UK - SpotTrack, the specialist software tool for making, modifying and maintaining followspot cue sheets, continues to support shows of all scales around the world – including a number of award-nominated and award-winning designs.
On the all-new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express, which opened at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in London, assistant lighting designer Danny Vavrečka put SpotTrack to use managing the intricate followspot track that formed a key part of Howard Hudson’s design. This saw two human operators run four Robe Forte followspots remotely using Robe’s RoboSpot controllers, alongside other moving lights controlled via Zactrack. Starlight’s lighting was nominated for the 2025 Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design and won the same category at this year’s WhatsOnStage awards – congratulations to Howard Hudson and his team for both.
Danny Vavrečka also made SpotTrack his tool of choice on The Great Gatsby, the London transfer of the Broadway musical which has just opened at the Coliseum, managing the followspot track for Cory Pattak’s design alongside Pattak and his US associate designer Paul Vaillancourt. Other new musicals using SpotTrack have included The Devil Wears Prada (lighting by Bruno Poet, associate LD Tamykha Patterson) and Burlesque (lighting by Jack Knowles, associate LD Dale Driscoll).
SpotTrack also continues to be very popular for managing the followspots on touring shows, providing clear, precise information to new spot operators as they have to rapidly learn the show as it arrives in each new venue. Current and recent tours using SpotTrack have included the UK tours of Mary Poppins (lighting by Hugh Vanstone), Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (lighting by Ben Cracknell), Kinky Boots (lighting by Ben Cracknell), &Juliet (lighting by Howard Hudson) and The Book of Mormon (lighting by Brian MacDevitt), plus the Australian tour of MJ The Musical (lighting by Natasha Katz).
SpotTrack has long been the tool of choice for the high-speed, high-pressure world of pantomime lighting, with productions over the last panto season including The Little Mermaid in Newcastle, Peter Pan in Birmingham and in Glasgow, Goldilocks in Bristol, Snow White in Eastbourne and Robin Hood, last year’s London Palladium panto.
And SpotTrack has also been put to use on many other shows across the world, including Sister Act in Washington DC, Singin’ In The Rain at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, Mary Poppins and Spring Awakening in Seattle and Grease in Wenatchee.
Followspotting is not limited to musicals, SpotTrack also having been put to use on operas including Don Giovanni for Arizona Opera, and plays including Nye for the UK’s National Theatre (lighting by Paule Constable, associate LD Lucy Adams) and Dr Strangelove in London’s West End (lighting by Jessica Hung Han Yun, associate LD Lucy Adams).
Through all of these productions and more, SpotTrack has also continued to support two fine backstage charities, Backup Tech in the UK, and Behind The Scenes in the US, with 15% of each SpotTrack sale going to one or other of these charities, chosen by the purchaser.
SpotTrack is just one of the lighting tools available from The Entertainment Lighting Laboratory, alongside the FocusTrack show lighting documentation system and the PowerTrack show lighting energy use analysis service.
