White Light Supplies Rothschild and Sons Musical

Based on the Tony Award-winning musical The Rothschilds (1970), Rothschild and Sons tells the remarkable story of the Rothschild family and how their influence would eventually change the world. It recently opened at London’s Park Theatre and marks the musical’s UK premiere. The lighting designer is Jack Weir and the equipment was supplied by White Light.

Jack comments: “For my design, I worked closely with the director, Jeff B.Moss, who was very keen for characters to appear out of nowhere, with a key sense of darkness constantly surrounding them. Traditionally, a lot of musicals are more suited to the look of vivid and saturated pictures with light beams cutting through haze in the air for sensory excitement. However, this differed slightly with this show due to a back wall”.

The back wall, which was covered entirely in gauze, not only had to disappear when it wasn’t required during the show but also used as a projection surface throughout the show; meaning Jack had to avoid any form of light spill on it, whilst still achieving a sense of backlight to provide depth in each scene. He explains: “By trying to draw attention away from the back wall, alongside a predominately dark costume design, the show ultimately required a muted pallet of pastel colours, playing mostly with the use of black and white. Another practical aspect of my design was, owing to the Park Theatre’s thrust configuration space, there were only three main lighting positions, meaning everything was either on the circle front or overhead”.

To bring his design to life, Jack approached WL, along with SGM, to supply him with the exact equipment he required. He explains: “I drew on a range of SGM units as they were small enough to position on the circle front, meaning that I had a moving light position, with zoom and full colour control in front of stage. This proved vital for cross lighting the cast in scenes which used full floor and wall projection. They also deliver a brilliant white, which nicely matched the look and feel of the video design by Louise Rhodes-Brown”.

Jack also drew on the ETC Source 4 Lustr 2s and the Philips VL1100s. He adds: “The VL1100s are in constant use throughout the show, either as specials to define areas on the stage with the framing and diffusion features or as gobo washes. The Lustrs provided  a huge amount of pastel colour in a position which is as close to crosslight as I could get; particularly the minty green hue used in the number ‘Everything’. I also drew on an old favourite, the MAC TW1, which are still my favourite fixture and provided an invaluable injection of warm tungsten light in a defined and controlled way”.

The show has now opened and will run until 17^th February.

Jack comments: “This is a really great show and I’m proud of the look we’ve managed to achieve. I’d like to thank SGM for their generous support of this production. I’d also like to thank WL’s Jonathan Haynes and Jim Dewhurst for their continued support, not only when delivering the kit but throughout the entire production period”.

Follow Jack on Twitter – @weirdLX

Photos courtesy of Pamela Raith.