In between tours, over the past few decades, LD Joel Reiff has been writing. He selected 14 of his favorite short stories for his first published paperback, 14 Shorts and Other Dirty Laundry. PLSN found Reiff on the road with Peter Frampton, soon to head out again with Jason Mraz in August, to answer a few questions about his literary aspirations and inspirations.
Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan set out on her Shine On tour to promote her new album — her first in four years — of the same name. After preproduction at the CBC in Vancouver, the U.S. summer leg started June 20 in Seattle and covers 29 cities in 19 states, ending Aug. 3 in Dallas. The Canadian leg kicks off in October.
The ABC-TV’s hit series Nashville interlaces the grit and glamor of rising country stars with the politics of record labels and romance. The story line is fictional, but behind the scenes, the touring industry’s experts are supporting the fictional music stars in a true-to-life way. LD Steve Fallon started lighting the performances for the second season, which finished airing in May.
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.
Cory FitzGerald is the production designer for Demi Lovato’s Neon Lights tour. “The set is based on a neon-like concept full of Video Blades in smoke colored covers — which are essentially tubes of single pixel video elements diffused by the plastic covers. We also used a phone app developed by Wham City Lights to let the audience participate in that song. It was very cool!”
This month’s “Designer Watch” column started with two simple questions: How will you remember 2013? And what do you resolve to do, or expect from, 2014? We got informative, enlightening and entertaining responses from more than 20 lighting professionals. Read on, and enjoy!
Mandylights LD Richard Neville — assisted by his associate Alex Grierson — designed the lighting, video design and programmed the Ricky Martin Live tour, which was an all-new show following the artist’s success as a judge on The Voice Australia. Lighting Director Churry Lafuente is operating the design on tour, which wrapped up in Australia (Oct. 3-20) and heads to Mexico in December. Veikko Fuhrmann created the stage design.
Metallica is known for making memorable concert moments. It could start out simply as a little pre-planned spark of a lighting fixture that would trigger crashing light towers, destroying the set to a controlled chaos while the bewildered audience sometimes raced for the exits. Variations of these destruction scenes over the years loom large in their legacy. Now they’ve poured all these gags in a virtual cement mixer, set the volume to “roar” and captured it on film — 3D IMAX, no less.