One of the successful Australian movies of all time is now a dazzling musical spectacular playing at the Lyric Theatre, Star City, in Sydney.
Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert: The Musical features a bus-load of outrageous costumes and over-the-top production numbers
The creative team bringing Priscilla to the stage includes writers Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott, acclaimed theatre and opera director Simon Phillips, Tony Award-winning set designer Brian Thomson, costume designers Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel, lighting designer Nick Schlieper and choreographer Ross Coleman.
Essential to Act 1 is the AC Lighting Chroma-QColor Web from Jands that is used as a backdrop along with other scenic elements such as a neon Sydney Harbour Bridge and a slash curtain.
The ColorWeb is used in a delicate way to begin with before bursting into colour towards the end of the Act for the song Go West.
Two layers of Color Web are used to double the resolution of the effect; the spacing between LED pixels on the web in 250mm and so by doubling up and offsetting it was reduced to 125mm.
The web is essentially the size of the proscenium with an arc removed at the bottom to allow the famous bus to drive through. It is hung amongst three layers of a full size black flitter curtain which means that when the web isn't in use it virtually disappears into the flitter, not revealing itself until an image is fed into it.
The web was controlled from a Martin Maxedia Media Server and required something like 20 streams of DMX. The Maxedia was programmed by Chris Twyman, Nick Schlieper’s associate, and between them they conjured up some effective images particularly during the song Go West.
“To have something that gives you such a variable background and then allows you to do a gag such as write ‘Go West’ every time the phrase is sung is a great tool,” said Nick.
Lighting was supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems.
