White Light Supply The Lighting Equipment for the London production of the hit Broadway musical Rent

White Light have been awarded the contract to supply the lighting equipment to the London production of the hit Broadway musical Rent., which opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre on May 12th.

A modern-day adaptation of La Bohemé set in New York's East Village, Rent entered Broadway legend when its composer, Jonathan Larson, died suddenly before the show's first preview. It quickly transferred from the off-Broadway New York Festival Theatre to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre, and subsequently received the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards.

The lighting for the London production of the Rent is being designed by Blake Burba, who received a Tony Award nomination for his work on show in New York. Uniquely amongst recent large-scale musicals, his rig is formed almost entirely from conventional equipment: 134 ETC Source 4s, including 5, 10, 19, 26 and 36 degree units, around 186 PAR cans, 18 Raylights, 7 L&E M16 battens and 55 Wybron Coloram scrollers, along with two Robert Juliat Aramis followspots. Extra effects are created using 20 sparkle strobes, 2 fuzz lights and an MDG Atmosphere haze machine.

The one moving light in the show, a Martin MAC500 spot, is only used to imitate a followspot on an upstage balcony that the conventional followspots can't reach - at least, that's its only use so far! The MAC is being supplied by The Moving Light Company.

Control for the lighting rig is from an ETC Obsession 1500 console with tracking backup. Co-incidentally, the console supplied to the production is already familiar to the staff of the Shaftesbury Theatre since it was used to control the lighting equipment supplied by White Light for the musical Tommy at the same venue.

The lighting rig for the London production of Rent is being installed by a team led by Production Electrician Simon Needle, Production Manager Bill Wardroper and the General Manager is Matthew Gale for Triumph Proscenium Management Ltd

Rent continues the hectic pace of 1998 for White Light. The company have already supplied equipment to Saturday Night Fever at the Palladium, the Olivier-award winning production of Closer at the Lyric Theatre and New Edna: The Spectacle, which has recently arrived at the Haymarket Theatre after a UK tour. These shows will shortly be joined by Sweet Charity at the Victoria Palace Theatre.


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