NEW YORK – For American Idiot featuring the music of Green Day, lighting designer Kevin Adams included Vari*Lite's new VLX Wash luminaire from Philips Vari-Lite in the rig. As with his previous designs for the Broadway production of Spring Awakening, which netted Adams the 2009 Tony Award, American Idiot arrived on Broadway after having been first staged elsewhere. "In making the show for Berkeley Rep, I used the model of our transfer of Spring Awakening from Off-Broadway to Broadway," said Adams. "This meant essentially taking a plot of conventional lighting fixtures and adding a layer of automated lights onto it. I like using this method instead of starting with a huge detailed plot because I can sketch in ideas in the first venue and then detail them with a more appropriate plot for the transfer."
Despite the parallels, Adams, who has also designed the lighting for the pop/rock musical Passing Strange, Next to Normal and Hair, wanted to give American Idiot looks that were distinct from his previous work.
"When creating the visual world for American Idiot I knew there were a few things that I wanted to avoid. I did not want to use any light bulbs or fluorescent tubes similar to the kinds that I had used in Spring Awakening, Next To Normal and Passing Strange.
"About one year ago, while working on a production of Hair, I set aside various kinds of aggressive audience blinders and strobe effects for that show, knowing that I wanted to build the design of American Idiot around those kinds of muscular stroboscopic effects. And I didn't want there to be a heavy rig in the house," Adams added.
The ornate surroundings of the St. James Theatre also served as a perfect match – or perfect contrast, rather – for the rebellious looks that Adams was hoping to unleash.
"I wanted the experience of the audience to be similar to that of attending an opera house," Adams said. "I wanted the front of house hang to be minimal and uniformly hung, so that the focus would be on the simple red curtain that sits in the big gold frame of the St James. And when the curtain slowly rises, the world behind the curtain would be a very muscular rock show with various lighting instruments pointed back at the audience."
As the production made its move to the St. James Theatre, Adams decided to take full advantage of the large proscenium to frame the show on stage. After speaking with his collaborators, they liked the idea and Adams began researching the fixtures for his rig, which included a search for a true LED white.
"I had lobbied my collaborators for a light frame around the proscenium that would create a fantastic illumination around the stage so we began by looking at a frame of white LED bars. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anything in that format that was white, and the RBG versions were extremely expensive, as would be the mounting of the frame to the proscenium."
Frustrated at being unable to find the right light, the idea then turned into a frame of tungsten par lamps, which would still be expensive to mount. But then as the deadline to submit his plot drew near, Adams found the solution.
"Just about the time the plot was due, I went to Madison Square Garden to visit the moving light programmer from the West End production of Hair and he showed me the new VLX Wash luminaire. He was using about 40 units on the Eddie Izzard tour, and I was immediately wowed by how bright they were, how quick they were and how they contained a beautiful white LED light.
"I immediately called my associate, Aaron Sporer, who was drafting the plot, and asked how many we could fit vertically on the two proscenium booms and he figured out that we could get 10 on each pipe. By adding these 20 fixtures, I was able to get my perfect white LED light frame around the proscenium plus a superb system of audience blinders."
With their plot now finalized, Adams turned his attention to bringing the iconic music of Green Day to life.
"When director Michael Mayer told me the opening number, "American Idiot," could be a prologue to the show and we could immediately roll out the spectacle during the three-minute song, we decided to let it all loose. At the top of the number the 20 VLX fixtures are pointed at the 45 foot walls of the set and in between vocal phrases they quickly strobe in eye-popping combinations such as red/green and blue/red. It is a dazzling disorienting effect for the audience. This light is simply dynamite."
After the opening number, Adams used the VLX Wash throughout the show to light the actors and the 45-foot walls.
"I have several looks specific to the VLX fixtures throughout the show. In one, I focus all 20 VLX fixtures on the cast at center stage and illuminate them in the brain-melting white light that I was searching for, and then in another they follow the actors in a progression mirroring their movement on stage."
Adams credited the VLX fixtures for being "bright," making "saturated light look great," and for reacting quickly. "But for me, the most exciting aspect of the VLX, besides the true LED white, is that it can strobe between multiple colors faster than the eye can perceive. I literally structured the opening of American Idiot around them, and I can't imagine this design without them."
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