Katy Perry’s 123-show California Dreams tour, replete with outlandish outfits and set elements including giant lollipops and cotton candy clouds, welcomed audiences to the altered state called Candyfornia. Baz Halpin, Chris Nyfield, Olivier Goulet, Brad Teagan, Bryan Barancik, Jay Schmit, and a crew led by John Chiodo sweetened the visuals with support from Upstaging, Chaos Visual Productions, All Access Staging & Productions and other production companies…“Of course, for the first couple of months, Chris [Nyfield] and I would talk about the set and stop ourselves with comments like, ‘Wait, flying sparkly sausages and glitter T-bone steaks?’ After a while, though, you talk about a flying cotton candy cloud and your first comments are, ‘I assume that the Barbie stand will be candy-striped — and do we need that to be scented?’ You fall into the Candyfornia world of Katy Perry very quickly, and nothing surprises you after a while.”
—Baz Halpin, as quoted by Steve Jennings for PLSN’s “Production Profile,” Dec. 2011
