TCI articles from February 1998

TCI archives from February 1998

Side Show.(Richard Rogers Theater, New York, NY)
February 1, 1998... Side by Side Side Show is the most musically demanding show of the new Broadway season. Composer Henry Krieger has fashioned a complex score in which lengthy narrative sequences, written with a driving, contemporary Broadway sound, are...

Mr. Magoo.
February 1, 1998... Sight For Sore Eyes Advocates for the visually impaired should be pleased to note that the myopic difficulties of the title character in Walt Disney Pictures' Mr. Magoo do not keep him from being well dressed. There have been rumblings...

Totally Nickelodeon.
February 1, 1998... Another Fine Mess Nickelodeon's entertainment empire is built partly on the simple, indisputable, and sticky truth that kids Eke messes. That's the operating assumption of Totally Nickelodeon, the new family show the company's...

The Old Neighborhood.(Booth Theatre, New York, NY)
February 1, 1998... You Can't Go Home Again Thomas Wolfes adage has never been so conclusively demonstrated as in David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood, now playing at Broadway's Booth Theatre. This triptych of one-act plays features Mamet's perennial...

Beyond vaudeville.(new sound system design for vintage Frauenthal Theatre, Muskegon, MI)
February 1, 1998... "The place was a nightmare," says Tim Swanberg designer for Corporate Sound, referring to the original sound system and acoustics of the 1930s-era Frauenthal Theatre in Muskegon, MI. Built for vaudeville and the "takes," the 1,800-seat...

Geography.(Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY, NY)
February 1, 1998... Ralph Lemon's new work, Geography, chronicles the choreographer's journey to find his roots in African dance and explore his personal sense of maleness. Performed with an all-male company of six dancers from the Ivory Coast, one Guinean...

Sound like an Egyptian.(theater sound design at Luxor Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV)
February 1, 1998... For his Las Vegas followup to the much-lauded Lance Burton Theatre at the Monte Carlo Hotel (a project that won him the LDI97 Sound Designer of the Year award), Michael Cusick went Egyptian. More precisely, he went to the Luxor Hotel & Casino,...

The Spanish Tragedy.(The Pit, London, England)
February 1, 1998... Tom Piper's set and costume designs for Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Pit in London went through an evolution influenced by his initial budget at Stratford, where the production originated. There,...

Turandot turnaround.(sound design for Rome Opera staged at Olimpico soccer stadium)(Italy)
February 1, 1998... In a successful attempt to widen opera audiences, Rome Opera recently staged Puccini's Turandot at the city's Olimpico soccer stadium. Produced by Giuliano Montaldo, no stranger to theatre or cinema audiences, the event included US soprano star...

An IAAPA homecoming.(International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions convention, Orange County, CA, Nov. 1997)
February 1, 1998... Autumn is the traditional season for college homecomings. And as America's theme park learning lab is unquestionably Orlando, the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) convention and trade show convened,...

Coke is it.(design of The World of Coca-Cola attraction, Las Vegas, NV)(Themed Retail)
February 1, 1998... Of all the new destinations on the Las Vegas Strip, none is more distinctive than The World of Coca-Cola. Located in the new Showcase Mall, this 28,000sq.-ft. attraction is a unique conception. Most themed attractions are designed to lure...

Michael Gottleib.(lighting designer)(TYRO Talent)(Brief Article)(Interview)
February 1, 1998... Long Island's own Michael Gottlieb (he grew up in East Meadow) may very well have been destined, or at least genetically predisposed, to become a lighting designer. Gottlieb, whose credits include the current Off Broadway hit The Last Session...

Daniel Ostling.(set designer)(TYRO Talent)(Brief Article)(Interview)
February 1, 1998... Daniel Ostling is in a dangerous business. "Easel painters don't show every painting. But when we decide to do a show, something will be seen the day it opens, and there's no going back. I find that terrifying and exciting," says the set...

Ado Cantin.(Designer Profile)(Brief Article)(Interview)
February 1, 1998... There are diverse designers, and then there's Ado Cantin. This Verona-born Italian set designer/constructor has run the full gamut of his profession; from his early years in the acknowledged stronghold of Italian opera, Cantin later moved into...

The 1997 TCI Theatre Crafts International Sound Products of the Year.(Cover Story)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1998... 1997 was a good year for theatre sound designers, at least in terms of new equipment: an increasing number of major audio manufacturers unveiled equipment, geared specifically to the theatre and fixed installation markets. Below are six new...

James Noone.(Designer Profile)(Interview)
February 1, 1998... James Noone is a very modest man. Over the course of two lengthy interviews covering the full span of his career as a theatre scenery designer, he speaks about each project quietly, carefully, always with an undertone of skeptical humor. But...

Cultural cachet: can the New Jersey Performing Arts Center add vitality to downtown Newark?(NJPAC)(design analysis)
February 1, 1998... Newark, NJ has a new symbol. A fabulous new performing arts center that symbolizes not only a strong commitment to the arts but also a revitalized future for a desolate urban area in New Jersey's largest city. A decade in the making, the New...

Sound & vision.(The Rolling Stones - 'Bridges to Babylon' design)(Cover Story)
February 1, 1998... Much in the same way that the Rolling Stones intertwined their seminal brand of blues-based rock -and-roll music with current musical influences on their latest album, the tour supporting Bridge to Babylon is transforming stadiums into...

Rosco's Horizon.(using Rosco/Entertainment Technology Inc.'s Horizon lighting control software)(Brief Article)
February 1, 1998... In October of last year, Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, OR, opened a new, $1 million black box theatre in what was at one time a swimming pool in a Masonic Loge in downtown Portland. The new lighting system in this unique space consists...

Tubes.(Briar Street Theatre, Chicago, IL)
February 1, 1998... Chicago Blues When the producers of a huge hit mount a new incarnation of a show, the designers get a chance to perform a new type of research on a project: seeing what has been done before, how it worked, and--most importantly in...