Lighting & Sound July 2018

INDUSTRY NEWS Copyright Lighting &Sound America July 2018 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html Something to Dance About : A New Ballet Pays Tribute to Jerome Robbins’ Broadway Jerome Robbins was a man of many the number ‘America,’ from West Side erenced the Broadway theatre. We parts, straddling the worlds of Story , as traditionally performed there hoped to put lightbulbs around it, but Broadway and the ballet, and, for his are sung sections, then dance sec - that turned out to be more than we centennial, New York City Ballet paid tions, but because I was eager to just could afford. It’s a little off center and tribute to him this spring with examine his dance I took out the sung slightly out of whack, and it was Something to Dance About , a new sections. You now have 90 seconds of always meant to serve as a bookend piece that provides a retrospective of powerhouse choreography and dance. to the piece. Of all the drops, it best his Broadway work. It provides a That’s a way of looking at something shows the artistry of the scenic reminder, if any were needed, of the we know and doing it in a new way.” painters. It’s a 2D drop painted on breathtaking range of his theatre cho - Working out the running order took black velour and it looks 3D. Irina reography, from the exuberant trio of some time, which affected the work of Portnyagina, one of Joe Forbes’ [of sailors in New York for one day only in Beowulf Boritt, the piece’s scenic Scenic Art Studios] painters, did it On the Town , to the male wedding designer. “I knew for two years that I using a ketchup squirter filled with guests executing the “Bottle Dance” was doing it, but I didn’t start working gold paint. When you look at it close- from Fiddler on the Roof . Also featured on it until November, for a May open - up, it’s like mashed potatoes; step is “All I Need is the Girl,” from Gypsy ; ing,” he says; in the end he had about back a bit, and it’s beautiful.” He adds, the polka to “Shall We Dance,” from six weeks to have everything ready for “The collaboration with the scenic The King and I , and “Dance at the the tech in February. In the fall, he had artist is so important; it’s a kind of Gym,” from West Side Story . Other, recently completed work on the non-verbal communication and when I gems include “The Music That Makes Manhattan Theatre Club production find someone with whom I’m simpati - Me Dance,” Funny Girl ’s eleven Prince of Broadway , a retrospective of co, it really makes me happy.” o’clock number, and the speakeasy numbers from musicals produced Other drops include, for the Fiddler sequence from Billion Dollar Baby , one and/or directed by Harold Prince, so sequence, a depiction of an enormous of Robbins’ wittiest dances. he was familiar with the concept of full moon, which adds a kind of cos - Something to Dance About features evoking classic designs without repro - mic dimension, and for The King and I , direction and musical staging by ducing them. “We weren’t so much a scrim featuring an Asian-style arch. Warren Carlyle, whose extensive trying to copy the original designs as “It was technically the trickiest piece,” Broadway resume includes the current to get a poetic, balletic experience of Boritt says. “We did the chandeliers on hit revival of Hello, Dolly! , told the them,” he notes. And, staying in the the scrim. During the February tech, website Playbill.com, “I think it’s like spirit of NYCB’s approach to design, you couldn’t see anything on it. We curating a great exhibit. It’s finding the he restricted himself entirely to drops. sent it back to Joe and it was repaint - right order to hang these works of art Among these is an angled depiction ed, but it had to go back two more o n and walking the audience through it. of a theatre proscenium, which has an times. We kept lightening the sky part a i a B Certainly, this is not a dusty old exhib - enigmatic, almost haunted, quality of the drop to get a good contrast with n i r E : it. I’m asking the audience to look at about it. “It was Warren’s idea,” Boritt the chandeliers.” o t o h these from a different point of view. In says. “He wanted something that ref - Equally challenging was the drop P 28 • July 2018 • Lighting &Sound America for the On the Town sequence, which features a New York skyline. In a twist, the outline of the buildings was, essentially, negative space, cut out of the drop. “I worked with Joe on changing the profiles of the buildings, to get an unframed drop that would hold the right shape,” Boritt notes. “It’s a lot of scenery for New York City Ballet,” says Mark Stanley, the company’s resident lighting designer. (Stanley has been at NYCB for many years and is the only artist involved with the project who worked on a reg - ular basis with Robbins, who co- founded the company with George Balanchine.) “We had to work on it carefully, because it’s scenery fitting into a repertory plot. You have to put He adds, “The skyline drop was really made a difference.” the drops where they can fit. It’s a jig - fascinating to work with. We are using Working with Carlyle led Stanley, saw puzzle that had to be worked out color to define the solid silhouette of who has worked extensively in musical from Beowulf’s original design. For the buildings. Normally, the skyline theatre, to rely on that style, as example, the skyline was going to be a would be solid, and the sky would be opposed to a relatively austere ballet double-height drop and was going to washed with light. The first time I lit it, I approach. “When Jennifer Tipton lit grow onstage. We couldn’t figure out put a blue light behind it and it just West Side Story Suite for Jerry at how to make that work. In the end, the wasn’t popping the shapes of the sky - NYCB, having done it for [the 1989 piece we have is stronger.” line. The use of contrasting orange Broadway show] Jerome Robbins’ k i n l o K l u a P : o t o h p m o t t o B ; o n a i a B n i r E : o t o h p p o T www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • July 2018 • 29 INDUSTRY NEWS Broadway , the section featuring the Color Forces gave me flexibility and the end of our winter season, I would song ‘America’ had one cue in it. range.” He used that freedom in dif - have had to refocus lights that were That’s how we’ve done it all this time. ferent ways: “In the Fiddler on the already in performance. It was also a The excerpt of ‘America’ in Something Roof scene, the statement had to be question of style. Adding moving lights to Dance About is half the length and I moonlight, because of that big drop. gave me a range of intensity that I probably have ten cues in that In the case of Gypsy (“All I Need is wouldn’t have otherwise had. I’ve sequence. And, probably, another ten the Girl”), I took a lot of liberty with learned from working with Susan could be written if we had hit every color, because it consists of only two Stroman at the ballet that to get the musical and choreographic change.” people on a huge stage and it intimacy of a Broadway house on the The approach, he adds, is “a hybrid demanded that we move into a color larger scale of our stage, we need a lot of ballet lighting and musical theatre world that was not the alley behind a more light.” Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 lighting—Jerry lighting. There was an theatre, where it takes place in the Spots provide the extra illumination. impulse to keep it simple, even though musical, but more of an emotional The production climaxes with it has a lot of cues. Working with space defined by color. I had fun with dancers from each show entering, Warren, we figured out how much of it it, too. The NYCB gray floor takes either in small groups or individuals, should reference the past and how color beautifully, and I created while a singer [during the premiere run, much we allow audiences to see it moments where the colors on the Jessica Vosk] performs, “Something through a contemporary lens.” floor and backdrop reverse them - Wonderful,” from The King and I . A One big addition to the ballet’s rep selves, an effect that helps to bring photo of Robbins is projected on the plot was a set of Chroma-Q Color the characters forward.” proscenium drop. The members of the o n Force II LED battens. “I could never Stanley added some moving lights. company turn and bow; all are too a i a B have done all those scenes, and been “I didn’t want to commit stuff in the young to have worked with Robbins, n i r E : specific to them, with three-color rep for this purpose,” he says. but, as this lively, lovely piece shows, o t o h ground rows,” Stanley says, “The “Because we teched it in February, at his legacy is still very much with us.

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