State Of Grace (The Musical)

This winter saw the opening of an extraordinary multi-national production in a brand new, purpose built theatre in Amsterdam. Mike Mann reports

Business entrepreneur Bert Maas has always wanted to pay tribute to one of Hollywood's most glamorous stars – and he finally realised his ambition this year at the opening of Grace – The Musical in Amsterdam. Having no previous experience in theatre – other than as a paying customer – Maas argues that his lack of personal and professional baggage was an asset to him in the development of the project. "It's very difficult for someone from outside the theatre world – the business has its own language and they all thought I was crazy at first. But because I didn't have to worry about any past relationships or loyalties to people, I could be completely free to choose my team".

The chosen group is as diverse a bunch of talent as has ever been seen working together in a theatre; American award – winning composer Cy Coleman, Dutch playwright Seth Gaaikema, choreographer Patricia Birch (who was responsible for the memorable moves in the original movie Grease) and director Frans Weisz, whose background is entirely in film-making. "I felt that if I approached the musical like everyone else, there would be a thousand people who could do it better than me," he explained. "My goal was to get the best people in the theatre world, and to make it a truly international mix with creative people from America and Europe. The influences of both continents have created something very special."

Having assembled his team, Maas was faced with a problem of location – no suitable theatre space was available for rent to the unknown producer. "There are two theatres in downtown Amsterdam which already had long – running shows in them, and both belonged to Joop van Ende (Holland's biggest theatre impresario). I realised I'd have to build my own," he stated with surprising calm. " I discussed my plans with the Amsterdam planning authority – and they were so enthusiastic that I had a choice of seven locations within a couple of weeks!" Maas used hi unique charm on the city planners and obtained permission for a temporary structure adjacent to the Ajax football stadium in South-East Amsterdam – well away from theatre land, but served by excellent public transport and with parking for 25,000 cars on site!

Realising that there were few, if any, high-class restaurants in the area (and that his target clientele would be less than ecstatic about using the nearby burger stalls!), Maas attached an 800-capacity a la carte restaurant to the new theatre, importing a Belgian chef with two Michelin stars to his credit to run the operation. Meals are preordered from a wide-ranging menu, and are paid for at the time of booking tickets to the show. In fact, on the night, no money need change hands at all – this was one of Maas' pet hates about going to β€˜traditional' theatres. Instead of having to fish around in pockets for change for the cloakroom, programme and interval drinks, they are all included in the fixed ticket price of 125 Guilders (about Β£34). "The idea is that our guests are treated as they would be at the Royal Palace of Monaco, " claims Maas, who has gone further than most to create an all-enveloping theme. The Grace Theatre's foyer is decked out in marble with light provided by crystal chandeliers; outside there is a miniature β€˜harbour' with a couple of resident 1950's wooden speedboats and period cars. Once inside, theatregoers are greeted with a glass of Kir Royal, and are served champagne at the intermission. Even the seating (designed by Peter Donders, who was responsible for the entire interior scheme) is unconventional. " I hate it when you have to sit completely upright in uncomfortable theatre seats, " exclaimed Maas, "so we have sofas, with a lot of leg space (a generous 1.4 metres, to be precise). I could have put 400 more seats into the theatre – but if it's like everything else it's not special enough."

Although the members of the artistic team speak with a mixture of mainland European and American accents, the Grace Theatre has a largely British technical fit-out – though the set was fabricated in Italy by Arte Scenico, the company that provides Italian broadcaster RAI with much of its scenery.

London-based Orbital was appointed as sound supplier, to an in-house design from Dew Mollison. " I visited a lot of sound companies" revealed Maas," and I really feel at home at Orbital. Chris [Headlam, Orbital's managing Director] was very supportive, giving me all kinds of advice – and he realised that this would act as a showcase for his company on the mainland." One of Orbital's first meetings was with interior designer Peter Donders. Donders is a musician himself, and took a keen interest in the audio press. "Strangely, with so much space, size matters – I wanted to integrate the mixing position into the design of the auditorium, but we needed to keep it as small a possible because of the space we required for the sofa seating," he explained. " I asked the Orbital guys where they wanted the console and they said ‘right in the middle of the auditorium' – so that's where it is!"

Once on site, Drew Mollison had to deal with the acoustic problems presented by the new building. "The theatre is built as a two-skin structure along the lines of an industrial building – so we knew from the start that it wasn't ever going to sound like a concert hall. The auditorium is heavily draped and carpeted, but there is a huge void under the raked seating that is largely unused." Having deadened the room itself, Drew incorporated an LCS VRAS virtual acoustics system to allow him to create a more sympathetic ambience. This can be adjusted to suit the setting on stage, giving the designer a large degree of control over speech intelligibility and the fullness of the orchestra sound.

Sound reinforcement for the show itself is based on a d&b system that appears at first to be rather small for the size of room – though this is not a ‘loud' musical, and early tests confirmed the predicted SPLs at every point in the theatre. A centre vocal cluster of two C4 cabinets flanking a single wide-dispersion C7 and MAX downfill (with a trio of C4 subs flown directly above) is bolstered by proscenium left-right systems comprising just two boxes per side (a C7 for the nearfield and a C4 for the further reaches of the audience). D&b C690s and eight small front-fills at stage level provide coverage for the front few rows, and two layers of eight E3 delays are used towards the rear of the 30 metre long auditorium.

The choice of a Yamaha PM-1D digital console for Grace was partly influenced by space restrictions – though this product is rapidly becoming Orbital's mixer of choice, having been used successfully by the company for a little over a year. "The architecture of the PM-1D means that we can split up the inputs," explained Mollison. "There are three input racks (giving 48 lines) in the orchestra pit, two at the radio rack and another in the amp room almost directly underneath the console."

With no outboard units of any kind at the FOH position, Mollison did not need to run audio to this point, other than the standard complement of monitor feeds for the console operator. The show require some 80 scenes from the automation – not too dramatic by West End standards, but with each scene containing (potentially) every control for every input and output, programming was a complex task. Ironically, given the PM-1D's usefulness as a digital distribution system, all outputs are fed straight to the central amp room and radiate out as high-level speaker feeds. "It would have been nice to use the desk's distribution facilities," admitted Mollison, "but with the construction project running late, there was not time to split the system up and run separate feeds to multiple amplifier locations," One possibility was to site the racks next to Stage Electrics' dimmer racks at the top of the flytower, but, with a very limited sound crew, Mollison preferred to have them at a more accessible height!

The generously-proportioned amp room houses the PM-1D's DSP engine, the LCS Matrix 3 racks that form the heart of the VRAS system and the d&b and Crown amplifiers – but during the fit-up period it gained a further occupant. Bernard Maas' typically unconventional solution to a temporary insurance difficulty was to bring four Alsatian guard dogs onto the site – and following a petty theft from the amp room, one of the dogs was stationed there every night. The crew very soon learned not to go in to switch the system on before the dogs had been fed!

Following its opening – on schedule – at the end of October, Grace – The Musical received mixed reviews from the critics. Most, however, missed the point of Bert Maas' ‘gift to the people of Amsterdam'. Grace is not just another musical – it is an attempt to break the theatrical mould and to offer the paying public a better all-round experience – one which is not just limited to the action on stage. "I think I must have broken almost every rule in theatre," laughs the irrepressible Maas, "but this was my dream – and if other people feel the way I do going to the theatre, there's nothing that can stop this being repeated all over the world."