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Exploring the boundaries between classical opera and popular musical theatre, English National Opera are mounting the first-ever London revival of the original 'New York, New York' musical, Leonard Bernstein's On The Town. Directed by Jude Kelly and choreographed by Stephen Mear - joint winner of this year's Best Choreography Olivier Award for his work on Mary Poppins - the production will play just seventeen performances at ENO's home, the London Coliseum, between March 5th and May 24th. Fitting a full-scale musical into ENO's already-busy rep meant that lighting designer Mark Henderson and ENO's head of lighting Kevin Sleep decided to add some additional automated lighting equipment to complement the automated Robert Juliat 2.5kW PCs in Licht Technik yokes that were added to the rig as part of the Coliseum's spectacular refurbishment in 2003/2004. Continuing the long relationship between White Light and ENO - White Light supplied the Juliat/Licht Technik units, has a long history of supporting the Coliseum's lighting control systems, and also supplied the moving lights to the company's production of The Handmaid's Tale in 2003 - and between White Light and Mark Henderson, White Light have now supplied the production with eight Vari-Lite VL2000 Spots and eight High End StudioBeam washlights. White Light have also supplied a Strand 530i lighting console to ENO; this is being used as a remote console connected to the theatre's existing Strand control system, allowing their operators to program the show from the auditorium rather than the lighting control room. Combining leading players from the world's of musical theatre and opera, with a cast including Adam Garcia, Caroline O'Connor and Willard White, the show is being designed by Robert Jones with lighting by Mark Henderson, direction by Jude Kelly and choreography by Stephen Mear - the show therefore also marking the continuation of another long-standing relationship, between White Light and Stephen Mear who choreographed Dancing with Light, the production that launched White Light's automated lighting division The Moving Light Company at the 1994 PLASA Show. On The Town joins many other shows in London's West End using White Light equipment, these including The Producers, The Woman In White, Chicago, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Les Miserables; the moving light equipment will also be used on ENO's production of Wagner's Twilight of the Gods, which plays in rep with On The Town. A full listing of shows using White Light equipment, can be found here; details of the full range of services offered by White Light can be found elsewhere on this website.
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