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Never ones to shy away from
getting in touch with our feminine side, Point Source Productions
were happy to make a further foray into musical theatre when we
provided the lighting equipment for TAP Productions’ Menopause
the Musical at the Shaw Theatre, Euston in Spring 2007.
The show, the brain child of
writer Jeanie Linders, is a comic celebration of an erstwhile taboo
subject, explored by four characters going through The Change. Set
in a department store it uses hits from the ‘60s and ‘70s – with
somewhat alternative lyrics – to make light of the subject, whilst
at the same time, raising a great deal of money to go towards cancer
research. Running in countries the world over, the 2005-6 tour alone
raised over $500,000 for ovarian cancer research.
TAP Productions teamed up
with UK based Celcius Management, who provided the technical team,
headed by Technical Production Manager, Nadene Wheatley. Celcius
Management had dealt with Point Source Productions on a number of
previous occasions for corporate work and approached us as part of
the tendering process.
“Point Source came back with
a very competitive quote,” says Wheatley, “and were prepared to
supply some very high quality kit. But what really clinched the deal
was their willingness to go just that stage further by investing in
some new Robert Juliat Super Korrigan followspots specifically for
the show, turning everything around in a very short time.”
Owned by Euston Novotel, the Shaw Theatre also
doubles as the hotel’s conference venue, and exists only with the
proviso that it must be used as a theatre in the evening and a
conference venue in the daytime. Consequently the technicians have
to run a dual system of lighting, leaving space in front of any
installed set for daytime conference activity and transforming back
into traditional theatre space for evening performances.
Point Source Productions’ background in both
theatre and corporate work enabled us to provide a lighting rig
which would provide the necessary breadth to light this panto-style
production, yet simultaneously complement the existing static
corporate rig.
In addition to the newly purchased Super Korrigan
followspots, Point Source Productions also invested in a number of
1.2K Selecon Rama fresnels. The remainder of the kit list included
Rainbow Pro 8” colour scrollers, Strand Alto 2K fresnels , ETC
Source 4 575W & 750W profiles with a mix of 19°, 26°, 36° lenses,
plus two 10° lens tubes to project onto the 400mm mirror balls, also
from the Point Source stock.
As a trial ‘off-West End’ show, Menopause the
Musical is the Shaw Theatre’s first long-running production. As
such, it needed a West End approach to hire from us which would
offer sensible pricing but with a high level of technical support as
backup.
Hire Manager, Ian King explains, “We sent spares
of every fixture to allow for the fact that the shows were at
unorthodox times due to conference commitments. This gave the
technical team the confidence to know they were covered quickly,
whatever time of day it was. We were also available twenty-four
hours a day to provide advice and emergency backup.”
This is a significant development for Point
Source Productions in the area of West End musicals and we are
looking forward to more to come.
Menopause the Musical
continues to run in many venues across the USA and further afield
(full details on
www.menopausethemusical.com).
The
London production, directed by Kathryn Conte, stars Miquel Brown,
Samantha Hughes, Su Pollard and Amanda Symonds and runs for 5 months
from March 2007.
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