With his lighting nominated for a Tony, Ken Billington shares his plots for the new award-winning Broadway musical New York, New York. Currently on stage at the St. James Theatre, New York, New York has music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb, was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, with Tony-winning sets by Beowulf Borrit, who shares projection design credit and the Tony with Christopher Ash. Costumes are by Donna Zakowska, and sound by Kai Harada. The musical is somewhat based on the Martin Scorsese 1977 film of the same name, and features a group of New Yorkers convinced if they can make it there.. well, they can make it anywhere, as the song goes.
Billington's lighting illuminates the city that never sleeps...
"Light" from New York New York:
"I knew that I would need automated fixtures overhead and they would need to be bright. With the size of the scenic package, fixture size became crucial," says Billington. I researched small bright profile equipment and then needed to find out what the rental shops would have in stock for a January prep period. After the bids came in I had to make some adjustments and our equipment changed again. The one thing that did not change were the Ayrton Diablo S. Also I did not have room for wash fixtures but did have room for GLP FR10 Bars bright that have a minimal footprint.
With 11 hand painted on translucent muslin back drops in one upstage pack it again became a size issue. For example with only six inches between a border and the blue scrim that is in front of the translucent drops for the entire show, what would fit? There was only one fixture—the Solaris Flare Q+Rayzr 100cm—VERY small and bright with good color mixing."
"The show does all four seasons as well as interior nightclubs, apartments, etc, so the color palette needed to be from stark cold city alley to colorful and saturated nightclubs," the LD points out. "To let us work quickly in the theatre, I did color mixing for 220 colors for all of the LED and color changing equipment in my studio. For example all fixtures can do Rosco 33 matched to a 6000 Kelvin or Rosco 33 matched to a Source Four 750W incandescent fixture. With all of the colors mixed before the load in, it was easy to adjust the various types of units to the exact same color. No questions to the programmer that the Diablo is not matching the Best Boy or the GLP FR10. They all matched."
A crucial part of designing a musical is the collaboration between lighting and scenic design. "Beowulf Boritt, the set designer, and I worked together for months as to where space was need for lighting equipment and what I would need to light the backdrops. Daily conversations for several months until the final scenic ground plan was finalized taking in all the lighting positions," Billington explains.
"The show is a love letter to New York City in 1946. A bit of what we think it was like, perhaps influenced by movie musicals, Broadway musical comedy, and dance numbers that make you love the musical theatre. How did I make that happen? I go with memory and nostalgia of what the audience might thank it looked like," notes Billington. "Perhaps the younger members of the audience saw one of my musicals of a movie musical and that’s what they remember."
New York, New York
Broadway Equipment:
Conventional Equipment:
94 ETC Source Four 750W Various Lens
64 ETC Source Four Lustr 2 Various Lens
35 ETC Source Four Pars 750W Various Lens
2 Ianiro Castor 6” Fresnel 2000W
8 Par 16 “Birdie” 12v 50W EXN
7 Strand Mizar Fresnels 500W
66 Chauvet ColorDash Accent 3
43 Color Kinetics ColorBlast TRX
23 Color Kinetics ColorBlast TRX w/23° Lens
7 Color Kinetics ColorBlaze TRX 72
40 Chroma-Q ColorForce II 72
20 TMB Solaris Flare Q+Rayzr 100cm
4 ETC 12 light 3 circuit Multi Par Striplight 575W MFL
3 Lycian 1295 3kW Xenon Followspots
Automated Equipment:
20 Ayrton Diablo S
1 Ayrton Wildsun K25 TC
26 Claypaky A.Leda B-Eye K20
13 Elation Proteus Maximus
25 GLP Impression FR10 Bar
11 GLP Impression X4 Bar 20
20 Martin Mac Aura
3 Martin Mace Encore WRM
49 PRG Best Boy LED
Effects:
2 MDG Atmosphere APS
2 Look Solutions Viper NT
4 Look Solutions Cyro Fog
2 Martin JEM AF100 Fan