The name Big League Productions (BLP) Inc is synonymous with some of the highest profile touring productions in recent years, with credits including the 30th anniversary national tour of Ain't Misbehavin' starring "American Idol" winner Ruben Studdard and the first national tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, together with Guys and Dolls and My Fair Lady. The company's 25-year track record is based on staging Broadway-standard shows on the short-stay city circuit, typically touring on a 1- to 2-night basis in each venue.

The focus of BLP's executive producer Dan Sher has been consistently to elevate the standard of the "compact" show, raising the bar of what constitutes a touring production. As the Orbital Sound team set out on the road with two of BLP's current productions, The Spin sat down with Dan to find out more about his latest dream ticket - the exciting new staging of Dreamgirls.

Dan worked closely with director and choreographer Bobby Longbottom, to oversee the creation of a compact touring version of the recent Dreamgirls revival that was developed in Korea and subsequently toured to large US markets, together with set designer Robin Wagner and original costumer designer William Ivey Long. Dan explains:

This is an incredibly exciting show for us and represents the pinnacle of what we are trying to achieve with the compact show format. It's an extremely complex multimedia production, setting an amazingly high standard on every level. We have been privileged to benefit from all the expertise of the original team, with the exception of the sound design, which is completely new. We worked together to adapt the original production, in what is a very complicated and high tech show – as a timeline piece, it is fast-paced with lots of storytelling and rapid costume changes in between the big numbers."

The show's logistics are impressive, involving a cast of 25 and four tightly-packed trucks. As an example, one of the leads, Dina, changes costumes and wigs sixteen times within one performance! Simply getting from venue to venue can be a challenge in itself, with the tour even making its way to Anchorage in Alaska – involving a one-week truck drive there and back to the States through Canada. The tour schedule spans a total of 21 weeks, ending up on another continent – in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan.

At the heart of the sound system, designed by Matt Geasey and Mike Tracey, is the d&b audiotechnik V-Series speaker system, which was chosen for its power, clarity and compact size, complemented by a state of the art Yamaha CL5 mixing console. Among the many venues on the touring schedule is one that is notorious for unfavourable acoustics – the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City Utah. It's very rare for the venue directors to be totally satisfied with the touring systems passing through, but Dreamgirls was the exception. It got rave revues – thanks in no small part to the V-Series' sound and some great mixing on the CL5 from the tour's sound operator Tim Riggs.

Dan continues:
"The sound design is absolutely key and had to live up to the standard set by other Tony Award-winning designers. Getting the vocals delivered clearly from venue to venue is essential and a big challenge. We have had some great feedback from some of the nation's most difficult venues, which underlines just what a great job Matt Geasey has done, alongside the touring sound operator Tim Riggs, whose mixing is phenomenal.

"When it came to deciding on how to handle the equipment side of the tour, we had some hard decisions to make – especially as we really wanted to use some very smart technology given the scale of the tour. With the amount of lighting and video synch required, it was also obvious that the back-up element would be an essential part in making the show run smoothly. Jim Shearing is someone I have known and respected for a very long time, and when he told me that he was opening a famous sound shop here in the US, I couldn't believe the timing.

"It has been a particularly exciting combination - Orbital has worked incredibly hard, making the pricing work for us to have the first-rate equipment we wanted, matched by outstanding support. All the gear is holding up really well, as we hit the mid-point in the schedule, with the climax involving a 5-week run in Japan in August. This really is a dream production for us – from the creative, technical and professional perspectives. It is probably the most ambitious show Big League Productions has staged to date for the smaller markets, and we believe that Dreamgirls is showing the full national industry what a quality tour should be all about."

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The Salt Lake Tribune Review:
‘Dreamgirls' stuns with gritty, glitzy R&B soundtrack …. the touring national musical playing at Capitol Theatre is sensational …..