The stage production of Disney's High School Musical kicked off at Cape Town's ArtsCape theatre in December 2008, and transfers to Johannesburg in 2009. Meanwhile Beauty and the Beast, which opened at Johannesburg's Teatro Theatre in October 2008, will transfer to the ArtsCape in 2009, swapping over with High School Musical. To facilitate an easy move, the system designs for the two shows have been made relatively similar, so that only show specific hardware will need to travel between the venues.
Prior to the stage show of High School Musical, broadcaster M-Net hosted a new reality TV show, High School Musical: Spotlight South Africa. Based on the Disney original, viewers could vote for their own 'Troy' & 'Gabriella'. The winners of the reality show have gone on to play the leads in the stage production.
Auditions were held in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, with the reality show recorded at the Pieter Toerien Theatre-on-the-Bay in Cape Town, and the Pieter Toerien Monte Casino theatre. 25 DPA 4065 miniature omnidirectional headworn mics were used for the cast, with DPA 4061 miniature omnis used where mics had to be hidden. The finale of the reality show was held at the Monte Casino Teatro theatre, where once again Prosound provided DPA microphones for all the cast.
With the stage show now up and running, 28 DPA 4061s are being used across the cast, with a DPA 4066 headband mic for the school's disc jockey, Jack Scott. Meanwhile, for the band, a DPA 3521 compact stereo kit is being used on percussion, with two DPA 4090 omni mics on guitar cabinets.
Prosound also chose to use DPA 4061s - a total of 35 - for Beauty and the Beast cast members, while the Beast and Belle are miked up with three and two 4061s respectively. A further three 4061s are being used in the pit for cello, violin and double bass.
(Jim Evans)
