The acclaimed new production of Boublil & Schönberg’s legendary musical Les Miserables with glorious new staging and dazzlingly reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, is currently playing at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre. This much loved blockbuster musical will continue onto Perth’s Crown Theatre in January 2015 before transferring to the Capitol Theatre in Sydney in March 2015.
Set against the backdrop of 19th-century revolutionary France, Les Miserables is the world’s longest running musical and has been seen by over 65 million people worldwide in 42 countries and in 22 languages, Les Miserables is undisputedly one of the most popular musicals of all time. Having won more than 100 major awards around the world it has been hailed as the most stirring, moving musical ever. Based on Victor Hugo’s classic novel, it is an epic and uplifting story about the survival of the human spirit.
This totally new production by Cameron Mackintosh is lit by the talented and award-winning Paule Constable who admits to never having seen any other productions of the show.
“My knowledge of Les Mis was based on the book and reading the libretto,” she explained. “So what is new? Me! And the lack of revolve and the projection and the design are all new.”
Paule describes her lighting for Les Mis as painterly as it is based upon Victor Hugo’s paintings.
“So I try to make the projection world 3D,” she says. “It’s very dark and chiaroscuro!”
Paule specified thirty-four ETC Revolutions with Wybron scrollers as she needed a controllable tungsten profile head.
“I didn’t want colour mixing as the ‘dirty’ colours I wanted aren’t great when mixed and I prefer the direct control of a scroll,” she added. “I also have eleven VL3500Q wash which are a good workhorse – I like the fact that you can make VL’s dirty and the colour mixing isn’t perfect but gives good grainy colour. I kind of like their lack of neatness!
“Added to that are six VL 1000 AS and heaps of ETC Source IV’s. The ETC Source IV’s are great workhorse units and are reliable. They are easy to maintain and with a touring rig you don’t need zoom optics.”
For control, an EOS Titanium 4000 output console was chosen with Paule describing the EOS platform as her absolute preferred choice.
“I think it has been brilliantly developed and ETC have been excellent at responding to our needs as both designers and programmers. It is perfect for the way I work. It isn’t a programmer-only board.”
www.etcconnect.com
www.vari-lite.com
Australian Distributor: Jands www.jands.com.au
