Cry Pretty: Fireplay’s 360 Designs for Carrie Underwood’s Massive Tour, Part One

Seven-time Grammy Award-winning country music artist Carrie Underwood launched Cry Pretty Tour 360, her sixth headlining concert tour, on May 1 with over 60 shows planned across the U.S., Canada, and UK.

Creative director Barry Lather and tour manager Geoff Donkin hired design and production studio Fireplay to handle the show’s creative production, production design, lighting design, laser design, and special effects. The result is a stunning, eye-shaped stage design and an in-the-round experience that surprises the audience with a new look for every song.

“We got an early look at the album artwork, and we really liked the look of the eye so that inspired our design,” says Fireplay co-founder and CEO Nick Whitehouse, who handled the tour’s lighting design. “The logo that is used in some of the tour artwork was actually inspired by the final stage design.”

Shaped like an eye with guests both within and around its borders, the stage is a massive 165' wide and 55' deep, and the country music star makes numerous trips around its circumference. “She is constantly moving,” comments Whitehouse. “She has one of those Fitbits, and she definitely does a few miles every time she performs.”

stage design and lighting design for Carrie Underwood's Cry Pretty 360 tour

Stage Design & Video Design

Sightlines are crucial when designing for in-the-round. “We needed to make sure that everyone all around could see Carrie and the show, and one of the ways we achieved it was with lots of raised platforms and very open spaces,” explains Whitehouse. “One whole side of the stage is almost a monorail, and you can see from one side to the other. We also really wanted to get some height into the performance so that Carrie and her band members could get up there, and we could actually change the shape and the feel of the stage for every track.”

Fifteen stage lifts rise at least 20' in the air as well as drop below the stage for entrances and exits and easy load-in of equipment. Along one side of the stage, the lifts are wide enough that Underwood can freely walk from one end of the platforms to the next; she remains in a designated space when atop the smaller lifts on the other side.

During “Cry Pretty,” the title track of her latest album, a circular bead curtain descends over the stage as a diamond chandelier. “It was probably one of the biggest challenges we had because each one of those bead strings is individual and would get tangled,” says Whitehouse. SGPS and Fireplay developed a system in the lift where each strand separates into its own tube for smooth deployment.

stage design and lighting design for Carrie Underwood's Cry Pretty 360 tour

The entire stage is wrapped with retractable transparent screens, effectively immersing Underwood, her band, and the guests in the center. “With this design, we could create different levels and different configurations or even remove the screens to change the look of every song,” says Whitehouse. The eighteen 30' x 20' roll drops were custom-made by SGPS, which built the stage and handled the show’s automation and rigging.

Thirty-six Barco 30K laser projectors controlled by disguise 4x4pro and gx 2 media servers display the video content, from cosmic, spectral projections to a smoky jazz lounge, all created by Sila Sveta. “It’s pretty epic,” Whitehouse says of the video design. “It is bright and punchy, and it looks awesome.” PRG is supplying the video equipment.

stage design and lighting design for Carrie Underwood's Cry Pretty 360 tour

Lighting Design

Fireplay had to carefully strategize the overhead lighting to illuminate around the screens rather than through them. “It was quite a challenge to figure out how to do that,” admits Whitehouse. “We made sure to include all the big looks and effects that Barry and Carrie wanted and made sure to miss the screens so that the show ultimately looks fantastic.” The LD also gives high props to Underwood’s lighting director, Nate Cromwell, who he calls “a genius at [Cast] BlackTrax. He spent the majority of rehearsals walking around the stage and figuring out how to avoid everything from a key lighting perspective. He must have spent a month trying to figure that out. He nailed it.”

To light the in-the-round stage, Fireplay needed the ability to light Underwood from all angles. “We developed a lighting design that while simple is actually a really big plot,” explains Whitehouse. “There are 30' wide circle trusses, and inside these six circles is the majority of the lighting rig.” The outer ring comprises effects lighting fixtures Claypaky Mythos 2’s, while the inner rig has Martin by Harman MAC Viper AirFX units for spotlight and band key light. In the middle, Claypaky Scenius Unicos act as followspots with BlackTrax realtime tracking to shadow Underwood’s movements. “We then put a whole bunch of [GLP] JDC1 Strobes everywhere so we could light the whole place up,” he adds. “They gave us some really amazing, dynamic lighting, picking up all the hits but at the same time lighting everyone.” Bandit Lites is providing the lighting equipment for the tour.

The album artwork for Cry Pretty inspired the color palette for the lighting design. “If you look at the album, there are lots of blues and purples,” explains Whitehouse. “We use a lot of that as the base for what we programmed into the show.” No color goes neglected, resulting in strong, bold, individual looks for every song. “For the rock 'n' roll songs, there’s a lot of reds and whites with big flashes. For the softer songs, we drop down to pinks and blues.”

Check out Part Two with an in-depth look at the special effects design!

Credits

Carrie Underwood Creative Team

  • Creative Director: Barry Lather
  • Assistant to Creative Director: Bryan Anthony

Fireplay Design Team

  • Creative Producer / Lighting Designer: Nick Whitehouse
  • Creative Producer / Special FX Designer: Kelly Sticksel
  • Production Designer: Josh Zangen
  • Associate Lighting Designer: Brian Vaughan
  • Associate Creative Design: Benny Or

Carrie Underwood Tour Management

  • Tour Manager: Geoff Donkin
  • Assistant Tour Manager: Amy Reynolds

Production Crew

  • Production Manager: Graham Holmes
  • Production Coordinator: Samantha Luettke
  • Lighting Director/Blacktrax Programmer: Nate Cromwell
  • Lighting Crew Chief: Chris Noll
  • Lighting Techs: Tanner Peterson, Mark Scherer, Darryl Newcombe, Samuel Morgan
  • Video Director: Jason Varner
  • Video Techs: Dylan Taylor, Clarke Anderson, Hayden Hallgren, Lorenzo Loche, David Bartlett, Jay Strasser
  • D3 Programming: Rich Porter
  • Video/Touring D3 Programmer: Andrew Gusciora
  • Audio Crew: Tim Holder, Travis White, Dave Shatto, Rich Burke, Jeff Sterns, Thomas Birkhead, Anthony Toneatti
  • Automation Techs: Juan Guerra, Robert Flood, Andrew Odom, Joshua Cardona, Michael Kinard, Joshua Cota, Nick Burns, Joshua Corcoran, Eric Carlson
  • Stage Manager: Luke Larson
  • Pyro Tech: Scott Allen
  • Laser Tech: Alex Lopez
  • SFX: Tanner Morris
  • Backline/Fractals/Timecode: Christian Castle
  • Guitar tech: Lonnie Tottman
  • Guitar tech: Bud Philips
  • Backline tech: Terry Fox
  • Wardrobe: Joan Lee
  • Backstage Coordinator: Christine Volpe
  • Riggers: Ken Mitchell (Head), Todd Molle, Jeremy Caldwell, Joel Wilson
  • Carpenters: Dennis Osborne (Head), Charles Phillips, Matt Shoup

Production Companies

Gear

Lighting Fixtures

Lighting Networking/Control

  • 1 MA Lighting grandMA3 Full
  • 1 MA Lighting grandMA2 Full
  • 1 Cast BlackTrax Server
  • 4 MA Lighting grandMA2 NSP
  • 3 Luminex Ethernet DMX8 (BlackTrax)
  • 6 Luminex Gigacore PoE Switch
  • 3 TMB ProPlex Fiber Optic EzLan20

Projection

  • 38 Barco UDX-4K32 31K Laser Projector
  • 4 disguise 4X4pro Media Server
  • 2 disguise gx 2 Media Server
  • 1 Grass Valley Kayak HD 200 Switcher

Automation

  • 12,600 sq. ft. of Projection Surface on 20 Automated Roll Drops
  • 64 SGPS Automation Lifts
  • 1 - 6' Round custom 3-stage lift (Outer, Inner, Rotate)