November saw another major musical coming to the Dutch stage, as Wicked premières at the Circustheater in Scheveningen. The show is based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and book by Winnie Holzman. This is the third foreign language production that sound designer Tony Meola and associate sound designer Kai Harada have embarked on – tackling a tricky venue in the round.

The Spin caught up with Kai Harada in the run-up to the opening, as Orbital adds Wicked to its sound credentials for the first time – supplying the a portion of the sound equipment for this spectacular musical production. We asked him about the background to the show.

"This is a really exciting production, with a very strong international cast that includes the original "green witch" from the German show – Willemijn Verkaik. Although a fluent German speaker, Willemijn is Dutch and so the perfect choice to reprise her brilliant role as Elpheba – she is effectively coming home!

"The Circustheater is a challenge – with a circular seating area, it presents a number of acoustic difficulties, but we are working closely with the theatre management to improve it while at the same time optimising our system to the challenges of the space." The sound design focuses on delivering a very natural sound, giving the illusion that the sound is coming from the performers on stage rather than via loudspeakers. The show combines a blend of many different musical styles – mixing rock numbers, pop and ballads to create a contemporary musical against a 19th century background, performed by an orchestra of fourteen. It has proved to be hugely successful with audiences around the world, and there appears to be huge enthusiasm for it here in the Netherlands as well."

From an audio perspective, Wicked exemplifies Tony Meola's approach to sound design, which is at all times to help tell the story, focusing on the audibility of the lyrics, combined with a natural, dynamic design with a very big range:
"Telling the story in Dutch is definitely a challenge for this non-Dutch speaker. We rely heavily on our Netherlands crew to help us through it!"

The sound system for the Circustheater deploys Meyer Sound line array systems comprised of M1Ds and M2Ds, a Cadac J-Type Live Production Console, 40 Sennheiser SK-5012 and EM-3532 receivers, and a comprehensive selection of other Meyer Sound loudspeakers. The sound system is processed via five Meyer Galileo processors; sound effects are played back via Akai samplers, and Lexicon processors are used for some of the other-worldly effects.

Orbital provided much of the surround system-- already in place for the previous show, Mary Poppins, as well as the Roland orchestra pit monitoring system, some cabling infrastructure, and intercom/video equipment. The balance of the equipment came from the Stage Entertainment Germany production of the show.

This production of Wicked
"Wicked was a remarkably smooth production process for such a complex technical show and also a totally different undertaking compared with our other major show, Miss Saigon, which opened just over a month before this one. The most complex element was how to bring together a number of elements and make it all work – which is where Orbital did a great job. Some of the equipment came over from Germany, complete with German labelling, the technical team comprised a mix of English and Dutch staff, and our sound designer, Tony Meola, is American. It all came together extremely well, opening on 6th November."

A Meyer Aside:

The Meyer Sound M1D ultracompact curvilinear array loudspeaker brings the singular advantages of self-powered line arrays to sound reinforcement applications in small and mid-sized venues. The exceptionally compact enclosure enables sound designers to achieve high output, precise pattern control with very low distortion from a lightweight and unobtrusive system. The M1D provides a substantial peak SPL of 125 dB at 1 meter with an operating frequency range of 60 Hz to 18 kHz and is designed specifically for implementing vertical curvilinear arrays of up to 16 cabinets having 0- to 8-degree splay between adjacent units. This design affords the flexibility to tailor vertical coverage by varying the number and splay of cabinets in the array while maintaining a consistent 100° horizontal coverage.

The Meyer Sound M2D is designed specifically for vertical curvilinear arrays of up to 16 cabinets having 0- to 7-degree splay between adjacent units. Pioneered by Meyer Sound in the early 1980s, horizontal curvilinear arrays composed of trapezoidal cabinets have been an industry standard for decades. The M2D extends the concept to vertical arraying, enabling flexibility to tailor vertical coverage by varying the number and splay of cabinets in the array while maintaining a constant 90 degrees of horizontal coverage.