Expanding on his design at the Lyttelton Theatre, Fisher's rig will include around sixty ETC Source Fours, four 5kW fresnels fitted with scrollers, 20 PAR cans, ten Strand Alto PCs, 16 Cantata PCs, four Strand Beamlights and twenty Birdies. White Light will also supply two MDG Atmosphere haze machines, two Le Maitre LSG low smoke machines, four Smoke Factory Data smoke machines and the 24" mirror ball called for by the show's co-author and director following his comment that "a show with no mirrorball is a seminar!"
The Moving Light Company will supply an expanded rig of automated lanterns, including twenty-one High End StudioColors, thirteen Vari-Lite VL2000 Wash units, two VL1000s and the full range of moving light products from DHA Lighting: Pitching Digital Light Curtains, standard Digital Light Curtains and Digital Beamlights. The Moving Light Company will also supply eleven StudioColors fitted with the tungsten Indy lamp to give Fisher the tungsten, colour-mixing lightsource he was seeking, and with twenty-one VL3000 Spots - these units being added to MLC's stock for Jerry Springer.
Control will be from a Strand 500-series console, as used on the show in Edinburgh and at the National. It will be programmed once again by Vic Smerdon, while Martin Chisnall joins the show as production electrician.
Charting a day in the life of American daytime TV pundit Jerry Springer that sees him shot and then taken down to hell to host a debate between the devil and Jesus, Jerry Springer: The Opera was written by Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee. It first appeared at the Battersea Arts Centre in London before being expanded for the Edinburgh Festival in 2002. From there the National Theatre's new artistic director, Nicholas Hytner, brought it to the National where it opened to rave reviews earlier this year. The show has twice had its National run extended, and plays there until the end of September. Its first performance at the Cambridge Theatre will be on October 14th.
Jerry Springer: The Opera is produced by Avalon Promotions and Allan McKeown, with the show directed by Richard Thomas, designed by Julian Crouch with lighting by Rick Fisher and sound by Mike Walker. Further information about the show can be found at www.jerryspringertheopera.com.
Jerry Springer is just one of the many musicals being supplied by White Light this autumn, including Mamma Mia in Holland and another West End transfer from the National Theatre, Anything Goes.