Kicking off the season is the London production of the acclaimed Broadway 'dance musical', Contact. Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, the acclaimed director and/or choreographer of shows including the National Theatre's Oklahoma! and the smash-hit Broadway musical The Producers, the show has played on Broadway to enormous critical and popular success for the last three years. As in New York, the London production will be lit by Peter Kaczorowski, who last worked with White Light on Kiss Me Kate at the Victoria Palace. Kaczorowski, the Tony Award winner in 2001 for his lighting of The Producers, is being re-united with his London Kiss Me Kate team, including production electrician Simon Needle and White Light's Jason Larcombe, who is serving as assistant lighting designer; Stewart Crosbie is the show's production manager. Contact is at the Queens Theatre.
At the same time, White Light is supplying rigs to tours of Travels with my Aunt, lit by Nick Richings, Calamity Jane lit by James Whiteside, Buddy lit once again by Graham McLusky (13 years after White Light supplied the rig to the original production at the Victoria Palace in 1989), and the new West End productions of Afterplay at the Gielgud, lit by Mick Hughes; Damsels in Distress at the Duchess, also lit by Mick Hughes; Romeo and Juliet at the Piccadilly lit by Chris Davey; Our House at the Cambridge, lit by Mark Henderson and Derevo transferring to the Riverside Studios after winning a Fringe First award in Edinburgh. Ongoing hires include The Lieutenant of Inishmore, My Fair Lady, Chitty Chitty Bang, Chicago, The Full Monty and Taboo, while later in the year the West End will see the return of a favourite from last year, The Play What I Wrote.
Non-theatre work has also increased for White Light and the new events division, White Light Events. Current or recent projects include the Labour Party Conference, London Fashion Week, Strongbow Cider tour, Church of Scientology plus confirmation of over thirty corporate parties over the Christmas period.
In the meantime White Light and The Moving Light Company are also supplying the rig to the new musical 125th Street at the Shaftesbury Theatre, where lighting designer Joe Atkins is using a Compulite Spark console to control a rig of Martin Mac500 and Mac600 automated lights. The showís production electrician is, again, Simon Needle, with David Gregory as production manager.
Full details of shows using equipment from White Light and The Moving Light Company can be found here on the website.