Billy: Back In Japan

Rob is delighted to be back in Japan - and back for real, not just virtually! - where he is re-mounting the musical Billy Elliot for its 2024 season.

Rob has a long association with this show, back to the 2011 US Tour; he has since re-created Rick Fisher’s design in Holland, for the UK tour and in Japan and Korea, as well as moving the original London production to a new lighting control system along the way.

The Japanese production first appeared in 2017; it was re-mounted in 2020, but in the height of the Covid travel restrictions that was one of the three productions Rob worked on remotely from London, alongside Waitress (also in Japan) and Billy Elliot in Seoul.

This new production, in a new theatre - Tokyo’s Brilliant Hall in Ikebukuru - continues the gentle evolution and upgrading of the rig, this time replacing the ETC Revolutions with Martin Encore fixtures. The big Vari-Lite VL3500s and VL3000 Washes that have been part of the show since it began remain in place, however; the rig is supplied by PRG.

The Billy Tokyo lighting team includes a number of old friends from previous productions in Japan, including Mata Hari and Waitress, led by Yuta Watanabe, with Sonoko Ishii interpreting.

Billy Elliot previews in Tokyo from July 27th, and opens on August 2nd; it will also play a season in Osaka later in the year.

(Billy Elliot is also the subject of the last interview, with the lighting team that made and now re-makes the show, in the new book Theatre Lighting Design: Conversations on the Art, Craft and Life, to be published by Methuen-Bloomsbury on July 25th but available to pre-order now!)

Billy Elliot Tokyo: {link}
The Book! {link}

Death Drop Takes To The Road

Death Drop, one of the shows which played in London during the various early stages of unlocking last year and earlier this year, has now hit the road so that all of the UK can enjoy this unique drag murder mystery…

Rob was delighted to work once again with lighting designer Jack Weir, re-creating and programming the show lighting for him at the first stop on the tour in Southend with a compressed version of the set, then programming at the second stop in Salford as the show stepped back up to its full design.

The show is now making its way around the UK. Full details can be found here: [link].

Long Range Lighting, Again...

A year on from re-creating Billy Elliot in Japan remotely, five months on from programming Waitress in Japan remotely, Rob is remote-re-lighting and remote-programming again - this time for Billy Elliot in Korea.

Remote lighting plans were put in place for this production at a point when travel into Seoul from the UK was not allowed. Even as that became possible (with two week quarantining), Rob decided to continue to work remotely because of the uncertainty surrounding international travel. Lovely as Seoul is, it would be unfortunate to be there and have the rules change so you weren’t allowed home…

The remote working system Rob has designed is a refinement from that used for Waitress, with two video feeds offering the best balance between image quality and low latency, and then a working set-up that includes a large monitor for stage view, and an Eos Ti console connected to the Korean console via theBRIDGE networking system. Considerable care was taken with camera specification and, particularly, colour camera set-up to give the best possible representation of the stage to those working from afar. As before the only drawback is a crazy work schedule: a Korean working day maps to a 1am-2pm day in the UK.

The other different this time is that the lighting designer, Rick Fisher, will get to be in the theatre once he is allowed out of quarantine - so there will be ‘eyes in the room’ and so an ability to make real, useful comparisons between the on-stage image and the on-camera image.

Technical rehearsals for Billy Elliot in Korea begin today; the show previews from August 31st, and opens on September 5th.

Remote Lighting at Virtual Showlight 2021: [link]

Long-Range Socially Distanced Lighting

Rob was supposed to have spent some of this summer in Tokyo, working on the return of the Japanese production of Billy Elliot, returning for a season after its 2017 debut in the country.

Understandably, he is not there - but the production is moving ahead, having loaded in to the theatre this week, with technical rehearsals getting underway now.

However both Rob and lighting designer Rick Fisher are helping out with some ‘socially distanced’ lighting - distanced by 6000 miles!

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, it had been agreed to make some changes to update the lighting rig, with VL2600 LED fixtures replacing some of the previous TW1 and Revolution fixtures. Though the Japanese lighting team were familiar with the show having worked on the 2017 production, to give them the best possible start with the new lights Rob set up a mini-rig of the old lights next to the new lights in London. This allowed him to match the look of the new (in terms of colour, beam, edge and position) to the look of the old. At the same time, he created a virtual model of the rig in the Augment3D visualiser that is now built into the Eos-family consoles the show uses. The showfile was then transferred across to Tokyo, ready to go.

There is now a running communication between the Japanese lighting team led by Yuta Watanabe, via the wonderful interpreter Sonoko Ishii, swapping information, ideas, pictures, suggestions and reminders that it’s time to be done for the day and to adjourn for socially distanced drinks.

This remote lighting is alongside the remote work involved in getting the rest of the production on, which has seen rehearsals in Tokyo led by a director via Zoom from England and a choreographer via Zoom from Australia.

Billy Elliot opens in Tokyo at the end of September, playing a season there before moving to Osaka.

Show Updates in Macau

In the run-up to Christmas, Rob could be found in Macau - lighting a tree (and a dragon!).

Rob was there on behalf of Woodroffe Basset Design, working with Ptarmigan Integration  to update the lighting equipment on this now ten year old attraction within the rotunda of the Wynn Macau hotel. Two shows an hour are presented, the first the Tree of Prosperity, which appears from the basement and then transforms through four seasons by the magic of light, the second the more dramatic Dragon of Fortune. 

Originally lit with a combination of Source Four fixtures fitted with Seachanger colour changers and Martin Mac700 fixtures, the lighting rig has now been updated  to use ETC Source Four Lustr2s, Robe DL4 moving lights, Gantom miniature LED spotlights and LED cove lighting from Philips, replacing the original cold cathode system. The updates were completed by a new ETC Gio control system. 

This meant that Rob had to take the original showfile from an ETC Congo showfile, translate it into Eos format, then in advance of the time in Macau carefully match colours and beam parameters from the old fixture types to the new fixture types to give a good base translation of the show. The design was then evolved on site working with lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by the new lighting fixtures - in particular the ability to do long, slow colour fades in the half hour period between each show, all without having to worry about mechanical failures in the colour change systems. 

In addition, Rob had to integrate the lighting system with the new Navigator show control system being installed at the same time by Tait, including feedback systems so that show control can check lighting is alive and responding correctly before running a show. Rob also provided training for the Wynn team, and comprehensive show documentation using his FocusTrack show documentation system, to allow them to precisely maintain the show.

Rob worked alongside a team from Ptarmigan Integration, led by Leslie Yau and Tim Wong, the team from Tait led by Andew Penney and Mike Sharp, and the Wynn Macau team led by Simon Yung. 

The updated show began playing in late December.

Wynn Macau: Tree of Prosperity [link], Dragon of Fortune [link]
Woodroffe Bassett Design: [link]
Ptarmigan Integration: [link]
Tait: [link]

Billy Japan: Playing Now

Billy Elliot opened in Japan on Tuesday 25th July, to a tremendous reception for what is a really fantastic production of the show.

Rob worked as the Associate Lighting Designer and Lighting Programmer on the show, carrying out all of the pre-production design and planning work, then working with Lighting Designer Rick Fisher in Tokyo to get the show up-and-running. This is the fifth version of Billy Rob has worked on, having also been involved with the last US tour, the London production, the Dutch production and the UK tour, which recently ended a hugely successful year with a short season in Hamburg.

The Japanese production used a rig evolved from that designed for the UK tour, which replaced all of the traditional Source Four-plus-scroller colour changers with ETC Source Four Series2 Lustr LED fixtures. The Japanese production took another step into the world of LED lighting, with Martin Mac Auras replacing the previous Vari-Lite VL2000 Wash fixtures.

Rob and Rick were supported in Japan by a fantastic lighting team (Oshima-sam, Yuta, Katsu, Miwa, Anarin, Mari, Eiji and Takayama-san), a wonderful stage manager (Toku-san), a great production manager (Kanai-san), the wonderful producing team at HoriPro, and a brilliant translator, the wonderful Sonoko.

Billy Elliot plays at the ACT Theatre in Akasaka, Tokyo, until October before transferring to Osaka for a short season there.

[link]

Heading East...

With Storyhouse successfully open and its first three shows up and running, Rob has now headed east, to Tokyo, for the new Japanese production of Billy Elliot.

Rob is the Associate Lighting Designer and Lighting Programmer for the show, working alongside Lighting Designer Rick Fisher. Rob has previously served the same role on Billy’s last US tour, the Dutch production, and the current UK tour which is about to set off to Germany to play a season in Hamburg. He also adapted the original production from Strand to ETC lighting control during its long run in London.

Produced by HoriPro, Billy Elliot opens at the Akasaka ACT Theatre in Tokyo in late July and plays there until the autumn before transferring to Osaka. 

[link]