Star Light, Star Bright, Part Two

Opening this spring on Broadway to rave reviews, Bright Star—Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s original and uplifting new musical—transports its audience from the Cort Theatre on 47th Street to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. Responsible for this transformation is a dynamic group of creatives, including set designer Eugene Lee, lighting designer Japhy Weideman, and sound designer Nevin Steinberg. Live Design spoke with these designers about their process, design inspiration, and experience in working on the show.

Read about the lighting and set design in Part One.

Steinberg became involved with the production’s sound design early on in the process, receiving an initial draft of the script in 2013. “I loved the story and the surprises in it,” he says. “I was particularly excited to join a team of designers whom I admire but had little experience with: Eugene Lee, costume designer Jane Greenwood, and Japhy Weideman.”

Starting his design process during a developmental workshop in 2014, Steinberg describes how knowing early on in the process that the band would be moved around the stage within the scenic house helped the team arrive at design decisions. “We were able to begin to discuss those challenges in terms of reinforcement and monitoring right from the get-go,” he says. “That was also when I started to think about the soundscape for the show, not only the delivery system, but also the environmental sounds to bring to the piece. 

Photo by Nick Stokes

After the workshop, a full production was mounted at The Old Globe in San Diego and following that, an out-of-town tryout at The Kennedy Center, before coming to Broadway. “My team and I had a few opportunities to try things out, refine ideas, and develop a relationship with the material and the people,” Steinberg explains. “I think that this depth of connection and familiarity really comes through in the final product in all departments.”

Steinberg details his variety of equipment choices on this show. “The Bright Star loudspeaker system is composed largely of Alcons Audio equipment for the mains and most delays. This is the company’s first major deployment on Broadway. We are also using some other interesting, new equipment that I’ve had my eye on for a while as well: K-Array speakers for front fills and apron monitoring, and the onstage band is miked entirely using Sennheiser’s System 9000 Digital Wireless. A little less sexy, but very important: The show is also an early adopter of Clear-Com’s HelixNet system on Broadway. For an audio nerd like me, this is a great package. I’m very grateful to our producers and managers, and to our vendor, Masque Sound and Recording, for helping me get what I wanted to make this system happen.” The production uses a DiGiCo SD10-T console for front-of-house and monitors, and a Meyer Sound D-Mitri system for loudspeaker processing. 

Band Of Bright Stars

The Bright Star band consists of those members on stage and in the added galleries. On stage there is an upright piano, played by the musical director who doubles on accordion, a fiddle player, an upright bass player, a guitarist who plays steel string acoustic, electric, and archtop, and a banjo player who plays two banjos and steel string guitar. On the stage left and right galleries, there is a mandolin player who also plays another steel string guitar, a cello player, a violin/viola player, a drummer/percussionist, and a keyboard player who also plays autoharp and accordion. “The orchestrations by August Eriksmoen are masterful,” says Steinberg.

Researching and recording sound effects for the show was an explorative process for Steinberg. “I realized I didn’t really know what [the Blue Ridge Mountains and surrounding areas] should feel and sound like,” he explains. “So I took a trip in June of 2014 to visit some locations and do field recording for the show. I started in Raleigh and then traveled to Zebulon. I made some night visits to a swampy, isolated area between Zebulon and Raleigh in an effort to recreate the fictional Hays Creek in the play, and then I went west to Asheville and got up into the mountains for a few days. It was a great trip, and I was able to experience some really wonderful environmental sounds, many of which have made it into the show and all of which have influenced my work on the production. Almost every outdoor scene in the show has some unique environment playing, and they all have components of the recordings I made during my visits to the woods, ponds, and mountains of North Carolina. I think it contributes to the ‘hand-crafted’ feel of the production, and I’m tickled every time I hear them. I’ve been told a number of times by native North Carolinians that the unique soundscapes remind them of home.”

Photo by Nick Stokes

Faced with the challenge of working with the mobile band and remote satellite sections in the galleries, Steinberg explains that what could have been a frustration was instead “tricky, but tons of fun.” He shares his appreciation for his team, which he calls “very special. The sound engineer for San Diego, DC, and on Broadway is an old friend, Scott Sanders. Backstage, I am lucky to have Jake Scudder and Karen Zabinski, and at my side were my assistant Elize Simon and my longtime associate Jason Crystal: aces, all.”

It’s clear that the design team truthfully and thoroughly enjoyed their time on this project. Effusive about the working process, Lee says, “One thing worth saying about this production, which is not always true, is that it was a terrific group of people! I can’t think of a bad thing to say about anyone. I’m making it sound too good to be true, but it really was that good.”

Weideman shares Lee’s sentiments on working with the Bright Star team. “No challenges, only pure joy. The people on this production—Walter, Edie, Steve, Josh, and all of the designers—are the most positive, focused, fun, and encouraging group of artists any lighting designer could ever ask to work with. While it was hard work, it was pure pleasure to be in a room where we could freely share our ideas with each other, and all of these players have so much to offer.”

Steven Battaglia has worked in theatre production and operations for more than 12 years. He has been the operations manager at Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York for the last six years and also works as a production manager and lighting designer in his spare time.