Hit musical Jersey Boys recently set out on its first tour of the UK and Ireland, building on the two US productions plus shows South Africa and Australia already notched up,
The production calls on a sizeable sound system based on Steve Canyon Kennedy’s original design, delivering the high-octane Four Seasons’ show sound. At the heart of the system is the Meyer Sound M’elodie line array system, complemented by d&b audiotechnik E5 and E6 compact speakers and, for the first time, a DiGiCo SD10 mixing desk.
For the UK version, associate sound designer Andrew Keister and his team made an extensive study of 18 venues in order to arrive at the a ‘best fit’ touring design for the full range of spaces. Jersey Boys takes in an eclectic mix of venues, from the large such as the Edinburgh Playhouse, Liverpool Empire and Bristol Hippodrome, to much smaller, more intimate spaces. The result is a smaller, lighter weight rig than was most recently used on a Dutch production, to accommodate some of the ceiling weight restrictions and designed for ease of trucking, albeit without any loss of power and punch. The show itself also underwent some changes, including scaling down some of the scenery in line with the available venue wing space, as well as the decision to use an ingeniously engineered single drum kit, rather than the pair of moving ones as in previous productions. This change saved on quite a few console inputs, enabling Andrew to deploy the SD10 instead of the more usual SD7.
Another first was the introduction of a dedicated sound production engineer from Orbital – Dan Bailey – which represented something of a departure for Andrew compared to US productions, as he explains: ‘This is not something we have done before, as it really isn’t customary for us on the US circuit, but I have to say it was a great decision. Dan did an absolutely superb job for us and took great care of the show. He’s a first class engineer and we couldn’t be happier.’
The full Jersey Boys touring system comprises the Meyer Sound M’elodie and Mina cabinets, together with UPA, UPM and UP-Junior self-powered speakers plus 600-HP and 700-HP subs. From the d&b audiotechnik range is a sizeable complement of E5, E6 and E0 loudspeakers, with D6 amplifiers. On the radio mic front, the team has used 32 of Sennheiser’s SK-5212 transmitters, with EM-3732 receivers. The moving drum kit, a key feature in the meticulously choreographed musical, is connected via a pair of Yamaha RIO digital input/output units. Processing for all the audio is all handled via a comprehensive Meyer Galileo system.
For Keister, it was straight back to work on revamping the US tour on leaving the UK: ‘Although we all have a lot of experience with Jersey Boys, there is always something new you take away each time,’ he says. ‘We are currently applying the lessons we learned on the UK tour, in terms of making the show a little smaller and more efficient to move around – it’s a question of continually evolving and improving things wherever we can.’
The sound team on the show includes Hannah Reymes-Cole as the tour’s AI and head of department, with Elliott Sinclair as the A2. The production engineering team comprised Dan Bailey, Dennis Fernandez, Rich Gurly, Jack Lord and Steve McEvoy.
More: www.orbitalsound.com
