Broadway 101: How a Broadway Show "Lights the Lights"

www.playbill.co... Playbill's Broadway 101 takes you behind the scenes of a Broadway production to show how the magic comes together. Before the audience enters the house, the lighting and electrics crew is busy testing, tweaking and checking for any last-minute problems to ensure the show goes on without a hitch (and even when it does, that the audience not notice!). The lighting and electrics crew from the Tony Award-winning musical "Billy Elliot" takes Playbill on a rare tour of the pre-show ritual that is "tech."

[@Tmj373]

"It's very seamless, you'll almost not notice. Um, except for my screaming" If there was one quote that described crew here it is

[@DuckyDino333]

I'm doing all the lighting design and sound for my high school performances. Really interesting video. Finally puts "light" on the tech crew.

[@cowj_uice]

1.200 2. practical lights 3. One light a week are replaced 4. 300 button presses

[@stevenmartinez6880]

I appreciate it

[@cowj_uice]

Odd yds yw

[@taylorjelie4687]

I happened to see Les Miserables at this theater on a class trip and just happened to watch this video and thought it was cool to see the behind the scenes to the theater I was just in!

[@greeneyesv2]

still on a Strand 500 series console!! bloody hell. . . .

[@hamishweir5631]

+greeneyesv2 Lot's of places still have them for one reason or another. Never used one but must be good!

[@Gkh_lx]

+greeneyesv2 I thought that would be ETC. It probably will be upgraded to ETC or MA2 in the future

[@musicaltheatremaniac]

+Guy's Sound and Light Billy in London (now closed) and all the Touring productions were upgraded to ETC IONS but were reprogrammed on an EOS or TI a few years back. the original design (over 10 years ago) was programmed on an Strand so thats why they stay on productions so long - it was the same with les mis up until recently they were running on a 520i up until a while back.

[@Gkh_lx]

musicaltheatremaniac ah ok, thanks. I'm not surprised that the show has been moved onto ETC! ;-)

[@AidanMcLeodProductions]

musicaltheatremaniac I'm very lucky to live in the same town that ETC is headquartered in and it's just a 5 minute drive from my house. Very cool place to go see if you love lighting!

[@danielmilligan3298]

You will almost not notice... Except for my screaming

[@Jimbob_Offical]

This must be a really old production, I haven’t seen a strand desk like that in years. Also no led

[@Ace-vf4rx]

I have to watch this for school -.-

[@iainbanachowicz8318]

Nice to see the PATT 23 in action

[@PlaneswalkerJLX]

Good god is that a Strand 500?

[@AidanMcLeodProductions]

PlaneswalkerJLX really would've expected they'd be running ETC by now

[@TomorrowisYesterday]

That board is just a joke. It’s not actually plugged into anything. Those movers are like $10k a pop, so that’s almost $1 million if they have 90. The real light board is obviously in a different room. And whose light booth can only be accessed by ladder anyhow? That’s probably not even the light booth. Probably an office or something.

[@pixlvfx2964]

@@TomorrowisYesterday The board isn't a joke. The show was originally programmed on the strand 500 series. The way that they could keep track of all the movers was with the Focus Track software. The movers that they were using don't use up that many parameters since theyre so old. You can see a bunch of Varilite VLs and ETC revolutions

[@TomorrowisYesterday]

@@pixlvfx2964 I don't know...

[@MaxKappa]

@@TomorrowisYesterday i gotta say you seem to be one of the strangest people ive ever seen in yt comments. im assuming you dont work work in theatre (if you do please stop, no one will enjoy working with you). if youre going for logic, why on earth would someone build an office at the top of an auditorium? why would they showcase a lighting op setup running old desks for shits and gigs? also interested to know where you came up with the figure of 10k per mover. theyre using multiple different movers and costs will vary between those, very likely many of the lights are older stock, second hand and they will be bought from dealers who the company have a good reputation with so prices may be better. hamilton has 73 movers, i only make a reference to hamilton as that is also a theatre whose lighting booth is only accesible via ladder (theyll have an emergency exit at the back of the booth for legals). you seem a strange bloke and i hope you fix your trust issues.

[@wthayer3860]

ISN'T THIS SIMPLY'S THEME (the intro)

[@connornelson448]

Omg it is and also lizzza's

[@katiem7663]

Yesssss simply nailogical

[@judichristopher4604]

I have a Problem.... I don't drink too much... I don't Smoke anything... I don't over eat (too much)... I don't Gamble (anymore). But ... I do Collect "Playbills".... especially from eBay... One of these days... my DREAM is to have my OWN "Playbill" for my own production on stage. I am moving back to Albuquerque, New Mexico (US) to RE-Open my Acting Studio... I would love to have a production of something I wrote and produced... and have my own PLAYBILL... I'm 68 years old... I need to Hurry up. LOL If anyone wants to get rid of their OLD Playbills... Give them to me... I'l frame them and hang them on the wall... Each one is a work of ART. Thank you for sharing this great video..

[@micahrobinson93]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="304">5:04</a> specialized software? I use qlab for middle school drama tech...

[@johnrainsforthlightingdesi4528]

except he's not talking about qlab, he's talking about focus track.

[@thomascohen8887]

Comment above, and , you can “use” QLab and USE Qlab

[@jmfinlay1487]

What theatre is this?

[@Arlofan]

Can't take this serious because it used the same music as Barrack and Ronaldo 😂