White Light supplies lighting rig for Hello, Dolly! West End revival

Having first being performed on Broadway in 1964, in a production which won ten Tony Awards, Hello, Dolly! is the classic Jerry Herman musical about Dolly Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker who travels to New York to find a match for the miserly, unmarried Horace Vandergelder. It has been revived countless times over the years, having first arrived in the West End in 1965. Now, almost sixty years on, a new production has recently opened at the London Palladium, directed by Dominic Cooke and starring Imelda Staunton. It also features a lighting design by the Olivier Award-winning Jon Clark who approached White Light (WL) – a d&b solutions company, to supply his lighting rig.

This latest production of Hello, Dolly! has been several years in the making. Initially intended to open in July 2020, it was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and has only reached this summer the London stage. Talking about his role on the show, Jon comments: “Surprisingly, I’d never actually seen any previous reincarnations of Hello, Dolly!. As such, this meant I could approach this production with a fresh pair of eyes and almost treat it as a brand-new show; albeit one filled with classic showtunes which were immediately familiar! When discussing the look and feel of the piece initially, Dominic, the director, was really interested in exploring the notion of momentum. Dolly is a widow, tentatively returning to the real world, following the death of her husband. Each protagonist is essentially on a journey and looking to move forwards in life. As such, this theme of momentum informed the visual aspects of the production too.

He continues: “The set features a travellator which occupies the full width of the Palladium stage and is seamlessly integrated into the choreography and movement of the musical. There is also a large, high definition LED screen upstage, with images scrolling across the screen that are synchronised with the travellator; reinforcing this sense of movement. I collaborated closely with set designer Rae Smith and video designer Finn Ross and, between us, found a language with which to blend the three dimensional world onstage with Finn’s brilliant kinetic photographic collage on the screen. This is an old musical which we’re bringing to a new audience. As such, it’s packed with amazing numbers and so the lighting needed to make these moments feel as emphatic as possible. That said, the overall approach was to keep the lighting strong but simple – to celebrate the colours and forms of Rae’s fantastic costume and set design”.

Knowing what he wanted to achieve with his lighting design, Jon contacted WL and worked with the Hire Department to choose his fixtures. He explains: “I wanted to contrast the exterior world, backed by the LED screen and largely lit with LED lighting fixtures, against some warmer and more human, tungsten sources. As a result, a large portion of the rig is made up of an overhead grid of Par 64s interspersed with Martin MAC TW1s. We drew on 58 x TW1s in total; overhead and on the lighting ladders at the side of the stage. The tungsten bring a thickness and warmth, whilst the overhead Pars come to life in Act Two for the iconic Harmonia Garden restaurant scene, especially for Bill Deamer’s breath-taking choreography for ‘The Waiter’s Gallop’.

He adds: “We also drew on ETC Halcyon Titaniums, Martin MAC Encore CLDs and WRMs FOH and overhead, with four overhead bars of Chauvet COLORado PXL Bars and GLP XBar 20s; the latter used mostly for the wider external scenes which provided a comprehensive base to fill the negative space”.

Jon concludes: “The response from the audience has also been fantastic and I’m very proud of this show and everyone involved. It was a huge honour to light such a significant musical in such an iconic venue. We had a stellar lighting team, led by Production Electrician Ben Nichols, Associate LD Lucia Sanchez Rondan and Programmer Vic Brennan. The Palladium’s lighting department led by Mark Smith were first class and really made us incredibly welcome. When lighting a show like this, it’s not necessarily a case of defaulting to the very latest equipment but rather drawing on what is most suitable for the production. I am delighted to say that once again, Stuart Porter, Louise Houlihan and the WL Hire Department played a huge part in successfully achieving exactly that”.

Hello, Dolly! opened earlier this summer at the London Palladium and ran until 14th September.

Photo courtesy of Hello Dolly © Manuel Harlan.