NEW YORK — Already a smash Hollywood movie, the Broadway stage production of Legally Blonde The Musical has received high marks across the board for both cast and crew. Bringing the musical into spotlight is the sound delivered by a powerful system featuring Meyer Sound MICA compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers.
Acme Sound Partners, the sound design team behind such Broadway and national productions as Spamalot, The Full Monty, Avenue Q, and A Chorus Line, outfitted the 1,750-seat Palace Theatre with four arrays of MICA loudspeakers — two flown to cover the mezzanine and bottom half of the balcony and two stacked to cover the orchestra seats. Each array is topped with a single 600-HP compact high-power subwoofer. Two CQ-2 full-range narrow coverage loudspeakers and one CQ-1 full-range wide coverage loudspeaker are mounted on a mid-house lighting truss to provide reinforcement for the balcony seats, while four MSL-2 high-power loudspeakers provide fill for the band.
“The room is pretty large by Broadway standards, with plenty of hard surfaces, and the score is fairly pop-oriented,” says Acme partner and Sound Designer Tom Clark. “We knew the MICA would be a good bet not only for its transient response, but because of its very precise coverage. It enabled us to really focus the sound on the parts of the room where people’s ears were, and keep it off of the walls and other reflective surfaces.”
Even in a relatively large venue, space remains an issue. The MICA loudspeakers proved an efficient choice when sliding into tight corners and crevices while providing adequate coverage. “The seating area extends right out to the side walls, and the limited amount of space we had to work with had to be shared with the lighting team,” says Clark. “The MICA’s shallow depth served us well by not interfering with the lighting trusses or the audience sightlines. It’s a great system, and we’ll be happy to use it again.”
The current production at the Palace Theatre in New York City was created by a dean’s list of Broadway’s hottest talent. The musical includes Tony Award–winning Director/Choreographer Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray), music and lyrics by both Laurence O’Keefe (Batboy) and Nell Benjamin (Sarah, Plain and Tall), Music Director James Sampliner (The Wedding Singer, Brooklyn), and Orchestrator Christopher Jahnke (Grease, Les Miserables).
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