JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Written by British author Ben Elton in conjunction with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, We Will Rock You has played London, Tokyo, Moscow and many other cities around the world. Six main cast members backed by a sizable ensemble, a live band, sets that change in seconds, synched video, sound effects, more than 200 lighting cues, and an equipment list more than three pages long give the show sizable technical scope. Prosound's Mark Malherbe, who designed the sound system for the show's South African run, says, "Originally, there was an existing center cluster kit in the theatre, so the system requirements specified a different line array system to go with it. However, we knew we required better speech intelligibility than it could deliver. That, factored with the convenience of a powered system that we could set up much quicker, since it was basically going to be used as a 'touring package' after these show dates, helped us decide on Meyer."
The system was anchored by flown left and right arrays of eight MICA compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers, each supplemented by two groundstacked 700-HP subwoofers. The center cluster, which provides fill to spots in the building where coverage is difficult, features four CQ-1 wide coverage main loudspeakers and five CQ-2 narrow coverage main loudspeakers, with four more 700-HP cabinets under the stage for added low-end. Frontfill comes from six UPM-1P loudspeakers and seven UPA-2P narrow coverage loudspeakers, with sub-bass for the upper balcony supplied by two flown M3D-Sub directional subwoofers. An LD-3 compensating line driver is used for system processing and drive, while the singers keep in synch with the help of six legacy, traditionally powered UM-1C UltraMonitors.
Using the original plot as a base, Malherbe employed Meyer Sound's MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction software to do a quick redesign of the left and right clusters.
After Johannesburg, We Will Rock You also played in Cape Town and Durban before finishing its South African run. Productions continue running in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Portugal and Zurich, in addition to the original production in London, which was scheduled to close in October but then was extended indefinitely. In early 2007, a new production opens at Toronto, Canada's Canon Theatre.
More information is available at www.meyersound.com.
