#3 Coldplay
LD Aldo Visentin with Andrea Bocelli
DATES: Throughout 2017
THE DESIGN: “I always have Andrea in full light. The audience wants to see him. Because he is blind, we mark off an area around his microphone with sticks taped on the stage, so he can feel it under his shoes. This allows him to know where he is and in the light.
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The State of Air Transportation
It’s the start of a new year, and time for me to put my corporate taxes in order for the old year. This amounts to taking 12 months’ worth of info and combining it into one spreadsheet that shows all my write-offs. One of my favorite parts of all this is my travel expenses. I gather up what the flights cost and I cross-reference them against the airline miles I made. I am indeed, one of those geeks who figures out ways to get several free plane tickets every year.
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Tracking a ‘Comet’ from Boston to Broadway
Mimi Lien’s Stage Design for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
It’s a complicated Russian novel and everyone’s got nine different names, but the narrative extract from Tolstoy’s War and Peace that has been transformed into the colorful musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 has become one of the most original productions to arrive on Broadway during this past year. And one of its strengths, Mimi Lien’s lavish stage design, required a lot of thoughtful engineering.
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Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Bryan Hartley Raises the Bar for TSO’s 2016 ‘Ghosts of Christmas Eve’ Tour
The first tour the Trans Siberian Orchestra (TSO) did was only five shows long. They had just one band and used local production. But the word quickly spread. The next year, they brought in designer Bryan Hartley and a lighting package. They also started doing two shows a day on that second tour, some 17 years ago. Ever since, this gigantic live concert, which is a mixture of classical, rock and holiday music, has grown to selling out arenas every holiday season with what can best be described as a visual spectacle.
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