Staged over 15 days in June, Show Boat was the first musical ever to be performed at the Royal Albert Hall and the duo faced a very tight timescale as Grant reveals: "The challenge was to create a musical in four days from fit-up to public performance, compared to the usual four to six weeks for a West End production."
To compound matters co-designer Andrew Bridge's time was limited - he was involved with re-creating The Phantom of the Opera in Las Vegas. It was this constraint which helped shape the decision to make it a co-design with the pair sharing equal billing.
The solution was provided through teamwork, as they re-united with their Sinatra collaborators, Peter Marshall, project director at PRG Europe and Wholehog programmer Stuart Porter, and the duo's ability to work effectively in and around what Grant calls "the big, amorphous mass" of bringing a production to fruition.
Grant says: "Andy and I think very similarly when it comes to lighting. Moving lights were a given, and Vari-Lite luminaires were mine and Andy's choice, with the core of the lighting rig being ETC Source Four profiles and assorted conventionals."
Staged in the round, Show Boat is a two-act production, with Act One set on the Mississippi River, while Act Two moves the action to turn of the century Chicago. Each act called for different lighting approaches as Grant says: "For the water in the first act, we bounced light on to the bottom of the water tank and on to the haze effect produced by water sculptures to create the sense of movement. We also bounced light off the logs and poles in the water and used double gobo rotators to create water ripple effects. For the Mississippi, the lighting had to be low-angled and warm and for Chicago it be had to cold; top-lit."
Although time in the Hall was limited, planning for the show began four months earlier in discussions with Peter Marshall who says: "When time is this tight, preparation is the key - the right personnel, the right equipment. There's no second chance," and praised the skill of the crew and that of PRG Europe's warehouse staff who assembled the kit for the show.
The interaction and understanding between the show's co-designers and PRG Europe, again highlighting teamwork, is illustrated by Grant who says: "Halfway through the fit-up, I realised I had to change a lens tube to get the desired effect. PRG Europe turned the request around in just two hours."
(Chris Henry)
