Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical returned to entertain kids and grownups alike with simultaneous East and West Coast tours with productions staged in November and December. Award-winning theatrical and live event sound designer Joshua D. Reid once again turned to Masque Sound for an audio assist.
First commissioned by the Minneapolis, MN-based Children’s Theatre Company in 1994, the show is a seasonal musical adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! with lyrics (and book) by Timothy Mason, with music composed by Mel Marvin.
The musical entertains audiences with songs that were originally popularized from the 1966 TV holiday animated special including “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and “Welcome Christmas” (written by Albert Hague and Dr. Seuss). The musical’s storyline is also familiar in this holiday classic, with Max the Dog narrating as the mean and scheming Grinch, who — having a heart that’s “two sizes too small” — decides to steal Christmas away from the holiday-loving Whos.
In designing the sound for this year’s Grinch tour, Reid’s goal was to create a flexible and efficient touring sound system that could capture the magic of Dr. Seuss’ classic holiday narrative while providing the highest level of clarity for audiences, as well as a consistently enjoyable experience. Reid faced the added pressure of providing sound systems for two tours, an East Coast and a West Coast touring route, that were built simultaneously. “Each venue on our tour route has its own acoustical qualities and coverage areas for the audience that have to be taken into account and we want to provide every audience member with the same high-quality experience of the show at each performance,” said Reid.
While Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company continues to stage the musical every year with its own run of shows extending from November into early January, the twin touring productions based on the musical’s Broadway run in 2006 and 2007 travel to venues across the U.S. during November and December.
Since the Broadway run, the musical has been seen by more than 2 million theatergoers in 70 cities across the U.S.
The twin 2023 tours ran through the end of December with performances at Providence, RI; Durham, NC; Richmond, VA; and Chicago, IL; along with California dates in San Jose, Los Angeles, Costa Mesa and Sacramento.
To make the most of the limited holiday season time, venues typically pack in a busy production schedule on consecutive show dates. At the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA, for example, shows were staged from Dec. 19 to 24. And along with back-to-back show dates, there were often two shows per day at various times before the West Coast production set up for a final run of shows from Dec. 27-31 at the Safe Credit Union Performing Arts Center in Sacramento, CA.
During that same time frame, the East Coast touring production was performing a final series of shows at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theater from Dec. 19-31.
The Challenge
“Our biggest design challenge is always designing a sound system that is compact enough for efficient touring, while also expansive enough to provide optimal coverage and an equally fun experience for audiences at all of our touring venues,” according to Reid. “The show itself is quite large, with 26 cast members, a 13-member live orchestra and 17 traveling crew members. Managing both builds at the same time was a big feat for both our audio team as well as those who were supporting us at Masque Sound. It took more than 30 people to build both tours within a two-week window of time, but we are once again very happy with the results.”
The sound system for both tours this year was designed with minimal interconnect in mind. “Because of the great work of Masque Sound project manager Cami Letrick, both tours are almost identical in their design,” added Reid. “Our mixing console is a Yamaha CL5, and we utilize eight computers that manage QLab 5 for playback, an Ableton Live DAW, Show Control and RF management. Our speaker towers consist of d&b audiotechnik Y8 and Y12 line arrays, accompanied by d&b B4 Subwoofers, d&b Y7P loudspeakers, and E8 and E3 fill speakers. Each touring rack in our system is connected to a Dante network, providing redundant support for all systems and greatly minimizing cabling interconnect. We also travel with 36 channels of Shure ULXD1 wireless transmitters, paired with ULXD4Q wireless receivers, which also digitally interface with the sound system over the Dante network. Pit orchestra support is provided with Aviom D800-Dante A-Net Distributors and 16 personal mixing stations of, A-16II and A360 Personal Mixers. Clear-Com FreeSpeak-II provides flexible and clear communications for the production.”
Reid was quick to praise the production crew for their professionalism and commitment to excellence. “The show would not be the success that it is without my team who work tirelessly day in and day out,” he adds, including “my associate sound designer Sam Kusnetz, production engineer Noah Dettman, production engineer and FOH audio engineer Mike Deyo on the West Coast; FOH audio engineer Davie Voelker on the East Coast; East Coast deck audio engineer Meg Schelling and West Coast deck audio engineer Macy Kloville,” adding that they “all do an incredible job, and I am very proud of each and every one of them. This design could not have been accomplished without the constant support of our production manager, Heather Chockley, as well as Jayna Neagle and our friends at Crossroads Live North America.”
Reid also credited Masque Sound as “an invaluable partner in bringing this vision to life for the last few years. Masque Sound’s understanding of the show’s intricate requirements not only makes it possible to create a sonic environment that perfectly complements the grandeur of this production, but they also provide the personnel support for the needs of the direction and equipment that we take out on the road with us.”
For more information, visit www.grinchmusical.com and www.masquesound.com.
