Meyer Sound at Heart of TONY-Nominated Productions
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With the curtain of the TONY Awards show set to rise on June 13, spirits are high among the Broadway talent behind this year's nominated musicals and plays. Meyer Sound systems are heard in an impressive list of productions that will be honored at the ceremony, including Come Fly Away, Million Dollar Quartet, American Idiot, and A Little Night Music. An all-star cast of sound designers highlights the systems' clarity and seamless show control capabilities as key creative instruments that help to turn design concepts into an emotionally charged spectacle. Reproducing the voices of Angela Lansbury, Barbara Cook, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Vanessa Williams was the responsibility of Dan Moses Schreier, recipient of two Best Sound Design nominations for A Little Night Music and Sondheim on Sondheim. "Both shows have legendary voices and it was a tremendous honor and a huge responsibility to make the shows sound as good as possible," says Schreier. "Meyer Sound systems' intelligibility combined with Galileo processing allowed me to ensure the audience can follow the shows' wonderful imagery through the lyrics." In Come Fly Away, sound designer Peter McBoyle blended extracted vocals from Frank Sinatra with a live onstage band and vocalist to create a romantic "dancical." "Come Fly Away is a cross between listening to a classic Sinatra CD and hearing him in concert, and this made the flexible Matrix3 with CueConsole a perfect choice," says McBoyle. "The Sinatra vocals are all played back from the integrated Wild Tracks, which is the most robust hard drive playback system available for theatre." For Brian Ronan, sound designer for Best Musical nominee American Idiot, the priority was to deliver the power of a Green Day concert while satisfying the directorial demands of telling an intimate story to the audience. "Meyer Sound M'elodie (line array loudspeaker) was an obvious choice for me as I needed to rely on its vocal punch in the mid range, while helping the singer-dancers project the lyrics with clarity," adds Ronan. Meyer Sound loudspeakers and Galileo loudspeaker management system were selected for handling the complex musical dynamics in triple-nominee Million Dollar Quartet. "The show is based on an actual jam session," says sound designer Kai Harada. "Its dialogue scenes, a cappella, acoustic, rock-and-roll songs, and big concert-style finale made it critical to have a system that could provide consistent linearity over different sound levels while still preserving the organic performances of the musicians on stage." Peter Hylenski was the sound designer for Lend Me a Tenor, nominee for Best Revival of a Play. "Each of Meyer Sound's products comes with the confidence of a great sounding loudspeaker," says Hylenski. "It's important for designers that we have the ability to choose the right tool for the job without compromising audio quality." In addition to Come Fly Away, Million Dollar Quartet, and Lend me a Tenor, Production Resource Group (PRG) also provided Meyer Sound loudspeakers for Promises Promises (Sound design: Brian Ronan) and a CueConsole modular control surface for La Cage aux Folles (Sound design: Jonathan Deans), both TONY nominees this year. Masque Sound was the provider for American Idiot and Addams Family (Sound design: Acme Sound Partners). The systems for Sondheim on Sondheim and A Little Night Music were supplied by Sound Associates. Winners of the 2010 TONY Awards will be revealed on June 13 at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. For a full list of nominees, please visit: www.tonyawards.com
June, 2010 |
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