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What a way to make a stage show! Sarah Rushton-Read reports on the close creative collaboration required to bring Dolly Parton’s hit story to the West End . . .
9 to 5: The Musical is a sparkly, fast-paced romp through 1980s office life, along with the daily normalisation - and acceptance - of blatant workplace sexism. It tells the story of what happens when three very different women - Doralee, Violet and Judy - join forces to do something about it. The show is also a reminder, in the era of #MeToo, of how far we haven’t come in terms of dealing with discrimination, which seemingly remains wholly embedded in the top echelons of the political and media establishment! Bringing a fresh design perspective for the stage to this narrative are scenic designer Tom Rogers, lighting designer Howard Hudson, video designer Nina Dunn and sound designer Poti Martin. SET Framed by a proscenium, fashioned from facsimiles of the first ever IBM computer screens, the stage look continues with a series of on-stage portals that force audience perspective and lead to a full-width LED video wall at the rear. Video content combined with dynamic, colour-matched lighting results in a boundary-free interplay of scenery, lighting and video, that enriches the narrative, ensuring that the show experience is both filmic and theatrical. The show opens with the delightful Dolly Parton introducing the story from a large circular LED screen, framed by a glittery, gold 9 to 5 show logo. Dolly’s address is mirrored in the screens around the proscenium and, as the clock flies out and Dolly disappears, the rear video screen provides a dynamic backdrop to two different households getting ready for work. The screens around the proscenium burst into colourful life. Alarm clocks ring, cars beep their horns, and the visual and aural landscape that accompanies the fast-paced, locationchanging opening to this show takes us on the characters’ journeys to work. As the workers arrive in the office, the video back wall becomes a large window, looking out on the high-rise world of city life, as a stage-wide florescent light fitting flies into centre stage.
Nina Dunn’s 3D video world is beautifully complemented by Hudson’s lighting as the action glides, glass elevator style, between a lower floor kitchen, the main office and the boss’ teak-clad office on the upper floor. Illuminated colour-changing light boxes in the shape of computer monitors and perspective strip lights built into the set present a bold conceptual frame for the more naturalistic scenes, while for the bigger Broadway-style dance numbers, the same elements are used to dramatic effect with strong use of colour and pattern. There is a fresh, modern edge to the design, while remaining faithful to much of the original material, ensuring that the show resonates both with hardcore 9 to 5 film fans and contemporary audiences alike. And, as the majority of the scenes happen in the office setting, Rogers’ ever-decreasing rows of identical desk cubicles and desktop computers in the stage portals visually echo the monotony of an office job. Rogers explains his thinking: “From the outset, I felt the time the show was anchored in should shift from the end of the ‘70s to the mid ‘80s. It gives a punchier palette - power dressing, the strong patterns and colours of Memphis Design, advancements in technology and so on. It also supports the use of LED screens, which seem less incongruous in an ‘80s setting. This became the integral concept for the scenic design.” Like the film, the story is fast-paced and set across multiple locations. However, the Savoy Theatre has a small stage with very limited wing space. Rogers continues: “We had to be economical with the set elements we used to evoke different locations. That’s where Howard’s lighting and Nina’s video designs were crucial - both languages were essential in creating the different locations.” A Grade I listed building, the Savoy Theatre has a very challenging load-in dock (a four-metre drop through a very small load-in opening) and difficult front of house positions for a production which incorporates human flying and a large, heavy and delicate video wall. Production manager Simon
Photo: Howard Hudson
Marlow engaged Unusual Rigging to facilitate a tight grid, tricky proscenium and front of house rigging for the show. “Unusual, as usual, were totally unfazed,” says Marlow. “They drew the hanging plot, liaised with all departments, and provided the methods, equipment and correct skills on site to deliver it. Working with [Flying by] Foy on the human flying elements, Unusual provided motors and truss, ensuring everything work flawlessly.” He continues: “Special mention goes to Emily Egleton, Unusual design engineer, for facilitating the project. She knows how I work and has a wonderful grasp of theatre, understanding design plans instinctively and providing the hanging plot and drawings.” Packed with integrated lighting, the set features three different LED vehicles - the clock screen, the back wall and the proscenium LED screens. Rogers worked in close collaboration with lighting and video to establish a clear
visual language with which to tell the story. He explains: “We looked at all the possibilities the integrated lighting elements could bring. We then worked out where Nina could take the lead in creating locations, or supporting those we created in a 3D capacity. Both Howard and Nina are brilliant artists, so I felt confident we would create a coherent visual language that would support the piece. The computer screens in the surround (both LED and light box), and the perspective LED strips incorporated into the cubicles form the main design identity, and it was thrilling to see the multitude of effects that Howard and Nina achieved with them.” LIGHTING “An exciting aspect of the show itself is how fast-moving it is,” says Hudson. “Like Tom, my brief was to bring a fresh, contemporary visual look to that world. The lighting design plays a big part in driving the pace of the show, particularly on the numerous transitions between numbers and scenes, but it also maintains the focus and rhythm.”
Photo: Howard Hudson
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In addition, Hudson’s crisp, clean lighting helps define each location. He continues: “Lighting specific elements of the portals in different colours allows us to restrict or expand the playing space or create different looks. When a scene transitions into a number, the light boxes are an effective way to introduce more colour to the picture or energise a number with movement. The LED strips built into the walls and roof also bring movement into a transition while maintaining the energy of the show. Also, the ‘geography’ of the floor proved useful for creating separate areas with boxes and corridors of light.”
B Clockwise from top: Designers Tom Rogers (set), Nina Dunn (video) and Howard Hudson (lighting)
The set is packed with scenic electrics - over 100 individual light boxes and over 100 individual strips, all built by Howard Eaton Lighting. These provide an exciting dynamic element to the show. However, they also presented Hudson with some challenges. He explains: “The set portals effectively made the set a box with two side walls and a roof not the easiest on which to light a big, bright Broadway or West End musical. Finding useful positions to rig fixtures was challenging. We managed to squeeze four very tight bars in overhead, with scenery flying millimetres away from them. Tom and I added slots into the set, squeezing units in where we could. There was a larger opening mid stage, so we had a more conventional ladder position there.” Although the screens built into the prosc’ look identical in form to the other light
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boxes on the set, they are actually video screens. However, Hudson knew that he wanted to use them as solid block colour, integrating them into the effects and colour palettes used across the rest of the set. “Nina recreated the screen of the set light boxes in a video slide, which she put into the prosc’ screens. She then gave lighting programmer Vic Brennan control of intensity and colour. Aside from the expected difference in brightness and a slightly different colour system, it worked well. We also tinted the back video wall to match the colour scheme of the stage picture, which proved ideal for transitions or when numbers had specific cued colour shifts.” Overall, the set light boxes and strips provide a strong visual language, which enables the shift from naturalistic scenes where a more neutral colour palette is used, to a brighter, more upfront colour language. Hudson continues: “We had a system of 20 ETC Source 4 ColorSources cut into all the portal legs and headers which could make that colour shift and heighten certain moments. This, along with Nina tinting her content to reflect these shifts, allowed us to drastically change the bigger picture without losing a sense of location - a bit like adding a colour filter across the whole picture.” Transitions are often animated. For instance, the movement from a corridor in the office to the rooftop sees a cross section of the building swipe up, this is then reflected in the direction and movement of Hudson’s lighting effects.
Photo: Nina Dunn
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Lighting was supplied by Hawthorn, who worked closely with Hudson to meet his exact specifications. Mark Burnett, business development manager at Hawthorn, comments: “We were over the moon to be chosen to supply the lighting equipment for 9 to 5. We have a great relationship with Howard, so it was amazing to collaborate on another project together.” VIDEO Video enhances the drama and adds a rich quality to the storytelling, be it subtle or obvious. It also allows the creative team to pull the surreal from the real, yet continue with a cohesive visual language. For Dunn, the back LED wall wasn’t just a screen but rather a dynamic and theatrical extension of the stage. Not only does video deliver the all-important Dolly Parton moments - such as her introduction to the show - but also stylishly completes the stage picture and supports the dynamic action and filmic changes in location on stage. Creating content that fits with the style of the production is something that prolific designer Nina Dunn relishes. “I look for stylistic answers from the set design,” she reveals. “My storyboarding process always incorporates the wider stage picture - I rarely look at the video image in isolation.” Indeed, patterns, shapes and colours cross over from the stage and costume design to video, and colour is matched across lighting and video. Dunn continues: “We made colour decisions based on existing scenic elements. The aim was to start low key, becoming more vibrant and saturated as the piece evolved.”
Photo: Craig Sugden
With LED lighting and a stage-wide video screen dominating the set, Hudson says the fixtures he specified had to be bright, flexible and reliable. “We relied mostly on [Martin] MAC Viper Performances, Wash DXs and MAC Aura XBs, with GLP X4Ss built into the set portals with ColorSources FOH and on-stage. Noise wasn’t a huge consideration, so we got away with a bar of [Claypaky] Sharpy Washes upstage which created light curtain effects, reflecting the perspective look of the set.”
As Hudson previously explained, Dunn released DMX values serving the video screens to lighting control to ensure that colours matched across both mediums. “We had just four days to tech, so while lighting was plotting, they colourised the video content - usually between 10% and 20%. If we took 100% it flattened the image, which worked well for scene changes. It saved a lot of time. To achieve this, we were using the disguise media server along with an ETC Eos lighting desk. disguise also allowed us to previz in great detail - which, again, was crucial given such a short tech. “It would have been too time-consuming and inflexible to render out every single state, so we made layers I could grade separately. So, for example, the window frame was a separate layer from the skyline and from the sky colour, the lights in the office blocks outside the windows and so on.” In terms of workflow, Dunn storyboards every scene. She explains: “The city skyline is an unnaturally rectilinear look which matches the square shapes on the stage. I work with a 3D animator so that we can move the buildings up and down as the action moves between floors, or we can fly over the top, ‘helli-shot’ style. “Our biggest issue was the integration between sound and video. We were constantly editing and re-writing Dolly’s intro, which meant that the whole opening sequence shifted repeatedly. We’re all using different platforms, requiring different indicators and markers within the sequence.” WWW.LSIONLINE.COM • MAY 2019
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Photo: Craig Sugden
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SOUND At the same time, sound designer Poti Martin brought the show to vibrant life with a well-produced and powerful soundscape that lost nothing of the clarity and detail of the orchestrations.
Photo: Howard Hudson
“The Savoy Theatre is small and intimate space, but was designed a long time before acoustics for amplified sound were a concern,” he reveals. “I had no way to treat the acoustics of the building. It’s a beautiful listed theatre, but acoustically it’s challenging. The prosc’ is surrounded by three rigid surfaces that act as a resonance box, so optimum speaker positioning is crucial.”
Another challenge for Dunn was to get the physical stage picture to seamlessly extend into the digital world. To that end, Dunn worked closely with lighting programmer, Brennan, to balance the stage picture with the virtual. “We used a lot of layers to ensure one particular scene worked. The good thing about the LED wall was that real stage ceiling LED lights, when repeated on the virtual set, were the same quality as the ones on stage, which really helped when blending the physical and the virtual worlds.” On a technical level, Dunn was keen to relinquish some control of video fixtures to lighting. She explains: “We knew we would be busy programming the video content on the prosc’ and stage screens, both of which provided a big input into
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the lighting design. Howard wanted to include our downstage screens as part of their chases when we weren’t using them for video. We photographed one of the LED lighting boxes for texture and used that as a piece of single-colour content that they could then colour when we weren’t running video content. It worked very well.”
Supplied by Autograph Sound, the main PA comprises KV2 ESR212 speakers left, right and centre; a personal choice for Martin. In addition, the delays, fills and subs are also KV2 and include EX 1.8 subs plus EX 1.8s, EX26s, EX6s, EX12s and ESD5s. “From the first time I heard these speakers I fell in love with them,” he says. “As far as I’m concerned, they are the best sounding point sources on the market, I use them whenever I can.” E-Series speakers from d&b audiotechnik also feature, along with Meyer Sound’s compact UPJ and UPM boxes.
For Dunn, one of the best experiences of working on 9 to 5 was flying to Nashville for 24 hours, where she co-directed the video with director Jeff Calhoun, even picking out Dolly Parton’s costume and wig or the show. “I didn’t want to be at the sharp end of someone else’s footage in tech, and of course, I wanted to meet Dolly Parton myself! Watching such a professional at work was truly an honour.”
The main PA is incorporated into the stylised proscenium arch that frames the stage: “It works beautifully in this particular set design,” Martin explains. “To be honest, The Savoy Theatre is so small that there was no other place they could go. However, this will probably be the first and last time a set designer incorporates my speakers into their design!”
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With just four days to tech the show in the theatre there was no time to mess about. “This isn’t a SFX-heavy show, I had a number of sound effects that I wanted to try, and although not all of them made it, there was a fair bit of programming to make the show work. Some of the effects are triggered by the click track, so they feel integrated into the orchestrations.”
does,” he says. “The show just fits into the SD10. However, I wanted to ensure FOH was compact and cost effective for the upcoming tour. I have no plug-ins on this show; simplicity is a key factor. Fortunately, all the performers require very little processing. Great vocal quality delivered in a powerful way - you don’t need much processing when you get that!”
Martin says less was definitely more for this show: “I use QLab to trigger click tracks, which enables us to synchronise video and lights via timecode with the band. I also trigger specific desk cues from QLab via MIDI.”
With eight in the band, each musician has their own personal monitor mixer, in this case Roland M48s. In terms of mics for the performers, Martin chose to use the DPA 4061s. “For the three principle women, I’ve combined them with Sennheiser MKE IIs, which are a little smaller but sound stunning.”
One of the toughest jobs for any sound designer working on a musical is to balance the quality of the audience’s audio while ensuring that the actors and musicians can hear clearly. Martin elaborates: “Monitoring on stage changes scene-by-scene. We have amazing tools nowadays that allow us to do this in an effective way, including multitrack recording of the show and remote control of the desk. This makes it possible to adjust the tiniest of details.” Console of choice for Martin is the DiGiCo SD10T. “In my opinion, there’s no other console on the market that offers the programming capabilities this console
Between them, Rogers, Hudson, Dunn and Martin have devised a strong, fresh and stimulating visual and aural language to present this popular story. While the costumes and the set pieces are very much anchored in the ‘80s, the proscenium surround that frames the stage is conceptual, which gives the production a unique visual identity and a contemporary edge.
“Video content combined with dynamic, colour-matched lighting results in a boundaryfree interplay of scenery, lighting and video . . .”
Starring Louise Redknapp, Caroline Sheen, Amber Davies, Natalie McQueen, Bonnie Langford and Brian Conley, 9 to 5: The Musical is currently running at the Savoy Theatre until August. I
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