Queen of art-pop Lady Gaga partnered with Robe and award-winning Lighting and Production Designer, LeRoy Bennett to create an impressive montage of creative stagecraft featuring over 200 Robe lighting fixtures.
Montreal-based worldwide lighting vendor Solotech supplied the elaborate stage set, which included 3 flying bridges descending from the a trio of 45 feet long pods in the roof above the audience, creating a pathway below, flopping sideways and transforming into projection screens.
LeRoy and fellow Lighting Director Harry Forster opted for 45 Robe BMFL WashBeams to be the main workhorses of the lighting rig, with 8 BMFL WashBeams positioned on a truss inside each of the 3 pods. An additional 4 BMFL WashBeams provided positions for the 28 high-powered Barco projectors, which beamed images onto the pods and the moving bridge screens. Another 8 BMFL WashBeams were located on the over-stage trusses, with 9 on the floor below. “They do the job perfectly,” commented LeRoy.
Ninety Robe Spikies were situated under the stage, 3 sections of which move independently, with the upstage section further sub-divided into 3 parts. They are revealed when the upstage section lifts-up, beaming through the 24mm pitch LED video panels covering the front of each elevated section to fit into the space and not overload the hydraulic lifts. Forster commented: “I’m not surprised, the fixtures speak for themselves and we are very happy. She is very much at the center of this show.”
Lighting for Lady Gaga’s Joanne album tour was programmed and run on a grandMA2 full size console, a process that required Forster to work closely with Jason Beari and with Loren Barton from Lumentech, programming the playback video elements.
Robert McShane, Solotech Video Contractor, directed the live video while Eighth Day Sound, and the tour’s Production Manager, Hydro Mullin delivered audio. The Joanne tour will continue throughout the end of 2017.