Playing Now: Glory Ride

The new musical Glory Ride opened at London’s Charing Cross Theatre on April 28th.

Written by Todd Buchholz and Victoria Buchholz, directed and choreographed by Olivier-award winner Kelly Devine (Come From Away), designed by PJ McEvoy with lighting by Rob and performed by a wonderful cast, the show tells the true story of Italian Tour de France winner Gino Bartali and how he used his celebrity status to help rescue Jewish children from Italy during the second world war.

The show opened to great acclaim for all involved, and runs until July 29th - book your tickets now!

Glory Ride [link]
Photographer: Marc Brenner

It's BACK - Tree of Codes, now in Helsinki

After a three-year Covid-enforced break, the acclaimed dance show Tree of Codes, which Rob created alongside choreographer Wayne McGregor, visual artist Olafur Eliasson and composer Jamie xx, is BACK!

The show is playing at the brand new Tanssin Talo - Dance House - in Helsinki, as part of the 2022 Helsinki Festival, with performance dates from August 12th-14th.

This is the first time the show has been seen since it’s run in Paris in mid-2019 - but now it is up and running again it will also be appearing in Singapore this autumn. Look out for it there.

As always, Rob is delighted and honoured to be part of this remarkable show, first created at the Manchester Festival in 2015, and delighted to be back amongst the wonderful team of people who get it up and running each time.

Tree of Codes Gallery: [link]
Helsinki Festival: [link]

Les Mis Reinvented

Rob and all involved are thrilled by the reaction to their new production of Les Misérables, and delighted to have been able to bring the show a whole new fresh, contemporary, dangerous look and feel, lifting it out of its traditional setting and landing it in a timeless, nameless place - a dark dystopian society that could be anywhere.

Credit is due to all involved with the show at Mountview, particularly production manager Davin Patrick, stage manager Natasha Guzel, DSM Anna Matthiesen, production electrician Billy Highfield, programmers/assistant lighting designers Alex Hannah and Tristan Teresczuk and all of the rest of the lighting team. They did excellent work on the most challenging of shows to the tightest of schedules. The result was a wonderful piece of theatre, and a fitting opening for Mountview’s Mack theatre.

Pictures: [link]

More Pictures: [link] [link]

Les Mis at WhatsOnStage: [link]

Reactions on Twitter: [link]

Photo: Marc Brenner

A Les Mis For Right Now

Rob is delighted to be part of the all-new production of Les Misérables, being staged by Mountview as the official opening show of their new theatre, which is to be named The Mack in honour of Cameron Mackintosh who has supported it financially.

Rob has been involved with Les Mis from the time of the show’s tenth anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall and on through productions in London, touring the UK, in Australia, Belgium and New York. His summary of the history of the lighting of that remarkable production can be found at The Lighting Archive: [link].

However almost exactly none of the knowledge of that production is relevant to this one, which is being re-invented from the ground up in a contemporary setting by directors Matt Ryan and Shiv Rabheru and designer Lee Newby with lighting by Rob. It promises to be quite something, a thrilling evening of theatre even to those who think they know the show well.

Les Misérables plays at The Mack at Mountview in Peckham from November 1-6th.

More details here: [link].

Appearing Online - October 21st

Rob will be appearing on-line as part of Martin Professional’s Learning Sessions series of on-line talks on Wednesday, October 21st.

Rob’s talk is entitled Sitting In The Co-Pilot’s Chair, and explores the relationship between the Lighting Programmer and the Lighting Designer. As he explains, “the lighting programmer’s job is to translate a designer’s vision into the practicalities of console and lots. It is a relationship that is intimate, thrilling and unique - involving the programmer almost getting inside the designer’s head to understand their aim, while at the same time occupying a seat perfectly placed to watch the creation of unique live entertainment events.”

Rob’s work on both sides of this partnership, as lighting programmer for shows such as Les Misérables, Billy Elliot, Miss Saigon, lighting designer for shows such as Giudizio Universale, and sometimes, as on Tree of Codes, filling both roles, gives him a unique perspective on this unique relationship.

The session takes place on Wednesday October 21st at 11am (US Central Time) / 5pm (UK time). You can sign up via the Martin/Harman website: [link].

Rob’s talk is just one of a great series of events organised by Martin. Details all of the events can be found here: [link].

Congratulations, Team Amour

Congratulations to all involved in Amour, the highly acclaimed musical Rob lit last year at the Charing Cross Theatre: the show has been named Best New Musical at the 2020 Offies!

Covering all of the ‘off West End shows’ produced during the year, the awards also recognised the show’s designer, Adrian Gee, who won the Best Costume Design category.

Produced by Danielle Tarento, Amour was directed by Hannah Chissick, choreographed by Matthew Cole, designed by Adrian Gee, with lighting by Rob, sound design by Andrew Johnson and musical direction by Jordan Li-Smith.

Amour: [link]
Amour Gallery: [link]
Offices 2020: [link]

Photographer: Scott Rylander

Playing Now: Betty Blue Eyes

Taking a break from the big secret project overseas, Rob has been back in the UK and has just lit the musical Betty Blue Eyes at Mountview’s new theatre in Peckham, south London.

The show is directed by Bruce Guthrie, for whom Rob lit City of Angels at the Royal Academy of Music last summer, and designed by Loren Elstein with costumes by Jennifer Gregory and sound design by Matt McKenzie.

This production also marks a very particular first: the first time Rob has lit a new production of a show where he was involved in the original production, having served as lighting programmer when the show premiered at the Novello Theatre in 2011.

Mountview’s production is smaller in scale, but arguably greater in charm.

Rob’s work was supported by a great lighting crew (production electrician Jess Pomeroy and her team of Kiri Baildson Smith, Ruth Endersby, Bill Traore, Sofie Mirza and Jahmal Swaby), great programmer (Imogen Clarke), plus Mountview’s team of production manager Davin Patrick, Alex Cann, Andie Dew and Robin Nash - and of course Mountview’s principal, Stephen Jameson, with whom Rob has worked all the way back to the play Groping For Trouts In Peculiar Rivers at the Battersea Arts Centre in 1993.

Betty Blue Eyes is playing now, and runs until Wednesday 12th February.

Betty Blue Eyes: [link]
Images: [link]
Photo: Robert Workman

Giudizio Universale at the V&A!

Last night saw the preview showing of Staging Places: UK Design for Performance at the V&A Museum in London; the exhibition opens to the public today, Wednesday 24th July.

Rob was there last night to celebrate the fact that Giudizio Universale, the immersive show telling the story of Michelangelo and his work at the Sistine Chapel, was selected by the Society of British Theatre Designers to be part of this exhibition, which shows the best of design by British theatre designers over the last four years.

Giudizio sits in good company at the exhibition, but where many of the shows are demonstrated through models and costumes, Giudizio, as is seems perfect for a show led by projection, tells its story through projection, on a wall at the very centre of the exhibition.

“It’s an honour to have the show be part of this display of remarkable work by remarkable people,” Rob comments, “and a great tribute to the remarkable work done by all of the people involved with the show, particularly my co-lighting-designer Bruno Poet, Ric Lipson, Alicia Tkacz and all at Stufish, Luke Halls and all of his team, plus of course our composer John Metclafe, sound designer Mirko Perri, costume designer Giovanna Buzzi, choreographer Fotis Nikolaou, our directors Lulu Hekbek and Marco Balich and everyone who was involved in the show.”

Having already been seen as part of the Prague Quadrennial, Staging Places now runs at the V&A in London until 29th March 2020.

Staging Places at the V&A: [link]
Staging Places website: [link]
Prague Quadrennial: [link]