L. Frank Baum's novel has been adapted into a hit MGM film, three silent movies, comics, a Broadway musical and countless other stage and amateur productions, so it was only a matter of time before The Wizard of Oz hit the West End. Wicked (the 'untold story of the witches of Oz') over the road at the Apollo Theatre grossed in excess of £30 million in 2010 and smashed the box office record at … [Read more...]
The House of Dancing Water
Sharks puppeteered by SCUBA divers, heart-stopping high dives, motorcycle stunts symbolising time travel, pagodas and boats that emerge from submarine theatre ‘wings’ and 77 performance artists from 18 countries around the world; Franco Dragone’s newest spectacular has been 5 years in the planning, 2 years of rehearsal and cost approximately £160 million. Surrounded in mystery and much … [Read more...]
Sculpting the Future
Automation has changed the landscape of what is achievable in live entertainment. When scenic automation first emerged late last century, it was applied as traditional hand flying had been for generations – for the most part to lower a piece of scenery into place then lift it out again. With the arrival of precise computer control more than a decade ago, simple cueing and plotting was no longer … [Read more...]
A little bit of lift for the Lyttelton
The Lyttelton's hydraulic lifts were installed around 30 years ago and have given the theatre a great many years of reliable service. However, when The White Guard was staged earlier this year, the National's systems engineering team found themselves in a quandary. The show required that they synchronise all three lifts and they quickly found that the existing system simply didn't have the … [Read more...]
Stage Technologies split pulley reels in another award!
At the recent ABTT Theatre Show awards, the newest innovation from the Stage Technologies mechanical design team took the prize for 'Best Engineering Product 2010'. The split pulley is a simple mechanism that makes performer flying, specifically at an angle out over the audience, easier and neater than ever before. Steel wire rope is fed into the pulley as normal, but the secret is in the … [Read more...]
