Pink on Tour L&SI Behind the Funhouse Priscilla in London L&SI at the Palace Theatre
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June Cover:Cover 08/06/2009 08:39 Page 1 June 2009 entertainment, presentation, communication www.lsionline.co.uk Pink On Tour L&SI behind the Funhouse Priscilla in London L&SI at the Palace Theatre Alpha Males Clay Paky in Profile TF: Electric String Cables & Connectors PLUS: PLASA Focus in review; Minack Open Air Theatre; Showlight 09, Glasgow; Laura Pausini, Italian Diva; Orbital’s Sound Fundamentals; Audio File; Inauguration Special Crew Cuts; Green Room & more . South Africa Celebrates L&SI has gone digital! Register online FREE at www.lsionline.co.uk/digital On Tour - Pink v2:On tour.qxd 05/06/2009 10:42 Page 30 tour on online.co.uk www.lsi 30 Lighting&Sound - June 2009 On Tour - Pink v2:On tour.qxd 05/06/2009 10:43 Page 31 Pink’s Funhouse tour on A remarkably energetic performer, backed by an experienced crew: Pink’s Funhouse tour is a tight, theatrical show, programmed down to the millisecond. Words & pictures by Steve Moles . LD & Show Director: Baz Halpin Lighting operator: Trent O’Connor Video supplier: XL Video Production manager: Richard Young Lighting supplier: PRG Europe Set Design: Mark Fisher FOH sound engineer: Chris Madden Audio supplier: Clair Brothers Audio Set Construction: Brilliant Stages Monitor engineer: Horst Hartmann Audio crew: Concert Sound Custom set elements: Specialz 70 minutes into the show and I was just about to wend Lights, stage, show my way back home when two things abruptly stopped “This is a very tight, theatrical show,” said lighting operator Trent O’Connor when I arrived at front-of-house that afternoon. me. I’d already seen enough of the show to count it the “Lights, choreography, set moves; it’s all down to the best of the year: Pink is a changed woman from three millisecond,” O’Connor runs lights and a Catalyst system, calls years ago when I last reviewed her for L&SI. She’s lost followspots and some of the set cues - “traps and confetti”, he none of that frightening energy, but she’s an altogether said nonchalantly. “Automation is its own department, and the more controlled presence on stage, easily harnessing set guys know all the Prop cues really.” her own excess of exuberance. It all sounds a bit busy. “There’s some strong theatre in there, but it has a big rock and roll element.” Before I could quiz What stopped me was a measure of that energy. She O’Connor on the Martin Maxxyz desk - the first I’ve seen on tour performed the song Sober 40 feet above stage on a trapeze. in an age - he whisks me away to meet with show director Barry As she is an acknowledged aerial gymnast, we shouldn’t be ‘Baz’ Halpin. too overawed by this, although the fact that she was clearly singing live as she performed 180° flips beneath the arms of Before we start, let me say this; it’s barely seven years since I her male companion did impress; the wind noise from her mic saw this young son of Ireland take over the reins as lighting as she swooshed though the air said ‘authenticity’ in big design for Westlife. Now here he is, not just LD but Show letters. The dismount was fast and elegant, yet no sooner had Director for Pink, Tina Turner, Cher and Joe Cocker. There’s she disappeared through a portal in the set for a costume something of the sorcerer’s apprentice here, these are all acts change than the unmistakable opening notes of Bohemian managed by Roger Davis and by his own admission Halpin has Rhapsody rang out. Before we could catch breath, she learned much from this man; but he’s no cipher. Halpin has reappeared and belted straight into the opening lines talent, ideas and confidence. Not arrogance, just quiet, resplendent in bright yellow Freddie Mercury military tunic. measured confidence. After two lines I switched my attention to the IMAG screen high on stage left where to my amazement I saw her tiny body “Funhouse actually came from her,” began Halpin. The Pink barely show a flicker of fatigue. Not a pant, not a heaving stage set presents as an ever-so-slightly insane hall of mirrors plexus, just easy, measured breathing. somewhere between the ghost train and a funfair ride. Like a ventriloquist’s dummy sat staring blankly in the corner of the Astonished, I stood mesmerised for most of the song. As it rose room, it conceals a certain creepiness; you expect at any to the third crescendo with 19,000 people singing along, a man moment for it to jump into life. “There are too many Circuses in black shirt and trousers ran in front of me. It was promoter around at the moment,” (Madonna & Britney?) “so this is more Barry Marshall. Yes I know I’ve mentioned him a great deal of carnival-style. But it has an edgy, dark twist,” Halpin confirms late, but this cannot be overlooked. On the floor in front of the the feeling. mix enclosure a young girl had collapsed, overwhelmed by the emotion and the heat. Marshall had seen her fall and ran to her Did she contribute beyond that preliminary concept? “She aid, with a security man dispatched by show director Baz Halpin reminds me of Tina, she’s involved in every aspect and included close behind. in every decision. Mark Fisher made the initial drawings and she’s been there ever since.” Halpin revealed this is a 10-truck Yeah, yeah; the cynical among you might say, but to his credit tour: “Roger aimed for nine, but 10’s OK, it’s like an 18-truck Marshall didn’t just hand this girl on to Security, he slowly show crammed in.” I wouldn’t dispute that, it’s more than big brought her to her feet, then with her arm over his shoulder and enough to satisfy the gaping maw of Manchester. “Roger likes online.co.uk quite obviously bearing most of her weight, supported her to maximise his dollar,” says Halpin. across the arena floor and out to the First Aid point. Pink’s manager Roger Davis wasn’t there to witness this act, but I was There are screens, inevitably - six of them; all are picture www.lsi and I commend this Promoter to any artist that understands: frames, all irregular rectangles, they use physical and software this is a people business, and they all count. framing to present the phantasmagoria: “We started with the Lighting&Sound - June 2009 31 On Tour - Pink v2:On tour.qxd 05/06/2009 10:43 Page 32 tour on set - no gags, no props; looked at the you can have great dancers, but it has to work sightlines, then considered video elements. together as part of whole. That’s my approach Once that was defined we thought about the to lighting. There are some big songs in here, gags and props. They all came about through but that doesn’t mean the lighting is all in your meetings with Alicia [Pink’s real name] as we face; if the action is on stage, put it there.” developed the set list.” And how does Pink input to that evolution? It’s here Halpin revealed Roger Davis’s “She’s secure in her own ability but wants to masterful touch. “We started with the opening have fun on stage; she’s not afraid to be and ending of the show, then the big self-deprecating; she has that ‘so what?’ production songs. She has too many potent attitude. She’s also into new technology. songs so we had to choose carefully; that’s For U + Ur Hand - an S&M song - she wears Roger’s genius. He sees the pacing of the LED gloves and we emphasise that by putting show and feels the ebb and flow acutely. I’ve part of the glove routine in blackout. She seen him watch rehearsal for the umpteenth wanted to do the whole song like that - that’s time and then suggest, let’s just move this one what I mean by unafraid.” from here to here, and suddenly the whole thing comes alive. That’s a great skill.” In reality, Halpin caught the measure nicely, perhaps 45 seconds of total darkness in which For my own personal gratification I went to see to identify the glove gag, congratulate Tina Turner’s final show of her comeback tour yourselves as an audience for appreciating it, a week after this one and that skill was then move on. There were other adventurous revealed. With the exception of the opener and things Pink did, including the most beautiful closer of the first half and the interjection of rendering of Led Zeppelin’s Babe I’m Gonna Mountain High, the first hour followed exactly Leave You which had all the raw, burnt emotion the song pattern from the tour I did in ’87. ‘The I saw in Robert Plant 35 years ago at Alexandra next song will be Better Be Good to Me’ I Palace. turned and said to my wife. ‘How do you know that?’ she replied. It was that big wide river of But we should move to the technology. “The familiarity and I was happily floating down on a show is 70% straightforward, 30% big big rubber tyre of nostalgia. Davis did not need production numbers,” says Halpin. “To create to reinvent the wheel. lighting for rock and theatrical is a very tricky thing. The fact we play to 270° audience way Halpin explained: “It’s a two-hour show so up the sides of stage didn’t detract from the pacing is critical, between those big songs and need for side lighting, but sightlines are costume changes there has to be time for the paramount.” Halpin has dangling pencils of From top: audience to digest and relax,” I’d never heard it eight foot PRG mini-beam, rigged high with Show director Baz Halpin.