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Show More: Les Mis Returns To Broadway - With
FocusTrack
Lighting tracking
software helps bring Les Miserables back to New York
8th November 2006
FocusTrack, the database system for tracking and
documenting the use of lighting for theatrical
productions, is helping the smash-hit musical Les
Misérables return to Broadway - just three years
after the show ended its triumphant, sixteen-year
first New York run.
The new production marks the first time that
automated lighting has been used to light the show in
the US (with the exception of moving light curtains,
which have always been part of the show's design).
Lighting designer David Hersey started using moving
lights as part of the rig for the 1997 UK tour of the
show, and that rig has since been used on productions
around the world. When the London production of the
show moved theatres in 2004 the rig was revised to
use Vari-Lite VL2000 Spots, VL2000 Wash and VL3000Q
Spot units alongside DHA Digital Light Curtains.
For the New York production, Hersey and his associate
lighting designer Ted Mather have revised and
expanded the London rig, switching to VL2500 units.
The New York production was based on the London
lighting, with the information about the moving light
focus being carried from London to New York by
FocusTrack. FocusTrack is also being used to track
the changes to the show and will also be used to
document the final version of the new New York
production.
Working with Mather on the revival of the show are
production electrician Robert Fehribach, head
electrician Michael Pitzer, production manager Jake
Bell, programmer Alan Boyd working from Rob
Halliday's original show programming and assistant
Mark Simpson. Tracking the show was Amith
Chandrashaker using an Apple MacBook Pro laptop;
because of this, the show is using a beta of the
Universal Binary version of FocusTrack, able to run
natively on both Intel- and PowerPC Macintoshes. This
version of FocusTrack will be released shortly.
FocusTrack was supplied to the production by New York
based computer supplier Robert Hale Production
Services.
Les Miserables is one of many shows to use FocusTrack
this autumn, with other productions including
Porgy and Bess (lighting by David Hersey),
Evita (lighting by Paule Constable),
Frost/Nixon (lighting by Neil Austin) and
Daddy Cool (lighting by Rob Halliday) in the
West End, Guys and Dolls (lighting by Howard
Harrison) on tour in the UK, Miss Saigon
(lighting by David Hersey and Jenny Kagan) in Korea
and Aida (lighting by Charlie Morrison) and
Edward Scissorhands (lighting by Howard
Harrison) touring the USA.
Further information about Les Misérables,
produced by Cameron Mackintosh and now previewing at
the Broadhurst Theatre, can be found at www.lesmis.com. Further
information about FocusTrack, including details
of what it can do and how it can be useful, can
be found elsewhere on this website.