LD David Agress Sheds Light on the Inaugural Production
The New York Spring Spectacular that recently dazzled thousands of fans per show at Radio City Music Hall was a monster production — a Manhattan-focused extravaganza that encompassed numerous actors, the Rockettes, and impressive video and set pieces that took audiences from the depths of the subway system to the top of the Empire State Building.
While it took eight years from gestation until realization, the end result provided plenty of eye-popping visuals and dance numbers for the masses to feast upon. Lighting designer David Agress and his crew of 20 took on the mammoth task of lighting the fast-moving revue. “It had more book [scenes] than the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, which is the only thing to compare it to at Radio City,” says Agress. “I think it delivered the unexpected.”
Springtime in Manhattan
The story within the Spring Spectacular, directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, is simple enough: An angel named Jack (Derek Hough) who wants to earn his wings is sent by God (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg) to Manhattan so he can help an aging tour guide named Bernie (Lenny Wolpe) convince an uber-wealthy technology magnate (Laura Benanti) to keep him on her payroll rather than make his business virtual. The angel and tour guide then take her and us through the sights of Manhattan: a 3D subway ride, a Fashion Week runway with the Rockettes as models, sports venues, the Statue of Liberty (which speaks), and the New York Public Library, with talking lions voiced by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The cast even pulled off “Singin’ In The Rain” with actual falling water onstage, and XyloBands on audience member wrists lit up in different colors during various numbers.
Over the course of 90 minutes, the set pieces changed numerous times, the Rockettes launched into many dance numbers, and the cast of 60-plus covered the entire space of the venue’s deep stage as well as a passerelle that wrapped around the orchestra pit. The production required the use of a massive LED video wall, two smaller sliding walls, a 3D LED wall that broke into six smaller screens, and 250 moving lights and approximately 400 conventionals.
“The biggest challenge at Radio City, for me, is always the lighting balance with all of the video,” Agress explains to PLSN. “There’s massive video content upstage, and you want to see faces and not just silhouettes. The main LED video wall is 90 by 40 feet, and for about 10 minutes, it was the biggest screen in the world. It just puts out a tremendous amount of light. It’s very difficult to get any texture and shaping against that, but we were constantly working with the content creators to make things look correct and theatrical.”
Big City, Bright Lighting
The brightness of the back wall was set between 1 and 15, and they ran it at 2. Agress joked, “At 6, you feel pain and need sunscreen. The content itself is what we ultimately work with. The wall was running at a low level and the content was toned down. It’s [always] a dance and a battle.” He adds that the increased power of LED walls has driven the much brighter new fixtures as LDs try to balance the two out.
“I used the new Mythos, and they are the next Sharpy generation, mostly for accents and occasionally for key light,” he continues. “They get really hot. Because we were in a theatre — with legs and borders — we had a lot of issues with smoking scenery, but not so much the performers. The lights and cast were moving and, at least in Radio City, we had 42 feet of trim so we could see more video. But I think it’s all tough. In the early days of TV, they were physically burning actors and actresses. As cameras got better and lights more controllable, you could shoot at a lower intensity. All of a sudden, we’re back the other way. The good thing is, LED fixtures are getting brighter, and there’s less heat. But that’s a bit of curing the symptoms and not the disease.”
The LED walls certainly helped flesh out the terrain onstage. The two sliding walls measured about 12 by 38 feet, and the 48-by-32-foot 3D LED screen was used for an underground subway scene and as “a magical scenic background throughout the show,” says Agress. “It breaks into six individually controllable parts and hangs from a huge automation truss from Tait. Each video segment is 16 by 16 feet. In addition there were three video LED portals.”
The main wall was a Panasonic wall built for the venue in 2007, and the 3D screen and the downstage portals were made with WinVision panels. The LED video setup also included Daktronics panels and some smaller pieces made out of stock owed by Radio City. “Batwin+Robin Productions, the creators of the video content, were in charge of the selection, but it always comes down to quality, price and availability,” says Agress.
One of the most memorable video moments occurred when the characters visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The two sliding walls moved across stage while columns animated on them shifted perspective, making it seem as if the LED walls were actually turning as the scenery slide into place. “Wasn’t that great?” muses Agress. “That was wonderful content and my favorite video moment. That was one of the carryovers from the earlier [incarnation of the] show. That content was created painstakingly with a lot of testing with previz, and with cast and then color adjustments with the real lighting during techs. It was so good that no one wanted to lose it.”
The conventional lights on the show were Source Four Lekos (mostly 5° and 10°) with a few Pars, 140 scrollers, and some LED Strips. The moving lights were mostly Vari Lites with a mix of others — 16 PRG Bad Boys, 30 Clay Paky Mythos, and 12 B-Eyes. For effects lighting in two of the numbers, Agress used Ayrton Magic-Blades. He notes that the Blades were surprisingly very useful as backlight when they were in their storage trim at more than 42 feet.
Given Radio City’s deep stage, its distance from much of the audience and the use of the large LED walls, it was important to help the performers stand out. Eight followspots (six FOH and two downstage side position) were used nonstop during the show. The passerelle was lit from an overhead position added downstage of the proscenium.
“The sidespots really pulled the principals out,” notes Agress. “That was a blessing. This show was character-driven with a strong story, and often the lead characters were on stage with 60 other cast and dancers, gigantic scenic pieces, and endless video content. You had to see what people were saying, not just hear them.”
Controlling the Visuals
The moving lights and effects were controlled via a grandMA2 console, which was programmed by Agress’ associate Paul Sonnleitner. The conventionals were run and programmed on an EOS console by Mike LoBue, the assistant electrician and the house board op. They used an MA 3-D for previz, mostly for FX and systems organization. “We did do extensive previz work for the opening number which is choreographed by Mia Michaels,” says Agress. “She had very strong and specific ideas about what she wanted.”
A lot of Wi-Fi was used in the venue, so RC4 Wireless customized transmitters for the production so they did not channel-hop. “We just didn’t want to take a chance, so they were locked into a clear channel,” explains Agress. “We broadcast a lot: The audience wore 6,000 XyloBands and the Rockettes had LED Jackets.” The light-up scenic eggs in the Easter Parade Finale did not use RC4 because they were broadcasting five universes via Art-Net with a Moxa transmitter. The prop coin-op binoculars in the Empire State Building sequence turned into deck followspots for the aerialists above, and RC4 was used for these as well.
The RC4 wireless was a necessity, as some pieces could not be plugged in. Agress wanted to light the two Empire State flyers underneath, and he found the best solution was doubling the prop binoculars as follow spots. Four ensemble members rolled then downstage to light their castmates and help hide the wires. “It was a more dramatic look,” says Agress. “Those were from Microlight Systems in Texas. They have a great LED (BFL48) spot fixture that they invented and then customized to be battery-operated and wireless.”
Wireless was particularly helpful with jackets that the Rockettes wore during one special sequence. The flashy jackets lit up as the dancers moved about the stage. The jackets required three years of development. Agress says the producers stood behind their development because they felt that it was “an exciting concept that would be unique to the Rockettes. Each jacket has 156 three-channel LEDs, so each jacket is a universe. The concept was to be able to play video content across the line of Rockettes. The jacket team was Enlighted Designs, Right-Brain Software in California creating the LED light strings and control and power components, and Rodd McLaughlin creating content and consulting on control.
“We knew that the playback had to be flawless and we didn’t want to transmit 36 universes in a cue intensive dance number,” continues Agress. “The tradeoff on that was that the programming was excruciating, basically pre-visualizing the content, using DMX capture and then transferring all the cue information — for the show cues and for basic building blocks for cues yet to be imagined — via custom software to an SD card that lives in the jacket’s control module. All we were doing during the show was telling the jacket ‘GO cue whatever,’ and repeat or hold at the end of the cue. We were not broadcasting much information; only four DMX channels per costume. It was three years of trial and error, and our bosses let us take the time. Even after the prototype jackets were built, when we started testing them with the Rockettes, the initial lifetime of a jacket was about 8 seconds. Wires disconnected, SD cards shook, battery packs were weighting the jackets in an unflattering way, you name it. The Rockettes tend to be pretty athletic when they dance. The first time we had all 36 dancers in a line and played the video content that matched the choreography was a pretty thrilling sight.”
While the number ultimately lasted two minutes 40 seconds, Agress admits that the jackets were still fragile. But they did their job.
Another fun aspect of the production was the use of XyloBands given out to every audience member to wear on their wrist. They lit up in different colors at different times when Jack did something magical in the show or to engage the audience during interactive moments. They also worked in the sync with the Rockettes’ LED jackets.
“The XyloBands have a non-theatrical history and their own somewhat unique control,” reveals Agress. “Making them play with the MA2 for our show was a bit of a mash-up. My associate and moving-light programmer, Paul Sonnleitner, was given ownership of this.”
“Via MIDINotes from the grandMA2, we could call up presets on the XyloBand computer,” Sonnleitner tells PLSN. “We could also call groups of XyloBands and send them to a particular color, effect or intensity. After we created looks on the XyloBand computer, we would assign a particular MIDI note to trigger these looks via a simple MIDINote command from the MA2. ‘MIDINote 1.44.’ for example, where the first digit left of the decimal is the MIDI channel and right of the decimal the note number. While the interface was a bit difficult to work with in an expedient manner, cues could be issued quite quickly. We could successfully trigger chases of 10 to 15 steps a second via MIDI with no difficulty.”
Given all of the technology at play in the New York Spring Spectacular, things went pretty smoothly throughout its run. “What was helpful about the production was that no one piece tracked throughout the whole show,” says Agress. “If something didn’t go as planned you tended to forget about it quickly. But nothing was show stopping. We were very lucky with all of the assets, but that’s not so much luck as diligence. The maintenance on the show was endless. The crew at Radio City is awesome.”
After all the hard work, sweat and tears, Agress was “very happy with the show,” he beams. “It was a workout. You’ve seen it, you know what it is. It’s a monster show. I just sat on the couch like a zombie for a week after it opened. It was an intense — and long — experience.” And it paid off.
New York Spring Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall
Crew
Lighting Cos: PRG, 4Wall, Morpheus Lights
Lighting Designer: David Agress
Associate/Moving Light Programmer: Paul Sonnleitner
Associate: Dan Walker
Assistant: Diana Kesselschmidt
Head Electrician: Marty Fuller
Assistant Electrician: Richie Beck
Board Operator/Assistant Electrician: Mike LoBue
Gear
2 grandMA2 consoles
5 grandMA2 NPUs
1 ETC EOS console
68 Vari*Lite VL3500 Spots
75 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots
69 Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash fixtures
21 PRG Bad Boy Spots (CYM)
40 Clay Paky B-EYEs
40 Clay Paky Mythos
48 Ayrton Magic-Blade-R LED fixtures
26 Chroma-Q Color Force 12 LED fixtures
11 Chroma-Q Color Force 72s
4 Microlight Systems BFL-48 (custom)
342 ETC Source Four Lekos
(750W; 10°, 5°, 19°)
14 PAR 36 WFL/DWE
23 PAR 36 Pinspot
233 Wybron Color Ram2 (91×14”, 136×10”, 6×7.5”)
30 Wybron Color Ram2 24x power supply units
2 Lycian Starklite 1271 followspots
6 Strong Gladiator III 3K followspots
25 L&E Mini-Tens
2 MDG Atmosphere APS-S
2 Martin Jem fans
4 Atomic 3000 Strobes
4 LSG Mark II Fog System
1 Custom wireless system (RC4 Wireless transmitters/receivers; Moxa Wireless 900MHZ transmitters)
For more images of the New York Spring Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, go to:
http://www.prolightingspace.com/photo/albums/new-york-spring-spectacular-photos-courtesy-of-msg-prod
