The recent Rock of Ages Revival at New World Stages in New York City was a resounding success, just as it was in its 2008 Off-Broadway debut at the same theatre prior to its successful 6-year Broadway run.
The Revival show opened last June and after originally being scheduled to close in September was extended for an open-ended run, eventually shutting down when Broadway went dark in March.
Lighting Designer Jason Lyons has been lighting the musical since that storied 2008 New York debut.
For the uninitiated, Rock of Ages is a jukebox musical that tells the story of a rock ‘n’ roll romance on the Sunset Strip during the glitz and decadence of the ‘80s. When the Bourbon Room is set to be demolished (the local bar where most of the action takes place), it’s up to wannabe rockers to save it. With a score that features some of the biggest classic rock hits of the ‘80s, this hilarious, high-energy 80’s-era satire has evolved into a theatre classic.
Jason has been using Elation’s Artiste Monet on the revival (supplied by Christie Lites), his first time working with the award-winning LED profile moving head and a significant upgrade from what he was using on earlier incarnations of the show.
Jason calls those early runs of the show a maintenance nightmare. “It looked great but the electricians had to do an amazing job to keep it up and running”.
The lighting that he was replacing with the Monets was the workhorse system of the show that was doing the most work. “It was really important for me to find a fixture that not only had the firepower and all the attributes that I needed to make the show work but would also be something that could handle the everyday rigor of doing such an intense show, something long lasting that the crew could easily maintain,” the designer states.
After consulting with Elation National Sales Manager John Dunn, which included a demo of the Artiste Monet up against other LED driven fixtures, Jason was pleased with what he saw.
SpectraColor is Elation’s proprietary color mixing system that combines CMY with RGB flags and variable CTO to produce color combinations that have traditionally been hard for LED luminaires to achieve. “It produces better nuances of color and richer colors,” the LD states. “Having the RGB solid flags give you a much better depth of those particular colors, allowing both the depth of color and the specificity of tints.”
Twelve overhead Artiste Monet units are arranged in a pseudo diamond configuration that follows the shape of the main set bar and are used throughout as lighting beasts of burden. “We use them for so many different things from carving out certain areas of the stage with the framing shutters, to really powerful open-white backlight and downlight spots, to full stage template washes and effect moments.” As the show is essentially a rock musical, Jason also used them for air effects moments.
Other lighting fixtures, many of them also from the Elation catalog, join the Artiste Monet in the rig. These include SixPar color changers doing backlight specials on the band and on scenic doors, as well as sidelight for extra color on set. Jason says he even uses their UV functionality for interesting toning. Super compact ACL 360i single-beam moving effects are peppered overhead with a handful on an upstage handrail under a backing video screen and under the band platform. Lastly, ZW19 and ZW37 LED moving head beam/wash effects and Protron 3K LED strobes wrap the video screen.
*Photo credits: Matthew Murphy
