Lüz Studio, a Montreal-based company, was contracted for the lighting and video design of the musical Mary Poppins, based on Pamela L. Travers’ book and Walt Disney’s movie. Since Mary Poppins is a well-known musical by the public, the bar was set high for it’s first French production. Over all, the show sold 100,000 tickets between June 2016 and January 2017.
The venue was not originally built to host a musical that had the wingspan of a Broadway production. The creation crew used a lot of ingenuity to design magic tricks and illusions that would make the show superfragilisticexpialidocious!
Claude Dufresne
On the lighting side, the biggest challenge was to hide all the magic tricks used on the stage during the show. It demanded a lot of time and precision to hide the flying mechanism and to keep the technical aspects invisible. The team had to be very precise with the lights angles and truly rigorous when focusing projectors. It was essential to keep the audience charmed and make them believe in the story.
Event though the team was not in charge of the set design, Lüz Studio’s implication with the designer was really important because they had to customize a certain quantity of props: lamppost, bed, banister and kites had lights included.The number of props added up rapidly and the team had to be quick and creative while being aware of the quality of the result.
Claude Dufresne
Since it was a musical, a lot of multidirectional microphones were set on the stage. They had to be discreet with the sound generated by the hundred moving lights that were used for the light design of the show.
The video design gave an eclectic and dynamic visual so that the audience was projected in this extraordinary universe. The space between the screen and the projector was less than ten feet. Lüz Studio managed to find a solution by overlaying eight Christie Mirage 10k. Videos, added to lights and props, allowed Lüz Studio to create magical and supernatural sceneries especially tailored for the musical!
DESIGN TEAM
- Producer: Juste pour rire
- Production manager: Guy Côté
- Show director: Serge Postigo
- Lighting designer: Lüz Studio
- Technical director: Marc Lespérance
- Set technical director: Jérémi Guilbault-Asselin
- Set designer: Jean Bard
- Content creator: Lüz Studio
LIGHTING EQUIPMENT
- 44 GLP impression X4
- 36 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500SPOT
- 13 Philips Vari-Lite VL3000SPOT
- 6 Martin Atomic 3000
- 22 Elation PAR ELAR
- 7 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 48
- 2 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 72
- 12 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 12
- 48 ETC Leko Source Four
- 12 ETC PAR wide
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA fullsize
- 2 Look Viper nt
- 1 MDG Atmosphere
- 2 Le Maitre Lowfog
VIDEO EQUIPMENT
- 8 Christie Mirage 10k
- 4 Coolux Pandora’s Box media player
- 2 Coolux Pandora’s Box media manager