American Psycho: The Musical was first staged in 2013 in London’s West End followed by a Broadway run in 2016. In 2019, Alexander Berlage’s production premiered at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre prompting a sell-out run. After a successful run at the Sydney Opera House, the 2021 production of American Psycho: The Musical is currently touring the country.
When sound designer Nick Walker of Spectra Audio Solutions first put the production together for the Hayes Theatre, the brief was to look at the original show and take every production element of it to the nth degree. This includes music, sound design, set, costumes, lighting and choreography.
“During discussions with the musical director, Andrew Worboys, we decided that this is the perfect opportunity to create the show in surround sound,” explained Nick. “As the show developed for bigger theatres, so has the sound design.”
The PA used varies as they have chosen to use house systems, with some supplementary items to fill out the system. For the SOH season, the system was all d&b except for the surrounds, which were EAW JF80. The reason for using these surrounds was that they are quite powerful for their size and have the right physical profile for the venues they are utilised in.
“At FOH we are using a DiGiCo SD8,” added Nick. “As there is no band as such, we did not require a high input count, though the deciding factor was the number of outputs needed to run the surround system.”
There is a redundant Qlab system that is operated by the DSM. These are high spec Mac Minis running through an Autograph switching unit and sent to the desk via MADI. System control is also venue specific and only runs the main PA. The foldback and surrounds are run directly from the console.
“As mentioned, the surround element is a massive part of the show,” said Nick. “The fact that we were so reliant on Qlab also meant that we had endless opportunities to bring the music into the room and immerse the audience in sound. The collaboration between Andrew and myself was unusual for a musical in a sense but very welcomed. There was an extremely blurred line between the Musical Direction and Sound Design which I think made this show what it is.”
Nick comments that The Playhouse at SOH is a great venue, but there are some infrastructure hurdles to overcome. The room is quite long and the distance between the roof and seating gets narrower the further back you go, so the low end build up at the rear of the room was definitely something to keep in mind. The other main hurdle was the lack of wing space and oddly shaped stage meaning it was a challenge to find a place for everything – especially the d&b J-Subs.
“The mics we used were DPA 4066 Headsets with Shure Axient radio systems,” remarked Nick. “Headsets were chosen due to the audio level of the show and the ability to get the actors above the EDM music. We also used an RND 545 Primary Source Enhancer on the lead actor to get that extra bit of level/clarity from him. This combo has worked out really well.”
Nick added that the biggest challenge for this show is the time constraints on getting it up and running saying that the whole team has managed to do way more than we thought was possible with the allotted time.
“In the end, it all went well, I’m extremely happy with what we have done as a team,” he concluded.
Photos: Daniel Boud
www.spectraaudiosolutions.com.au
