Magic Goes Wrong

Project Profile

Magic Goes Wrong, Apollo Theatre, London, UK www.jcjoel.com

Venue & Usage Apollo Theatre, London

Technology Bespoke Fabric Shapes, Over Stage Engineering

Technical Components Custom bullion, satin bands and braid.

Custom designed, laser cut stars in varying shapes & fabrics.

Bespoke fibre-optic star cloths with shaped cut outs.

Multi- layered slit drape on single header.

Custom stage flats covered in fibre-optic star cloth.

www.jcjoel.com

Overview February sees the final shows of the West End run of the hit show, Magic Goes Wrong.

J&C Joel’s Creative team were instructed to create a full set of show drapes together a set of intricate scenic flats.

The tableau Front of House drapes produced were a lesson is detail from renowned set designer Will Bowen. Manufactured as a pair, each at 4.300m wide x 7.000m drop with 100% fullness from our Cross Dyed Crushed Velour in blue/red, the base was finished with custom 300mm roll top gold bullion and 2no parallel 75mm deep Regal Satin bands edged top and bottom with a 10mm braid. A further ‘wow’ factor was created when over a hundred gold stars, cut using our small bed laser cutter from our Glitter Cloth, Trevira Silk, Polyester Trevira Satin, Regal Satin, and Lurex Satin, were appliqued to the drapes.

Whilst the pattern was ‘random’, a layout was drawn up by our design team, approved and then translated into a grid for our manufacturing team to work from.

Next was an 8.000m wide x 7.000m drop Austrian drape again made from our Cross Dyed Crushed Velour, this time in frosted black. The Austrian was finished with strategically placed d-rings to allow the drape to be raised to create an arched opening to mirror the arched set portals.

In addition, we also produced a multi-layer Slit drape at 8.000m wide x 4.880m drop. The front layers were made up of diffraction Slit drapes in silver and black with the rear layers from standard black Slit drapes.

The final feature drape was a fibre optic star cloth with an arch cut out and custom rolled bar to maintain its shape when flown. The star cloth was manufactured from Wool Serge 565 with a fully removable lining manufactured from Casement 3.2. The patten of the fibres was randomly generated and created using a mixture of 1mm and 1.5mm diameter fibres, with most of the cloth had 8 fibres per square metre reducing to three for the final metre of the drape.

www.jcjoel.com

J&C Joel then manufactured seven fibre optic star cloths to cover the scenic flats we produced. The most intricate of these flats were the ‘Iris Gates’ which were automated to open during the show. It was essential that the flats were produced and covered to ensure there was no light leakage when closed.

Through the run of the show we were called on to make amends to certain drapes to accommodate the nuances of the Vaudeville and Apollo theatres. This did not present any issue for our skilled manufacturing team and we were even able to utilise the remaining fabrics.

Following the successful delivery of this package, we were contacted last year to produce a new set of the Front of House, Austrian and Slit drapes for the touring version of the show. These were successfully completed and are currently working their way round the UK. As with the West End set, we have been able to offer on and off-site support to the touring team.

Head of Creative Chris Firth noted: “it was an incredible honour to be asked by the Mischief team to create the drapes for the show. The level of detail and precision required is why we started our Creative team. We worked closely with Tom Nickson (production manager) and Will, with the critical details being agreed by way of physical samples and detailed CAD drawings, both from Will and our in-house Design team. The end result was incredible and very satisfying”.

www.jcjoel.com

Specialists in flame retardant fabrics, drapery and stage machinery for the entertainment and event industries.

J&C Joel United Kingdom - HQ uksales@jcjoel.com J&C Joel Europe eusales@jcjoel.com J&C Joel Middle East uaesales@jcjoel.com J&C Joel Vietnam asiasales@jcjoel.com J&C Joel Macau asiasales@jcjoel.com J&C Joel Hong Kong asiasales@jcjoel.com

www.jcjoel.com