White Light supplies “Love Never Dies”

White Light has been appointed to supply the lighting to Love Never Dies, the long-awaited and highly anticipated sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash-hit musical The Phantom of the Opera.

Since its 1986 début at London’s Her Majesty’s Theatre, where it continues to play, The Phantom of the Opera has been seen in more than 25 countries and by more than 100 million people. Love Never Dies continues the story of the Phantom, following his move across the Atlantic to haunt the fairgrounds of Coney Island.

To meet the challenge of bringing the story to life and matching the success of the first Phantom, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has assembled a creative team with an incredible track record, including lyricist Glenn Slater (The Little Mermaid, Sister Act), director Jack O’Brien (Hairspray, The Full Monty, The Coast of Utopia), designer Bob Crowley (The History Boys, Mary Poppins, Aida), and lighting designer Paule Constable, winner of the Best Lighting Design Olivier Award in 2005, 2006 and 2009 and well known for her work in the fields of opera, drama and musicals.

To supply the lighting, Paule turned to White Light, continuing a collaboration that has seen the company supply her designs for shows such as Evita, War Horse and the current touring production of Les Misérables.

White Light are supplying the show with a diverse range of equipment from its comprehensive rental stock. Moving lights include ETC Revolutions, Vari*Lite VL1000AS, VL3500Q and VL3500 Washes, Martin TW1s and, making their West End début, the Coemar Infinity ACL-M and an automated version of the I-Pix BB7 LED fixture. The conventional rig consists of ETC Source Fours and Thomas PAR64 Cans, many fitted with Rainbow Pro colour scrollers, and the show is using followspots from Robert Juliat, including Aramis, Korrigan and Manon units. White Light are also supplying custom rigging to the show, including curved ladder beam and roving sidelight booms.

To light the show’s challenging cyclorama, Paule is turning once again to the EvenLED LED cyc lighting system, which she is also using on Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and which White Light first supplied to the tour of Mary Poppins in 2008. Love Never Dies will be the first show to use the new half-width EvenLED panel alongside the standard 1m panel. The EvenLED will be controlled using Green Hippo’s Hippotizer and Critter media servers via ArtNET and ELC’s dmXLAN Node8 interfaces.

The show also demands a wide range of atmospheric effects, which will be created using MDG Atmosphere hazers, and a selection of smoke machines from Look Solutions (Viper, Power Tiny and Tiny Fogger) and Le Maitre (the Freeze Fog Pro low smoke system).

Control for the rig as a whole will be from an ETC Eos control system, including an Eos console and Eos RPU backup together with an RVI remote video interface complete with X-Keys keyboard, providing console video to the lighting designer. Love Never Dies will also use Stage Technologies’ F:Light system, allowing the moving lights to follow automated scenery and flown performers, and City Theatrical’s ShowDMX wireless DMX system for remote control of lighting in some scenic pieces.

Working with Paule Constable on the show are her associate Beky Stoddart, programmer Nick Simmons, production electrician Gerry Amies and his team including Chris Dunford and Ian Moulds, with David Draude and Michael Scott working on the show’s many scenic practicals. The show’s production manager is Steve Rebbeck.

“We are delighted to be chosen to supply this show,” comments White Light’s Managing Director, Bryan Raven. “It is a pleasure to be working with Paule and her team again, having collaborated so successfully on the new tour of Les Misérables at the end of last year. The rig for Love Never Dies is being installed in the theatre now, and we look forward to supporting the show as it moves towards its opening – and then on through a run that is hopefully as long and successful as that of the original Phantom!”

Produced by The Really Useful Group, Love Never Dies is at London’s Adelphi Theatre, where White Light previously supplied RUG’s production of Evita and the first ten years of the hit musical Chicago. Previews are scheduled to begin on February 20th, with a first night on 9th March and subsequent productions already planned for New York, opening in November 2010, and Australia, opening in 2011.