First published in Lighting and Sound International May 2010

Download a PDF of the article here . . .Les Mis at 25 – L&SI, May 2010

Les Miserables 25^th Anniversary Tour

It’s been a quarter of a century since Les Miserables first opened in London and it’s been playing – in one theatre or another – ever since. To celebrate the shows phenomenal success Cameron Mackintosh has had it re-staged and re-designed and it’s currently out on its 25th Anniversary tour. Sarah Rushton-Read joined the blue rinse brigade for the Thursday afternoon matinee at The Edinburgh Playhouse and wept her way through an entire box of Kleenex!

When theatre really works, when you can truly suspend your disbelief and loose yourself in the story and its characters, it’s a magical encounter. The brand-new 25^th Anniversary production of Les Miserables ensures you to do exactly that.

For this production Cameron Mackintosh has bought together a symphony of theatre design talent, technical skill and enthusiasm and it resonates throughout the production. Each element of the show works in harmony with the other and makes Victor Hugo’s epic tale of moral redemption and revolution a delight to watch.

Matt Kinley’s textural and dynamic automated set design gracefully moves around the stage to form a multitude of configurations and locations. These combinations depict everything from the docks and bars of 18C Paris to its quiet suburbs and surrounding countryside. The transitions flow seamlessly into one another and neither stem nor rush the flow of action.

Projection is a fundamental element in the design and has been created to replace much of the heavy scenery and statement pieces of former productions. This makes for a lighter, more tourable version, but it’s certainly no compromise. Kinley has reworked some of Victor Hugo’s dramatic paintings to create a backdrop of vibrant, brooding landscapes and historic street scenes. These have been subtly, yet beautifully, bought to life, through animation, by Leo Warner and his team at 59 Productions.

Many of the scenes are set at dawn, dusk or nighttime. The look is sharp, exciting and atmospheric. Paule Constable’s darkly evocative lighting blends physical set and video while pulling characters out of the background to deliver a strong painterly feel.

Adding further dimension to the experience is Mick Potter’s expansive and enveloping sound design. Somehow it shifts past the constraints of the auditorium walls and opens the room up to the action on stage. It’s atmospheric and three-dimensional; one minute there are cannon balls and bullets hurtling past your head, the next you’re chilled by the drip, drip, drip of the Paris sewers. The re-scored music is alive and the vocals are clear, balanced and natural.

What makes this production such a pleasure to watch is that each of these normally disparate technical elements works in synchronicity with the others. The outcome is cinematic in quality and provides the perfect three-dimensional, ever changing canvas on which Hugo’s epic tale unfolds.

Although the show has been designed and built specifically for touring there’s no skimping in style or production values. The Sunday get in and following Tuesday opening only happens because of precise, thoughtful design, detailed planning and a 24-hour build operation. What takes this productions team three days and two nights to achieve would once have demanded anything up to four weeks to pull off.

Every venue has been thoroughly recc’d by every relevant member of the team. Each receiving house’s staff knows exactly what to expect before the in. As Paule Constable says: “Production manager Gerry Donaldson is a genius; you give him a idea and he will worry it to its natural solution. Every t is crossed and every i dotted, he’s extraordinary. For example, when he realized certain venues were not going to have enough wing storage he came up with an ingenious plan to fly the props and furniture on steeldeck, just upstage of the number 1 LX!”

Nothing about this show is under specified – there are a number of very large automated scenic elements and furniture, the lighting has more than 500 programmed moves and over 400 cues, there’s a huge surround sound and delay system plus a sophisticated foldback built into the stage floor. In addition there is an extensive, Howard Eaton designed and built, smoke distribution system that runs under the stage and 16 Axis of flying. Large-scale projection is a key element of the design and multipart flying and scene transitions add further complexity.

Paule Constable’s lighting is stark, understated and illustrative. It sculpts the dimension, scale and form of the set. Plenty of top, back and sidelight chisel the performers out from their background and yet effortlessly smooth the integration of the rich video content with the set.

There’s an ever-changing conversation between light and projection, with lighting very much keyed into the projected images. She says: “My only concession to the musical theatre genre is that I make it just that little bit more alive than I might normally! Of course that doesn’t mean using pinks, bright blues or gobos but I might use some 205 – steady!”

Choosing not to go down the road of gobos and saturated colour is a brave move, however the starkness allows the story to really shine. Constable continues: “My style for Les Mis takes the approach that our memory and the way we visualize history is based on paintings and films that have depicted the time. I took my inspiration from the Victor Hugo paintings and worked in close association with Matt Kinley and Leo Warner. Between us we pushed the palette of each image to either heighten or knock atmosphere back. I would then reflect that in the mood of the lighting state.”

In terms of cues this is a busy show. Jane Dutton – programmer and re-lighter for the tour has her work cut out just to get it plotted in time for the Tuesday opening. The overhead rig comprised primarily movers and there are 409 cues (excluding parts) and 526 moving light positions!

“We have to work really hard to achieve the Tuesday night opening. I get an hour on Tuesday to focus to furniture and then I don’t get to see anything until the tech run later in the afternoon. For me it’s all about being on the ball and ensuring the lights are in the right place at the right time before the next scene change happens,” says Dutton

Thankfully the company is touring all the overheads on pre-rigged trusses so the relationship between lights and set remain relatively constant. However there’s always room for some tweaks. In contrast the FOH units often change orientation so can take some time to re-plot.

Ian Moulds, production LX continues: “To save time we tour the entire overhead lighting rig on pre-rigged trusses. To speed up get in, set up and out we’ve had bespoke dolly trucks made.”

Unsurprisingly electrics greatest challenge is time, Simon Sherriff, on tour chief LX elaborates: “All overheads and FOH lighting has to be rigged and operational by the lunchtime of day two, or we don’t have enough time to focus on days two and three. We have teams working 24 hours from Sunday morning through to Tuesday afternoon.”

Moulds interjects: “Again for quick set up we’ve designed custom frames and tower sections – built by Howard Eaton Lighting Ltd – for side lighting and downstage followspot platforms. The throw back is we use a lot more truck space!”

There are five mobile set pieces, which come together in various configurations. Each has a city theatrical radio DMX receiver to drive Howard Eaton created fixtures such as LED strobes, which provide gun shot flashes during the barricade scenes. HELL also built a smoke and haze delivery system that covers the upstage

For control, Dutton and Constable favor the ETC EOS. Dutton elaborates: “My background was Strand, but EOS seems to be the way forward now. I like the touch screen feature. I can have all my presets close to hand and its ergonomic and intuitive.”

In the main the rig comprises: Martin TW1s, ETC Revolutions, Clay Paky Alpha Beams and a selection of Vari*lites. For a show that is reliant on precise, visible beams throughout the kit must be kept in tiptop condition. To that end Sherriff and his team does a maintenance day every week.

Sherriff is also responsible for the video rigging, focus and maintenance. Again the relationship between the projection surface and the fixtures is fairly fixed. He discusses: The projectors are very steeply rigged. Focus is done overnight on the Monday and it can take a couple of hours to get right.”

For each of Kinley’s projected images Leo Warner and his team have added some dynamic. Whether it is subtle wisps of animation or huge, sweeping cinematic statements, each gives spot on perspective creates a dramatic sense of scale both physically and emotionally. Projection is lyrical; helped by the choice of projection surface – a brick wall that spans the full width of the stage. It never feels flat or plastic; it’s textural without being literal, heavy or deadening.

From a design perspective this is a real strength. Warner discusses: “Our brief was to make the imagery work on stage but also within the parameters of touring. There are some tricky issues such as the short throw to the back wall. Projectors are rigged high and steep. People said it wouldn’t work but we’ve proved that you can come in at a harsh angle and still get a seamless image. The advantage is you can stand people hard against the wall without shadows.”

There are some really dramatic moments; one in the Paris sewers where the journey is punctuated by projected imaged panning and zooming in filmic style. Other big moments include a run away cart, where a ‘dolly out’ effect has the background receding fast as the cart rolls downstage. This confers a remarkable sense of speed and changing perspective – everything happening at once. There’s also a rather cunningly staged suicide from a bridge. A combination of lighting, projection, smoke and moving scenery give amazing viewpoint to the action – I would have liked a rewind button for that one!

59 Productions’ Jonathan Lyle programmed the show in catalyst. “It’s pretty straight forward from a programming point of view. We’re only working with two or three layers. This keeps equipment to the minimum. In show mode the Catalyst is triggered by midi show control from the lighting console.”

There’s almost no time when projection is not used. Robust equipment is therefore essential. Warner elaborates: “We use three Panasonic PTD10,000s on the back wall, soft edged together. We also use one on the front circle, which does the show cloth and a couple of effects.”

To get a true blackout 59 Productions fitted gradated neutral density scrollers to the units. Warner explains: “This allows us to achieve a really smooth fade up from total black as opposed to video black. There are moments – especially in act 1 – when the whole stage closes down to nothing except a single spotlight – I Dream a Dream. From this there is a fade up of a factory backdrop which comes out of nothing and is all the more effective for it.”

Continuing the cinematic style is the sound design. Mick Potter has created a transparent, dynamic filmic feel to the production. It’s big without being super loud. Paul Gatehouse – Assistant Sound Designer discusses: “It’s a dream score to work with because it’s all there; the dynamics go all the way from the top to the bottom. The score creates the atmosphere; we simply enhance it in places. There are a lot of keyboard synthesizer sounds and they work well in surround.”

Potter and Gatehouse had the opportunity to work with composer Claude-Michel Schonberg to re-invent the score to suit the current orchestral line up. “It was really exciting, Les Mis is the de facto musical for me and to have that opportunity was fantastic,” says Gatehouse.

There are only 11 band members in the pit. However the feeling is of much larger band than that. It’s a percussion led score. All instruments are both close and ambient mic’d, Gatehouse elaborates: “We have a full set of DPA mics in the pit. 4061 clip on mics on the strings with the 4011 ambient mics. The mics on brass and woodwind are 4022s with 4011 ambients. This gives us the choice to use a closer or bigger sound. All together there are about 60 orchestra lines, plus reverb and returns.”

Console is a Yamaha PM1D. “We store snapshots and balance between close and ambient sound. The console is fully packed– all 112 inputs and 72 output are being used. We have 38 performers RF mic’d – all 4061s and Sennheiser SK5212 beltpacks. Principles are duel mic’d.

“We use two frames of TC M6000 system, – one to do four engines of reverb and the other does four engines of EQ inserts. We use the George Massenburg EQ on the vocal group and multiband dynamics on the orchestra group. The S6000s and the G-Type run sound effects – the battle scenes being the main one – all in surround. Interestingly during the barricade scenes we trigger lighting by midi show control and they in turn trigger video.”

PA is Meyer and delays and surround are d&b. “We have 12 M’elodie a side on the proc, with 600HP subs rigged below them. We also have an advance truss with a cluster of three Meyer UPJs in the centre and some smaller 500 HP subs. On the outer edges there’s a splayed pair of UPJs – just to give some advance high frequency into the circle. The beauty of the system is it’s set up to do any major theatre in the UK. On the road it’s about adjustment of timing, level and delay plus keeping the low end in check.”

Audio kit is supplied by Autograph and the production team includes production engineers Andy Brown from Autograph and freelancer Sean Lawler. With 52 d&b E0s to put up and another 48 d&b E0 delay speakers getting up and running for a Tuesday night opening is challenging!

Lawler explains: “We put all the rigging up ourselves – it’s a long process. There’s a team of three who tour with the show permanently. Nick Gray – FOH engineer, David Darlington and Morgan Rodgers who look after RF but also mix the show.”

It’s worth mentioning the foldback here. There’s a matrix layout of 16 d&b E0 speakers positioned upside down under grills in the show floor, arrayed in four zones. The cast therefore benefits from the same foldback relationship on stage in every venue. Gatehouse explains: “You can really localize the sound. If a cast member wants a bit more keyboard downstage and someone else needs another instrument or dialogue upstage the system is that flexible!”

The latest incarnation of Les Miserables is pure theatre, it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it stimulates every sense, it’s thought provoking and resonant. It’s absolutely beautiful to look at and a pleasure to listen to.

If Victor Hugo were alive today he would surely be delighted to find his story and indeed his paintings bought to life in this way. After all it was he who said: “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”

Creatives:

Paule Constable – Lighting

Nick Simmons – Associate LD

Mick Potter – Sound Design

Paul Gatehouse – Associate SD

Matt Kinley – Set Designer

Crew Call:

Jane Dutton – programmer and on tour re-lighter

Simon Sherriff – Chief Electrician – on tour

Ian Moulds – Production Electrician

Richard Paterson – No 2 touring LX

Catherine Crick – No 3 touring LX

Oliver Burns – Automation and deputy Carpenter

Tim Follett – Automation

Sean Lawler – Production Engineer – sound

Andy Brown Production Engineer – Autograph

Simon Stone – Head of Rigging, Unusual Rigging

Suppliers:

Creative Technology

Howard Eaton – special effects and under floor smoke distribution

White Light – Lighting

Unusual Rigging – Rigging

Autograph Sound – PA

Silicon Scenery – Automation