayer’schoice; the openness of the set isindicative of the openness of America,and he wanted the musicians placedaround and above the stage.”Ronan has been in this situation

before, on Spring Awakening. “Iwanted to shield the drummer then,but Michael said no,” he says. “Bythe time we got to American Idiot, theidea didn’t scare me. I know the guystanding in the middle of the stage,playing the hard drums, will be at90dB—and that informs where I haveto go, which is to have the vocals risecomfortably above that withoutblowing the audience away. Itaffected my choice of speakers andwhere to place them.”In Berkeley, the designer says, “I

saw how tough it was—howgymnastic—and how the singers hadto hit the floor and come up singing.”Therefore, he opted to go with a riglargely made up of Meyer sound gear:“Meyer speakers tend to punch thevocals a little more than other brands,”he notes. An added plus was the factthat Meyer is located in Berkeley.“They were just down the block, so Itook full advantage of their proximityand support,” he says, adding that thecompany recommended the use of itsM’elodie ultra-compact curvilineararray loudspeaker for the prosceniumhang: “They worked a deal and got meadded gear, so I had an amazingamount of sound. I stayed with thatmodel and worked it out for the St.James, so I could hit the entireaudience at a consistent volume level.”To do so, Ronan used a primary rig

for the main house, with additionaloff-axis boxes to cover the room’ssides. “We have M’elodies atorchestra right and left, and also onthe mezzanine, on the overhead trussand center cluster,” he says. “On theoutside of both levels, we have Meyer

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effects, and strobe cues—all whilecarving the cast out of that toweringset. In many ways, the designer musthave been the obvious choice for thejob; given a list of Broadway creditsthat includes Spring Awakening,Passing Strange, Next to Normal, andthe just-closed revival of Hair, he hasbecome the go-to person for lightingrock musicals. He says this factprovided him with his first challenge.“Having done these high-profile pop-rock shows, I didn’t want to doanything with lightbulbs andfluorescent tubes,” he says, referringto key elements of his work on SpringAwakening, Passing Strange, andNext to Normal. In fact, he adds,when designing Hair in the winter andspring of 2009, “I knew I wantedAmerican Idiot to be a strobe-heavyshow, so I deliberately made Hair lessstroboscopic. I also kept audienceblinders out of Hair. I saved them allfor American Idiot. I wanted to find adifferent vocabulary for this show.”In addition, Adams says, “From the

beginning, I didn’t want AmericanIdiot to look like our work as a teamon Spring Awakening.” One thing thatdefined Spring Awakening, as well asother rock shows like Hair, Rock ofAges, and Fela!, is an environmentaldesign. This time out, he says, “I

wanted it to look like a rock show atthe Metropolitan Opera—with verylittle equipment in the house, whichwould be uniformly and minimallyhung, and with all the energy of theshow behind a simple red curtain.” Tohis evident relief, he adds thatAmerican Idiot “doesn’t look like abig, messy rock show at MadisonSquare Garden.”One notable feature found behind

that red curtain is the large number ofunits built into the set, including 11PAR 64 strobes, 54 Pulsar MR16 LEDRGB units, bus head and tail lights,car headlights, six 3'' Fresnels, 66fluorescent units, and custom unitsfor the deck trough. “I love the littlebirdies I used in Passing Strange, so Iput them into the wall,” Adams says.“Starting at Berkeley, I hung strobeson the staircase, pointing them at theaudience. We came up with the ideaof hiding strobes in the vintagespeakers on stage. At the St. James,we’ve also got these little PAR lightsthat point at the audience.”Of course, given the set’s shape

and height, Adams notes, positionswere at a premium. “The electrics aretrimmed at 40',” he says. “The first 8'of the downstage area is given overto the flying rig [for the “ExtraordinaryGirl” aerial ballet] and a few pieces of

scenery. I don’t have an electric untilwe get 11' or 12' upstage.” Therefore,he relies heavily on sidelight. “Wehave 6'-wide ladders, about 30' high,with moving lights, some 5K units,and a long row of vertical ministrips; alot of the lighting for the downstagearea comes from them.”One element of the rig that’s visible

from the audience is a pair of verticalarrays of moving lights, located oneither side of the proscenium. Theseconsist of Philips Vari*Lite VLX LEDmoving head units; American Idiotconstitutes the VLX’s Broadwaydebut. “That was such a happyaccident,” says Adams. “I didn’t haveanything like them in Berkeley; myplan there was to do a very simpleplot, to which I would add units later,as the show expanded. I was justabout finished with the plot for the St.James when I noticed a space aboveBrian Ronan’s prosceniumloudspeakers. At the same time, mymoving light operator from theLondon production of Hair was doingan event at Madison Square Garden,and he said, ‘Come see these newlights.’” It was Adams’ first encounterwith the VLX.“I really responded to the VLX’s

white light,” the designer continues.“For some time, I had been trying toget some kind of LED white light forthe show—I really wanted this brightwhite LED frame that wrapped aroundthe proscenium—and couldn’t findanything that we could afford. The VLXwas exactly what I was looking for; ithad the white, the colors were reallybright, and it had a fast strobing unit. Ileft Madison Square Garden, and Icalled my associate, Aaron Sporer,and said, ‘How many VLX units canwe fit in that space if we stack themtightly?’ He said, ‘I think we can fit tenon each side.’ I thought we couldnever afford it, but Hudson [Sound andLight] did a wonderful job of deliveringeverything I asked for. The 20 VLXunits are just more fabulous than I everthought they would be.”The effect of the VLX units can be

“When people see the show more than once, they’re intrigued by howmany layers there are. I don’t think there’s any point in the show wherethe details are meaningless.” — Maloney

The LED frame, used in “Rock and Roll Girlfriend,” was cut before the opening. It wasrepurposed in Everyday Rapture, which opened a couple of weeks later.

Photo:StephenJoseph

with sound. “You can’t just step on thegas pedal and give it to them for 90minutes,” Ronan notes, adding that theaddition of a couple of ballads not onthe American Idiot album providedsome additional dynamic contrast. TomKitt’s orchestrations, which providesome surprisingly delicate momentswith violin, viola, and cello, are alsohelpful in this regard.“The biggest challenge is the St.

James Theatre,” says Ronan. “It’s areflective building, so we have thearchitecture working against us. Thatheld us up for a couple of weeks,trying to make the show work in atraditional theatrical environment. Iwasn’t really that happy with it until acouple of nights before the pressshowed up.” But, as is true of hiscolleagues, Ronan has become adept

at fitting avant-garde musical theatreinto vintage Broadway houses.Aside from those already

mentioned, other key members of theproduction team include JamesHarker (production stage manager),Freda Farrell (stage manager); AshleyHanson (associate sound designer);Dan Scully (associate video/projectiondesigner); Nico Sarudiansky (assistanteditor); Jeff Cady/SenovvA (video andprojection programmer); Dave Brown(flyman); Mark Diaz (flyingautomation/deck carpenter); GregHusinko (production electrician); EricAbbott (head electrician); Joe Lenihan(deck sound); Greg Peeler (productionvideo/deck audio); Joseph P. Harris,Jr. (production property supervisor);Eric Castaldo (head properties); SuePelkofer, Tom Maloney, and Bob

Miller (followspots); Bethany Russell(assistant stage manager); BenjaminTravis (assistant lighting designer);Barbara Samuels (assistant to thelighting designer); AlexMarshall/SenovvA (video andprojection assistant); and CodySpencer (assistant sound).In what represents a remarkable

case of teamwork, Mayer and hisdesigners got American Idiot up andrunning, then immediately moved onto Everyday Rapture. (Due to his workon Promises, Promises, Ronanworked in association on EverydayRapture, with Ashley Hanson andKurt Eric Fischer, with whom heshared design credit.) Both showsprove that when it comes toinnovation in musical theatre, thisteam is on the front lines.

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UPQ-2Ps, for side coverage. MeyerM1Ds cover the entire balcony, withthe UPQ-2Ps again on the outside,where the primary speakers fall off.We also used some E3s [from d&baudiotechnik] for mezzanine delaysand some EAW KF695s for extrawarmth in the mezzanine. Thesurround system uses Meyer’s UP 4-XP [ultra-compact loudspeakers]. Weneeded a fair amount of surround,because the opening montage [whichmashes together a speech by GeorgeW. Bush and various newscasts andbits of music] wants to come from allover the place. The UP 4-XP is a nice,compact little speaker, and we putthem all around the house.“For our front fill,” continues

Ronan, “we wanted to get what wehad in Berkeley, where the theatrehas no orchestra pit; we covered theSt. James’ pit and recreated the frontapron from Berkeley. We built a framewith [Meyer] M1Ds for front fill, andsix 600-HPs for bass. We also usedthe apron to service downstage

monitor speakers for the cast.” Themonitors consist of five MeyerUPJuniors downstage and a set ofUPJs at left and right, plus a coupleof Meyer MM-4s for the staircaselandings. The musicians use anAviom personal monitor mixingsystems, with Ultimate Ears in-earmonitors provided by the show’sgeneral manager. “One thing aboutthe Aviom system, especially at theselevels, is that the musicians are soseparated physically, they have manydifferent models in their ears,” hesays. “If we change the EQ for, say,the kick drums, it’s consistent foreverybody who is listening.”The cast members wear DPA 4065

boom mics; this is a discontinuedmodel, but Ronan chose it in partbecause “the choreography is soaggressive. The mics sound verygood, they’re dependable, and I cancustom-fit them to the performers’heads.” Even so, he adds, “We had tolock them in there with lavalier mikingtricks,” so the actors could handle the

choreography—and, in a couple ofcases, the aerial ballet—without themics moving around on their faces.The wireless systems are Sennheiser3432-U dual-diversity receivers withSK 5212 receivers. Audio gear wassupplied by Masque Sound.Having used a Yamaha PM1D

console in Berkeley, Ronan opted tostay with it for New York. “I wasshopping around for New York, butit was already programmed, and,instead of reinventing the wheel, wewent with the 1D. We also have aPM5D backstage, to distribute allthe mixes to the musicians.” Theonly outboard gear consists of acouple of T.C. Electronic M3000reverb units.Speaking of the design challenges,

Ronan says, “It’s a rock ‘n’ roll show,but it’s not drastically different from abig musical. You have to pull the lyricsout of the music while they’re dancingand flying.” Also, he says, DavidDignazio, the sound operator, has to becareful not to overwhelm the audience P

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The cast wears DPA 4065 mics. A discontinued model, Ronan chose them because they can be custom-fit to the performers’ heads,allowing them to stay in place during the many strenuous moments of staging.

“We embraced maximalism. We wanted to layer image over image overimage. At times, the picture is so big and so purposefully busy your eyedoesn’t know where to look.” – Adams

SHoW DMX® is the most advanced and reliable wireless DMX ever!

High Data FidelityCity Theatrical’s multi-award winning SHoW DMX (Synchronized Hopping of Wireless DMX) utilizes a state of theart radio that synchronizes the radio’s hopping pattern with the incoming DMX packet to ensure the highest levelsof data fidelity ever seen in wireless DMX.

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And We Have the Data to Prove It!For a full copy of our lab report visit www.citytheatrical.com/labreport.htm

LIGHTING

SHoW DMXTransceivers are covered by U.S. Patent # 7,432,803 and other patents pending. CIRCLE READER SERVICE 35