Phantom Still Raising Spirits 25 Years On

The Phantom of the Opera opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End on October 9 1986, and more than 10,000 performances later, is still going strong at the same venue.
    Successfully transporting any stage play from its intimate theatre environment to a vast arena isn’t an easy task, and this production of Phantom was particularly enormous. It utilised a staggering 23-trucks-worth of gear, including a massive nine tonnes of PA equipment, which needed to be hung across 170 points.
    Line checks and rigging tests were carried out on the Thursday (two days before the first show), but production was in for a whole week beforehand, an inordinate amount of time for one production to spend at the Royal Albert Hall; and the main rehearsals took place on the Friday, with the live broadcast going out on the Sunday evening, courtesy of Red-TX.
    Project Manager, Nick Levitt, who was also involved in the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary production at the O2 Arena last Christmas, received a call from Nic Harris, Head of Production on the Les Miserables event, asking him to work on Phantom. Responsible for everything Logistical, Levitt had quite a weight on his shoulders. 
    “I am very heavily involved in the planning stages and the load-in and outs, which require a lot of work. Nic [Harris] is very much theatre-based, and my background is putting rock and roll shows into arenas, so it’s been a real amalgamation of skill sets,” Levitt revealed. “And design-wise, it’s just incredible, as the whole vision of what Phantom is as a theatre show has been brought into here, and we’ve also got the same companies working on this as the Les Mis production.
    “The final challenge will be getting all the kit out on Monday morning by 7am for the next people coming in, but thankfully we’ve also had a lot of help from Stage Miracles, so I am confident we’ll make that happen - we’ve got to!”
    The set was phenomenal. XL Video provided the video elements, which were designed by Jon Driscoll, and split into two sections. Upstage, above the raised central orchestra platform, was a 20 by 10 metre grey sharks-tooth gauze; and projecting onto this were 10 overlaid Barco FLM HD20 20k projectors, located in the Grand Tier boxes. Below, upstage on stage floor level, were nine four and a half metre high tracking set panels fitted with a total of 75 sq metres of XL’s Pixled F11 LED screen. The five inner panels moved into a series of different entrance and exit positions for cast and scenery trucks to move on and off stage.
    All video content was played in via two Catalyst media servers, one feeding projection and one for the LED screens; and the images were controlled and output via a Barco Encore screen management system. 
    Five cameras were also supplied by XL for the show content, three of which were operated and directed by Ruary MacPhie, used for IMAG projection. Onstage, two HD mini cams were deployed: one was positioned behind and shooting through the middle of the centre LED panel for a reverse shot of the stage and auditorium for specific show-designed shots; and the other was mounted on the set below the conductor position for another reverse shot of the RAH.
    Autograph, which traditionally services Cameron Mackintosh’ shows on a theatre level, provided the sizeable Meyer Sound PA system, and the sound design was done by Mick Potter. The system consisted of MILO and MICA boxes: two main hangs of 18 MILO boxes were deployed L / R; 11 MICAs were used for each of the two sidefill hangs, and a further 17 MICAs provided the centre hang. The low end was achieved via two further hangs of eight 600HP subs, which were located behind the main hangs. A Galileo loudspeaker management system was used as the main EQ.
    “Because of the way the stage is set out, we couldn’t really use any of the standard rigging points for the PA,” revealed Autograph’s Andy Brown. “The hall had a set of two-tonne points, which are generally used, but they were slightly too far upstage for us, so we had to come up with an array of bridging trusses to hang essentially three tonnes a side: one in the centre, and one in either side hang.
    “We needed to achieve perfect coverage – the aim being that every seat in the house hears the same thing. This is a very orchestral production, so it’s all about feel, not power, and once Mick [Potter] had the concept, I got the basic drawings from him to physically make it work.”
    DiGiCo SD7T consoles were deployed for FOH and monitors. Main operator Paul Gatehouse, who mixed Phantom for a spell in the West End, also used DiGiCo’s EX-007 expander on his SD7T at FOH position. Gatehouse got all his dynamics and effects from within the console, bar a TC Electronic System 6000 reverb; and used QLab for playback.
    Chris Pinn was in charge at monitor position, which, unusually, was located backstage, due to the size of the set. Meyer UPGs were positioned as sidefills either side of the stage, and 20 E Zeros provided the main monitoring, positioned within the stage floor, under the grills. Only the percussionist used a set of IEMs, and several of the other musicians were using Aviom personal monitors.
    A total of 56 radio mics were used, each with a DPA 4066 boom; and a further 45 mics were used on the orchestra, a combination of DPA 4061s, 4022s and 4011Cs.
    “It’s a very different show to Les Miserables actually,” added Brown. “That was very much like a concert, showcasing the songs of the musical only, whereas this is the full stage play. As a result, the main PA can be run at a fairly low level. Ultimately, my challenge has been to put the boxes where Mick wants me to; he has a great pair of ears, and the Meyer Sound gear is extremely consistent, so it’s worked very well.”
    Lighting was provided by PRG and was designed by Patrick Woodroffe and Andy Bridge. The main automated fixtures were by Vari-Lite, including 34 VL3500 Washes; 33 VL3000 Spots; 28 VL3500 spots; six VL2000 Washes; seven VL1000 TS and four VL1000 AS. Other automated fixtures included 32 Martin Professional MAC 700 spots, two MAC 700 Washes, 26 VL5 Tungstens, nine Clay Paky Sharpys, 18 Alpha Wash 1500’s, and a Nova Flower. Conventional lighting fixtures included 42 Source Four Pars, 54 Source Four Profiles, 24 Minuette Fresnels, 15 Shell Footlights, and one MR16 Ministrip; effect lighting was achieved via 12 Martin Atomic Strobes; and four M2 Medium Throws were deployed for follow spots.
    The RAH house equipment included 120 Pars (audience), 11 more VL3000 Spots, and a further four house spots; and lighting control was achieved via the new Vari-Lite Virtuoso console.
    Woodroffe, who needs no introduction to TPi readers, has worked with Mackintosh many times previously, and also lit the Les Miserables production at the O2 last year with Paule Constable. This time around, however, he says he “just took an overview”, and left Andy Bridge to do the design with Woodroffe’s associate, Adam Bassett.
    “The reason for the collaboration with Andy [Bridge] was to have the two of us try and find a way to reproduce the subtle and delicate design Andy produced 25 years ago in the challenging space of the Royal Albert Hall,” explained Woodroffe, “and to also light the production in a way that would translate on film so that it could be broadcast live to cinema. Unlike the Les Miserables show, which turned out to be much more of a live concert, this was far more of a theatrical performance, so it was natural for Andy to plot it as such. He worked very closely with Adam [Bassett], and between them they made the most beautiful lighting design that complimented Matt Kinley’s set design perfectly.”
    Bassett himself describes the design as “an interesting hybrid between TV, theatre, and rock ‘n’ roll”, and says the production was superbly prepped by PRG. He also recalls a special personal moment that he shared with Cameron Mackintosh at the end of the show.
    “Cameron [Mackintosh] rushed over and asked me to come up on stage with him and Andrew Lloyd Webber for the final curtain calls along with some of the original cast members (including Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman) “Andy, you have two options: do it, or do it,” he said to me, which was pretty final [Laughs]; and when it came to getting up there on the night, I found myself standing next to Patrick [Woodroffe], who was grinning at me – and it suddenly dawned on us that there was no-one at the desk doing the lighting for the finale, so I had to slip off while Patrick stayed on stage and got covered in glitter!”
    The sound on the night was excellent, and although the Royal Albert Hall is about five times the capacity of a regular West End theatre, a level of intimacy was still achieved. Sarah Boggess, who played Christine, the female lead, was outstanding; and Ramin Karimloo played a mean Phantom (literally, for the most part). Also worth a mention is Liz Robertson’s portrayal of Madam Giry, which was particularly amusing at times.
    The live broadcast went out to 1,000 cinemas in the UK, 200 in the US, and 200 in Europe. It was recorded in stereo 5.0 and 5.1 by Tim Summerhayes and his team onto Pyramix via their Studer Vista 8 console in the Red-TX OB truck, using a total of 172 channels and 57 snapshots across four Studer stage boxes.
    “The desk has enough inputs to mix everything independently, so we take them and mix them in a manageable way,” said Summerhayes. “It’s technically the most ever channels we have run from one truck, but we know the Autograph guys well, and their vocal mixes have been spot-on. We were riding all the vocals live as you never quite know what’s going to happen from one performance to the next, but thankfully the whole thing flowed very smoothly on the night.”
TPi

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