Lighting

Plot Luck: The Outsiders On Broadway

By Ellen Lampert-Greaux Jul 17, 2024 1:28pm

The Outsiders won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Musical on June 16, crowning a Tony broadcast that saw the musical winning in four categories, including Best Direction of a Musical (Danya Taymor), Lighting Design (Brian MacDevitt and Hana S. Kim/projections), and Sound Design (Cody Spencer). Six-time Tony winner Brian MacDevitt and his associate LD Nick Solyom (who has served as associate on three Tony-winning shows) share the plots and gear list for this new musical set in Tulsa, OK in 1967 where the interaction of the greasers and rich kids results in a cross-cultural romance (à la West Side Story or Romeo and Juliette), but it seems fresh and dynamic with Danya Taymor's sensitive direction.

Guests on the Light Talk Podcast: Pure Joy: Our Conversation With Brian MacDevitt and Nick Solyom, the designers explain that they did fixture tests at PRG to choose the best light to create a naturalistic look for the show, choosing the ETC Halcyon's for its CTO. "The color gold is mentioned a lot," says MacDevitt. "We needed to create a rich gold, a sunset gold, without losing intensity. The color temperature was really important to us," he adds, noting that he still refers to his gel colors: Rosco 09 (pale amber gold) and for the reflected sky Lee 201 (full CT blue) and Lee 161 (slate blue), mixing warms and cools for the desired effect.

"The reflected sky was amazing," says the LD. "We had two feet and it looked like infinity. The unit set was incredible, from a bedroom to the hood of a car, a kitchen scene, monkey bars…the set was dark, a lighting designer's friend. For the naturalistic look, I always tell my students to open their eyes and see the light, then bring that honesty to the stage."

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