LD Patrick Woodroffe is helping bring new life to the 1970’s classic rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice production revives to perform on its arena spectacular tour in more than 50 cities in North America, rolling out June 9 in New Orleans and closing August 17 in Philadelphia. The show is a two-hour live rock concert with a cast of 50 actors and musicians dramatizing the last seven days in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, but with contemporary costumes and arena-scale lighting and video effects. Dave Hill programmed the show. Operating it on the road is lighting director Luke Radin. The tour has already performed in other parts of the world, including the U.K. and Australia, but with some different performers in some of the lead roles.
Sharing the stage for the North American run are former Sex Pistol frontman John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) as King Herod and Brandon Boyd (lead singer of the band Incubus) as Judas Iscariot. Gospel artist Michelle Williams (formerly of Destiny’s Child) plays Mary Magdalene, and JC Chasez, former member of ‘N Sync, is Pontius Pilate. Ben Forster won a British reality TV singing competition for the title role as Jesus. For a preview video, go to plsn.me/1iKESYA.
Quick Cues…
Production designer Paul Normandale has some tricks up his sleeve for Coldplay, who are performing what they call six “intimate” shows in six key cities worldwide: Cologne, Germany (April 25); New York City (May 5), Los Angeles (May 19), Paris (May 28), Tokyo (June 12) and London (July 1). By intimate, Normandale said all the shows are very low key to promote the new CD, Ghost Stories, but the London date at the Royal Albert Hall will be the bigger show in a 360° setting. Coldplay’s new video, “Magic,” offers Normandale the possibility of illusions or other visual surprises in the set. Normandale most recently designed the Kings of Leon’s Mechanical Bull tour…
LD Mick Thornton marks 12 years with the Moody Blues, whose Timeless Flight tour runs to September 5 in North America. Next up: The Sisters of Mercy in Europe…
LD Chris Lisle has finished OneRepublic’s tour and is designing Chris Young’s run, which kicks off in early May. Lighting director Michael Stanley will operate it on the road…
LD Chris Bushell is out with Arcade Fire’s Reflektor tour…
LD Cosmo Wilson has co-designed and programmed the Soundtrack of Summer tour with LD Jeff Ravitz. Headliners Styx and Foreigner will alternate closing slot positions on the tour while special guest Don Felder, former Eagles guitarist/songwriter, opens each night. Soundtrack of Summer kicks off May 14 in the U.S., the same date that Wilson kicks off Aerosmith’s Let Rock Rule European leg. Wilson stays with Aerosmith through September, which encompasses the U.S. run starting July 10…
LD Marc Janowitz had two different tour designs going simultaneously for electronic artist Girl Talk (a co-design with Ben Silverstein) and rock band Cage the Elephant. So to optimize the use of the available time for tour prep, he put a curtain down the middle of the prep room, with crews and LDs on both sides shuffling back and forth to do both at the same time…
LD Alex Reardon has designed Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines tour. LD Paul Turner has now taken over as lighting designer/director for Thicke’s festival leg, which started May 1. The new tour is comprised of one-offs and no longer carrying gear but instead using local production…
LD Christian Choi has a number of projects in progress including plans for a Home Shopping Network set and lighting design…
LD Scott Warner has designed Icona Pop’s tour, which opened for Miley Cyrus in the U.S. and then opens for Katy Perry’s Prismatic world tour in the U.K. in May…
LD Mark “Junior” Jacobson and video designer/director Breckinridge Haggerty have been collaborating on the distinctive looks for Tool’s latest shows. (For more, see this month’s “Designers Insights” feature on page 36)…
Silversun Pickup’s LD Eamonn McKiernan is touring with Swedish band Little Dragon…
LD Kevin Cauley is out doing a few festivals with Soundgarden. The band co-headlines with Nine Inch Nails this summer…
Lighting director Stuart Dingley is carrying out Dave Hill’s design for Brit Floyd’s Discovery tour. The North American tour of the Pink Floyd tribute show runs until June 22…
LD Paul Turner has been working on production for the 2014 U.S. Army Soldier Show Tour. “Set Designer Nicole Coppinger has designed a very cool set, mixing hard-traveling panels and custom printed drops with 176 video tiles,” he said. Turner also recently designed and operated the lighting for the 2014 Texas THON event at the University of Texas in Austin, TX. Texas THON is a product of Dance Marathon, a fundraiser held at universities all over the country that raises money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals…
Lighting director Brett Lorins is touring with EDM group The Glitch Mob. “It’s a Martin Phillips design (Daft Punk, Deadmau5) and is a very cool show,” Lorins said. After two weekends of Coachella, the tour went West Coast to May 10 then heads to Europe for festivals and some club dates until May 30. More festivals resume in July/August. “There’s a big possibility for more touring into the fall with a bigger version of our set. So, long story short, we’ll be out for a bit.”
Martin Thomas, long time lighting designer for Erykah Badu, accompanied her for her first trip to New Zealand, as part of her 2014 South Pacific tour. The tour ran through the South Pacific until April 21…
LD Bud Horowitz resumes his long-running engagement with Yanni from March to May in South America and the U.K./Europe. While sitting in Bangalore, India, on the way to Sri Lanka, Horowitz emailed that they are “supposed to do shows in Ukraine and Russia, but I don’t see those happening.” He is with Yanni on and off all year…
LD Chad Hartsfield is touring with EDM/electro-pop duo Cherub. (For more, see “On The Road,” this issue.)
Take a breather from your hectic schedule and keep Debi Moen posted with news of your latest gigs. Reach her at debi@plsn.com.
