Billy Elliot – The Musical, which is enjoying huge success in both the UK and Australia, is now repeating that success on Broadway. And with Rick Fisher at the lighting design helm, the lighting is getting bigger and even better. Rick – who won Theater Lighting Designer of the Year at this year’s LDI Awards – has been using the automated ETC Source Four Revolution on the show since it first started in London, and has just finished work on the US show with one of the largest installations of Revolutions in town. Across the rig, Rick specified over 100 moving lights – of which 50 are Revolutions. He explains: “I like to be able to light the performers with a good quality tungsten light – and the Revolution fits perfectly. With space in the rig always at a premium, it’s good to have the versatility of moving lights, and so, wherever we had a good rigging position, I placed both a Revolution and an arc light sourced moving fixture. That way I gave myself the choice of which to use to light the scene.
“Revolution allows me to light the show as if there was a conventional rig of many hundreds more units.”
Billy tells the story of a boy growing up during a time of industrial unrest in County Durham, north east England, who would rather be a ballet dancer than a boxer. Since it opened in London in 2005, the show has won or been nominated for over 20 different awards. Rick won Best Lighting Design for the Sydney production at this year’s Helpmann awards, Australia’s equivalent to the Olivier Awards.
For the New York production, Rick specified Vari-Lite and Martin Mac moving lights and Strand Pirouette and ETC Source Four conventionals in addition to the Source Four Revolutions, which were purchased specifically for the project by rental house PRG. Describing the different productions, Rick says: “The look and feel of each is very similar, with a dirty, slightly grimy feel to the show. I particularly like the Wybron colour scroller that comes with the Revolution, which allows me to choose the exact gel colour I want.”
The Revolution was specifically designed with theatre lighting in mind – named for its amazing low noise performance, it features a tungsten lamp and has a plug and play module bay which accepts any two of four optional shutter modules.