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Production Profile

Lady Gaga 2017 'Joanne' tour photo by Steve Jennings

Lady Gaga ‘Joanne’ World Tour

Note: This feature was prepared shortly before tour dates in late September and October were postponed or cancelled due to Lady Gaga’s hospitalization for body pain caused by fibromyalgia. The tour is set to resume Nov. 5. —ed.

Lady Gaga’s Joanne World Tour is a two-hour extravaganza to behold. Her performance starts on a main stage. She later walks out into the arena via bridges that lower from the ceiling, bringing her to three intimate stages within the audience… for closer fan interaction. We spoke with key members of the production that bring this all together, starting with LeRoy Bennett, production and lighting designer.

Kid Rock on the thrust provided by Gallagher Staging

Kid Rock Opens Little Caesars Arena in Detroit

LD Makes Use of State-of-the-Art House System for Six Sold-Out Shows

In retrospect, there was no question: Who else could have opened a new stadium in Detroit but Kid Rock? The hometown favorite sold out the new 20,000-seat sports complex’s six dates in mere hours. And, while all the shows went well, a few of the early ones didn’t go perfectly, as longtime Kid Rock LD Nook Schoenfeld was the guinea pig taking a brand new technologically-advanced stadium out for its first ride.

OneRepublic 2017 tour photo by Todd Kaplan

OneRepublic Develops a Look

When opportunity knocked for Mark Butts and Raj Kapoor to work with OneRepublic, two things made them open that door: The prospect to work in the rock genre, and the chance to provide visual direction for a young band. “Raj and I work together often, and we’ve always wanted to do a really bad-ass rock show, so we could approach things a little differently than we normally do,” says production/lighting designer Butts. “Someone like Kenny Chesney knows what he’s looking for, but something like this is fun because it’s a blank slate.”

The symmetric fans of light look great from the side. Photo by Steve Jennings

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

The “40th Anniversary Tour” Kicks It Up a Notch

For Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 40th Anniversary Tour, lighting designer/director and set designer Stanley A. Green is at front of house, enjoying how the audience is reacting to tour visuals that have grown in size, shape and overall visual impact from previous tours. One index of the growth in production can be seen in the parking lots outside the arenas, stadiums and sheds on the tour’s itinerary: Yep, that’s 12 semi-trucks of gear.

WrestleMania 33, an epic thrill ride for more than 75,000, was a live production masterpiece. Photos by Todd Kaplan

WrestleMania 33

The “Ultimate Thrill Ride”

On April 2, more than 75,000 fans converged at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida to cheer on their favorite wrestling Superstars in the “Showcase of the Immortals” known as WrestleMania.

Game of Thrones tour photo by Todd Kaplan

Game of Thrones

SRae Productions Brings the “Live Concert Experience” to Life

In oft-used and aptly applied metaphor in the touring industry goes, “We move cities.” With the long-awaited live tour of the HBO epic extravaganza Game of Thrones finally hitting the road, that analogy can now include “We move Worlds.” The Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience is based on the popular TV series, which set records for HBO and attracted a large international fan base.

The Lumineers' 'Cleopatra' tour design expanded with the venues as the band moved up into larger performance spaces.. Photo by Todd Kaplan

Lighting Up the Lumineers – Cathedral Style

[caption id="attachment_275349" align="alignnone" width="800"]The Lumineers' 'Cleopatra' tour design expanded with the venues as the band moved up into larger performance spaces.. Photo by Todd KaplanThe Lumineers' 'Cleopatra' tour design expanded with the venues as the band moved up into larger performance spaces.. Photo by Todd Kaplan[/caption]

Unique “Organ Pipe” Look Gets Additional Video Halfway Through Sell-Out Tour

“They are big, ugly, and intimidating when they are sitting in their set carts,” Jason Rothberg says of The Lumineers’ set for their Cleopatra world tour. “But once they are flown, lit and have content going through the Sceptrons, they make a beautiful transformation.”

Atomic built the rope structures. Photo by Steve Jennings

Temple of the Dog

Kille Knobel and Nimblist Serve Up a Unique Design with a Darkly Lit Forest of Ropes

Temple of the Dog consists of vocalist Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam members Stone Gossard (guitar), Jeff Ament (bass), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Matt Cameron (drums). The band released just one album in 1991, but its success really grew much stronger the following year when the band members, along with TOTD guest vocalist Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam, emerged as music industry icons.

Dierks Bentley Somewhere on a Beach Tour 2016. Photo by Todd Kaplan

Dierks Bentley ‘Somewhere on a Beach’ Tour

Chris Reade has been lighting bands for 20 plus years now, but as they say, ‘It’s a long way to the top’. He may not have reached the pinnacle of his career just yet, but after getting nominated for a Parnelli Award as LD of the year in 2016, he’s certainly close to it as his peers have noted. It was especially sweet for Chris as this year marks the 10th tour he has designed lights for Dierks Bentley and the fourth time he has gotten to collaborate with set designer Bruce Rodgers.

Drake tour photo by Steve Jennings

Drake’s ‘Summer Sixteen’ Tour

Music fans hungry to see Drake and Future perform their hits this year are being given a gourmet experience on the “Summer Sixteen” tour, which extends into autumn with the help from a mind-blowing production design by LD Guy Pavelo and tour director Steve Kidd of GP-SK Design & Production. With support from PRG, PRG/Nocturne, SGPS and Pyrotek, “Summer Sixteen” hit the road in July with 143 DMX universes, a whopping 27 trucks and 200,000 pounds of gear. PLSN caught up with Guy Pavelo to discuss exactly how he and his team have raised the bar with this production.

Celine Dion 2016 tour photo by Ralph Larmann

Celine Dion Tours Once Again

Production Designer Yves Aucoin Designs a Fresh New Look for Celine’s First Major Tour in Seven Years

Celine Dion just finished up her first string of touring dates since 2008/09, and designer Yves Aucoin couldn’t have been happier with this show. The production designer for the set, lights and video has been with the artist since 1989, illuminating her for the last 27 years. But up until this last summer, all of her recent shows have taken place at the Showroom at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas since March of 2011, when she first started her much-heralded second residency.

Peter Gabriel, Sting and their longtime LDs, Rob Sinclair and Danny Nolan, all collaborated on the 2016 'Rock Paper Scissors' tour. Photo by Todd Kaplan

Peter Gabriel & Sting “Rock Paper Scissors” Tour

Two British Artists (and LDs) Meld Ideas to Create One Unique Show

This summer, two talented English legends joined forces (and bands) to unite on stage for one big show. Proclaiming the tour as Rock Paper Scissors made a lot of sense, as each artist played and sang on the other’s songs as band members effortlessly formed different ensembles to play a multitude of both artists’ hits. What made this production even more interesting was the collaboration of two popular English lighting designers, Rob Sinclair and Danny Nolan, who looked after their respective artists’ looks. They melded ideas, then networked two different lighting consoles together to run a dynamic looking show for a six week run of dates in America.