Hawthorn supports Crazy For You UK tour
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The high-energy musical stars Strictly Come Dancing winners Tom Chambers and Caroline Flack as Bobby Child and Irene Roth. Crazy For You is billed as the ultimate feel-good musical with a score from the Gershwin brothers’ songbook.
The lighting designer for the tour is award-winning Howard Hudson, with Hawthorn supplying lighting equipment to his specification. To create the look and feel he was after, Hudson drew on a mixture of Martin MAC Viper Profile and Performance, GLP Impression 90 RGB and Claypaky Sharpy Wash fixtures along with Martin MAC Aura XB and ETC Source Four LED Lustr 2 fixtures - all controlled by an ETC ION system.
“The show was created at the Watermill in Summer 2016, always with the intention of touring in 2017. As such the lighting design was planned with this in mind. This wasn’t necessarily using like-for-like lighting fixtures, but more about using systems which we would be able to scale up for the tour,” says Hudson, talking about the design of the rig. “With so many shows touring in and up in a day now, the overhead rig was designed with just moving lights, removing the need to get ladders or telescopes onto the stage. The only lights needing a focus are easily reachable booms and a small conventional FOH rig.
“The understanding from Hawthorn about what we were trying to achieve artistically was very helpful, and consequently Mark Burnett and James Curtis were great in making suggestions as to what units might be better to use for certain aspects of the show. As ever with Hawthorn, the equipment was top quality and arrived well prepped.”
With a host of productions currently touring both nationally and internationally with Hawthorn’s equipment, the company have invested heavily in expanding their already sizable hire inventory. This includes increasing their stock of Viper Performance, MAC Aura XB and ETC Lustr 2 fixtures as well as adding the new Martin MAC Encore Performance to their inventory.
Mark Burnett, business development manager at Hawthorn, says, “We’re absolutely over the moon to be involved with Crazy For You as it tours the UK. We have a great relationship with the team at Jamie Wilson Productions so it’s amazing to be working alongside them again. We’ll actually be on the road with two of their productions as we’re also working with them on new musical Nativity which opens at the Birmingham Rep in October prior to heading out on a UK tour.
“It’s been a busy 12 months for Hawthorn as our growing reputation for delivering an excellent service increases and we continue to see substantial expansion in our supply to theatre productions. To support this, we’ve continued to invest in our hire stock to ensure we have the right kit available to meet the needs of our ever-expanding client base.”
(Jim Evans)
