Reba’s 2022 Tour: Hase Retires, Hare Takes Reins
David Hare started out January in an expected way: he was handed the reins as lighting designer for Reba McEntire’s 2022 tour. Hare tells PLSN, “Longtime LD Gayle Hase finished up the last Vegas residency in December 2021 at Caesars, and that was it. He retired after more than 30 years. He recommended me for the position, and when we hit rehearsals for this tour in January, it was completely turned over to me.”
Hare first worked with Hase back in 2008 for the Reba & Kelly Clarkson: 2 Worlds 2 Voices tour. In 2010, it was a co-headlining tour with George Strait, for whom Hare was designing and programming, so Hare and Hase kept in constant contact. Hare programmed this current tour in 2020 prior to the pandemic lockdown. “Gayle wasn’t talking retirement in March 2020. We thought we’d go out and have a good time and once we saw the severity of everything, I guess that is when things were sinking in, that traveling around, you were playing Russian roulette [with the virus] with who is around you.”
This production is huge in comparison to some past runs, he adds. “Ms. McEntire hasn’t toured like this since 2011—it’s the biggest since the All the Women I Am tour back then,” he notes. Programming the desk for Hase and being his wingman is different from being in the driver’s seat alone, Hare adds. “I have great respect and admiration for Gayle and am very blessed and honored that he would recommend me for the position.” Hare still works as designer/director for Stevie Wonder and lighting designer/programmer and video director for Strait, and says their dates are somehow not conflicting much with each other.
Designing Imagine Dragons, Shinedown, AJR
Mitchell Schellenger of Station Six is having a busy 2022. His first project is as production designer, lighting designer, and creative director for Imagine Dragons’ Mercury World Tour. “We were at Earlybird Visual for previz for Dragons and moved that to Vegas for rehearsals starting Jan. 23,” Schellenger says. The tour kicks off Feb. 6 in Miami. The team includes Sarah “Sparks” Parker as lighting director, Manny Conde as associate lighting designer/programmer, and Steve Foster as the disguise programmer. At the same time, Schellenger is designing the production and lighting for metal rockers Shinedown, whose tour was set to start Jan. 26 in San Francisco. Coming up next, he takes on the production designer/creative director role for indie pop trio AJR (which is named for the three brothers Adam, Jack and Ryan Metzger). The OK Orchestra tour starts its amphitheater run April 28 in Dallas, ending Oct. 22 in Moscow.
Directing Musgraves, Greta Van Fleet
Danielle Edwards is on the road as lighting director/operator for Kacey Musgraves’ Star Crossed: Unveiled tour, which started Jan. 19 and runs to Feb. 20. She then repacks for Greta Van Fleet’s Dreams in Gold Tour 2022 starting March 10 for a North American run. Both tours are designed by Rob Sinclair and programmed by Andre Petrus. “I’ve only worked for Kacey on a one-off prior to this, and it was in the role of tech,” Edwards says. Her new role with Greta Van Fleet starts with the band’s special performance opening for Metallica’s sold-out concert Feb. 25 at Las Vegas ‘ Allegiant Stadium. “I started working with GVF in summer 2021 for their Strange Horizons tour and will be with them at least through 2022,” she says.
Tool Re-Tools
Mark “Junior “Jacobson has returned to the road in early January as Tool’s production designer/lighting designer and director on their continuing Fear Inoculum tour. The LD says it’s “nearly the same as 2019-2020’s show” which was interrupted by the pandemic. “We only used this design for about four to five months last time. There’s a few tweaks and a bunch of new songs,” he says. After the U.S. run, the band hits Europe in April. Jacobson filled his pandemic lockdown with a lot of TV work and recently filled in for someone else on the final week of Brit Floyd’s summer 2021 tour.
Quick Cues
Sooner Routhier and Robert Long are the production/lighting designers for Lumineers’ tour, which started Feb. 1 in Europe. Ian Haslauer is associate lighting designer/lighting director.
Matt Pitman of Pixelmappers is the lighting designer for Dua Lipa’s upcoming Future Nostalgia Tour, which kicks off Feb. 9 in Miami and ends Nov. 16 in Perth, Australia.
Designer Eric Cathcart completely redesigned the holiday production for Black Violin’s Give Thanks tour, the “hip hop meets classical” duo. Tyree Duncan operated it on the road, while Cathcart has returned to Thievery Corporation after an 11-year absence. “It’s currently with just a small floor package, but a design is in the works for a bigger spring 2022 tour,” he says.
LD Bud Horowitz is going out with comedian Sebastian Maniscalco on the Nobody Does This tour. The tour, under Production Manager Mike Weiss, has dates set to June 26, including a number of sold-out venues such as Madison Square Garden.
Patrick Hayes says that after a slow start, things are starting to fall into place. “I’ll be working as a lighting director for LD Marc Janowitz with Trey Anastasio Band through the spring and fall, as well as programming a couple streaming service specials. The summer is shaping up to be pretty cool as well,” Hayes notes.
LD Jack Davis is in Nashville in rehearsals for pop duo Beach House. Their North American tour starts Feb. 19, hits the UK and Europe in May, and returns to the U.S. in summer.
How’s your 2022 going so far? Let Debi Moen know. Reach her at dmoen@plsn.com.
