While laying out the stories in this month’s edition of PLSN, I noticed a theme running through many of them, that of going big, scaling up productions, but with a very specific purpose. In the cover story on Metallica’s M72 Tour, Creative Director Dan Braun and the production team massively scaled up the overall design for the band’s stadium tour, and though they haven’t exactly toured small in the past, this one is another level. Yet, the massive ring-shaped production design actually has the effect of creating a more intimate feel for the stadium audience. It is a carefully considered—there was even math involved—balance struck.
Also bringing his stadium audience emotionally closer through a field covering design was DJ ILLENIUM when he brought his ILLENIUM Trilogy:Colorado to Denver’s Empower Field with 10 different giant pods of LED video and pyrotechnics. Fans both on the field and in the stadium seats were immersed in the music and the visual spectacle that also included drones and fireworks to further amp up the production values. Again, the resulting effect of the overall massive production design was to bring the audience inside the design, offering each fan a unique perspective to connect with the artist and his music.
And it isn’t just stadium shows that took a ‘go big and surround the audience’ approach. Here Lies Love, Broadway’s hottest new musical hit, boasts a design that required removing all the orchestra seats from the historic Broadway Theatre. Designers David Korins and Peter Nigrini have transformed the space into a discotheque that the audience fills, dancing along with the cast, as the musical story unfolds on a runway style stage they surround or on a catwalk above them. Both video and cast use all the levels of the theater as part of the performance space. And once more, the immersive large-scale nature of the design means that each audience member has a unique experience that gives them a very personal connection to the work.
True at times, ‘Less is More’ and equally true we have seen designs that are just ‘More is More,’ but all three of these designs realized how to make ‘More is Personal.’ And I believe that shows the art of talented designers.
Michael S. Eddy
Editor, Projection, Lights & Staging News
