A cute killer bunny rabbit with big, sharp, pointy teeth. A homicidal Sir Lancelot and a wimpy Sir Robin. A Camelot that resembles a medieval Las Vegas. And a guest appearance by the feet of God, all on stage in the same show.
Inspired by the classic cult film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Spamalot is certainly one of the most irreverent shows to hit the Great White Way during the past few years, and solid word-of-mouth from its Chicago previews–and a stellar cast that has included Tim Curry, David Hyde Pierce, Sara Ramirez and Hank Azaria–helped transform the $11 million production into a massive hit that's sold out well into the fall. The show has also won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Mike Nichols) and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, for Ramirez vamping it up diva-style as the Lady of the Lake. While there is still no Tony for sound design, Ramirez did mention live engineer Bones Malone in her acceptance speech. Malone is employed by Acme Sound Partners, which has recently done sound design for everything from Dracula to Avenue Q to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and who took on the gargantuan task of shaping and producing the audio for Eric Idle's Broadway brainchild. Given the numerous ensemble numbers, costume changes and large cast, this was no easy feat. FOH spoke to Nevin Steinberg, one of Acme's key players–along with Mark Menard and Tom Clark–about grappling with this award-winning extravaganza.
What were the biggest challenges in creating the sound design for Spamalot?
Nevin Steinberg: Trying to be certain to satisfy all of the different musical styles and character changes in the piece.
What was the most challenging number to design and why?
The title number in Act 1 is a rather long stretch with varying musical motifs, tap dancing, a click-track, spot sound effects and microphone gags. It was quite a handful. The tap dance section is a pre-record with click-track guide. Both the conductor and the drummer pick up the click-track guide on their Hearback Systems headphone mix. The tap audio is fed both to onstage speakers for source and monitoring, and to the P.A. through its own subgroup.
How difficult were the large ensemble numbers like "Knights of the Round Table" and the "Find Your Grail" medley?
Not too bad. Most of the issues we had to negotiate for those were about mic placement and its relationship to the wardrobe.
Did you worry about bleed-through between characters
during the bigger ensemble scenes?
We thin out the number of mics during big ensemble numbers to help us control the amount of unwanted information. We don't use ambient mics for the ensemble numbers. However, when 12 or 15 people are singing in close proximity, it is often advisable to reduce the number of open microphones. We usually pick and choose depending on the staging and partnering.
Who were the toughest characters to mic?
During the Lancelot number, Hank Azaria's character is probably the toughest because of all of the character and costume changes. King Arthur, played by Tim Curry, wears two mics actually built into his helmets. The Knights Who Say Ni were an interesting project. We ended up mounting cardioid boom microphones within the Ni helmets to capture their signature phrases.
Did you worry about clanking or jostling noises within the helmets?
The helmet mics for Arthur and the Knights Who Say Ni are mounted very securely in the costume pieces. They are both quiet and reliable. Our deck sound personnel coordinate with the costume department for the maintenance of this specialty item.
What kinds of mics and monitors are you using?
We use DPA 4061 lavaliers on the actors with Sennheiser SK-5012 transmitters and EM-3532 receivers for the wireless. The orchestra is picked up using microphones by DPA, Neumann, Sennheiser, AKG and Accusound. The show's speaker systems are comprised of L'ACOUSTICS, Meyer, d&b and EAW systems.
How many mics are on the leads and where are they located? Do you have any ambient mics onstage?
We double mic most of the lead actors in the piece. There are no ambient mics on the stage, but we have some microphones out there for the tap number.
How large is the orchestra?
It's a 17-piece orchestra, all located in the pit. It's a pretty standard instrumentation for an orchestra of this size–rhythm section, reeds, brass, strings and keyboard. It's not a studio down there–it's an orchestra pit, so isolation is not our primary goal. Capturing the sound and energy of a whole orchestra is really the brass ring.
What kind of board and software are you running?
It's a DiGiCo D5T Console running its proprietary software. We are running about 120 inputs.
Your live engineer, Bones Malone, said the DiGiCo is really good for sound engineers who know about computers rather than computer people who run soundboards. Would you agree?
I would. It's a great console and presents very much like an analog desk in its operation. It has a great deal of I/O for its size. It is very agile in its routing capability, and it really sounds great.
Are there any special techniques used on miking coconuts, swords and exploding killer rabbits?
Very similar to miking puppets! In fact, there are special techniques, but they are all top-secret.
Did you bring in a lot of your experience with Avenue Q into Spamalot?
I was joking about the puppets, but we bring all of our experience on all of our previous shows on every new project. There are many similarities in equipment and architecture when we design a new musical, but we put a premium on approaching every show with a unique point-of-view.
The show features a decent amount of effects and pre-recorded material, including John Cleese as the voice of God. How do you approach mixing sound levels between pre-recorded and live sound?
It's really all done by ear. Trying to maintain some aural "continuity" is very important to creating the overall sound design of a show.
What is the next show that Acme is working on?
The Mambo Kings at the Broadway Theatre. The music is of a different style than we've encountered in awhile, and most of the orchestra is on a platform above the stage. It's very exciting.
