LONDON – The musical Never Forget opened at The Savoy Theatre last week to an enthusiastic reception from Take That fans, and features sound design by Richard Brooker centered around an all-Cadac input chain. The sound system incorporates a 94-input Cadac J-Type Live Production Console, Cadac D16 Digital Mix Matrices and M16 Remote Controlled Microphone Amplifiers, plus a large-scale Opus Audio loudspeaker rig. The show made its move to the West End after a successful two-part UK tour, with sound equipment supplied by Blitz, and production engineering by Loh Humm Audio's Mark Cornwell.
Charting the mixed fortunes of a tribute band, Never Forget is a high-energy show with some spectacular effects, written by Danny Brocklehurst, and produced by Tristan Baker, Bronia Buchanan, Charlie Parsons and Jason Haigh-Ellery. While the sound design is essentially an evolution of the original tour concept, Richard was faced with a number of challenges at The Savoy, as he explains:
"It's a difficult theatre in many respects, with a very narrow proscenium that acts just like a horn, and highly reflective silver leaf walls all around. The first problem was what to do with the main PA system – the proscenium goes all the way to the auditorium wall. After a lot of head scratching, we came up with the idea of putting a stack of two Opus AT1000 and two Opus SB218 subs on each side of the proscenium, giving us the power and coverage we need. We had proved the system out on tour, and given the very short load-in for the West End opening, it came together really well. This was largely thanks to the excellent job done by Loh Humm Audio and some great creative ideas from Opus. We even ended up taking the ISO6 ribbon HF units out of the cabinets and put them onto special plates to touch in the highs in the rear of the stalls – a hunch that worked really well.
"The show demands a big system – it has a lot of powerful numbers, interspersed with intimate dialogue, and my challenge was getting the balance right. I am using an all-Cadac input chain, with the M16s as the front end, D16s for the band monitoring and J-Type front of house, providing a pure signal path into the Opus system. The Cadac/Opus Audio combination works brilliantly together – giving a perfect blend of quality and precision."
The J-Type has been configured to save the maximum amount of space in the FOH position at the back of the stalls, leaving the main 60-slot frame accessible for the day-to-day operation of the show and the side frame with only the necessary inputs easily accessible. The intimate 1200-seat theatre has a number of awkward areas from a sound perspective, with Richard using a pair of PSD800s and SB215s for the balcony, and a secondary PA system for the rear of the circle. This area narrows dramatically before opening up to create what is in effect another room, requiring the addition of a pair of PSD800s to take over from the main AT1000s, with a complement of JBL Control 1s used as delays.
New for the West End show is the surround sound system, used for reverb in some of the ballads, as well as to bring a different feel to one segment of the show with lots of effects and drum loops for a club sequence. The sound system uses a total of 35 radio mics, ranging across Sennheiser SK50s, SK5012s and SK5212s, matched according to their individual character sound or costume requirements, with two radios on each of the nine principals. In addition, the system includes six of the hand-held SK 5200 with Neumann capsules.
Richard's sound team for Never Forget comprises Robin Conway as the No 1 operator, supported by Poppy Ballon and Lewis Rose. Tom Marshall is assistant sound designer on the show.
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