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Blue Man Group switches to Robe fixtures in Las Vegas

Blue Man Group switches to Robe fixtures in Las Vegas
Blue Man Group switches to Robe fixtures in Las Vegas

Performance art company Blue Man Group has recently started incorporating Robe moving lights into their show at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. When Blue Man Group’s Las Vegas show moved back to the Luxor at the end of 2015, it was an opportunity to upgrade and change certain aspects of the lighting rig to optimize the more intimate venue. The space lent itself to more compact fixtures to fulfill lighting designer Kevin Adams’ visual concept, which had been developed in 2013 when the Blue Men had moved a new show into the Monte Carlo Hotel.

 

The back wall, the set legs plus other scenic features are all constructed from LED panels, and the set pieces also contain lighting. Tabitha Rodman, Blue Man Group’s associate lighting designer, first looked at the potential solutions offered by Robe after consulting with Brent Hageman, head of lighting for the Las Vegas show who joined Blue Man Group in 2014. With the move to the Luxor now imminent, they both discussed the idea with Adams.

 

The show specification in the Luxor now includes over 120 Robe fixtures. There are 38 x MMX Spots, 25 x MMX Blades, 30 x LEDWash 300s, 13 x LEDWash 800s, four PARfect 100 LED PARs, and 10 x Cyclones (fans with an integral LED ring). The MMXs are the backbone of the rig and are used for all the specials and key lighting, as well as bringing the general brightness and impact needed to work with the multiple LED surfaces. The LED Washes add another layer of luminescence to the show, with the LEDWash 300s framing the pros arch and radiating energy out into the audience.

 

Set, lighting and video are all designed as a visual collage of contrasting media helping provide the all-encompassing Blue Man Group ‘experience’. Two of the 10 Cyclones in the show are being used for the standard function of coloring fog. The other 8 are fitted with a removable sleeve - in collaboration with the prop department - that contains a colored silk fabric ‘dancer’, which creates effects for the finale when combined with the pixel mapped Cyclone LED ring.

 

Rodman oversees implementation of all the creative lighting elements including all installations and getting-in, tech’ing and programming of the various shows which currently includes residencies in five US cities - Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, Orlando and Boston - plus a U.S. tour; a long run in Berlin and a new world tour that just opened in Singapore. Once a show has opened, she works alongside with the head electricians and their teams.

 

Blue Man Group is now upgrading some of its gear in the Orlando show to include Robe’s MMX series. The world tour also features 37 x Robe ColorStrobes and 10 x Pointes. At the Luxor, there is a ring of small 3-color LED units around the pro arch that can create special and graphic effects, and for the tour, Adams wanted similar effects but something with more impact for some of the larger arena venues they will be playing. Twenty-seven ColorStrobes are hung around the proscenium truss pointing at the audience. “They can strobe in multiple colors and glow in different configurations to make a variety of different light frames around the stage,” Adams explains. They also use them as wash devices to light the band.

 

They use lasers on the Vegas show and were looking for a lighting unit that could replace them, for which Pointes have proved “ideal”, says Adams. In addition to simulating the thin lines, flared beams and stretched cones of the lasers using the prisms, the Pointes are also used as wash units and specials in the show.

 

(Photos: Lindsey Best)

 

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Blue Man Group switches to Robe fixtures in Las VegasBlue Man Group switches to Robe fixtures in Las Vegas

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