latest news headlines

We Will Rock You Rocks with L-Acoustics

The music of Queen is once again blaring from stages around the world, but on this go-around it's a theatrical production, not the band, that's making audiences stand up and cheer. Originally staged in London's West End, where it continues to delight patrons at the Dominion Theatre two years later, We Will Rock You is a lavish futuristic musical set to 25 of Queen's epic hits that has also enjoyed runs in Melbourne and Madrid.

Now, the latest production and show's North American debut has recently opened at Paris Las Vegas' 1,450-seat Le Theatre Des Arts with an L-Acoustics front-of-house loudspeaker rig.

The new system, furnished by Masque Sound of East Rutherford, New Jersey, features twin left and right hangs of ten V-DOSC cabinets with two dV-DOSC elements for front-fill. Ten additional dV-DOSC are hung as a center array to complete the LCR FOH system, while four compact coaxial MTD108a systems are employed to provide supplementary coverage to the far edges of the audience seating area.

Sound design for We Will Rock You was provided by Sound Designer Bobby Aitken and Associate Sound Designers David Patridge and Richard Sharratt. Aitken and Patridge, in particular, are certainly no strangers to musical theatre; they've spent the past five years working together on eight separate productions of Mamma Mia!, which is based on the songs of ABBA.

In fact, it was on the 1999 world premier of Mamma Mia! that Aitken, along with Co-Sound Designer Andrew Bruce, first specified L-Acoustics loudspeakers upon the request of another notable duo. "Bjorn (Ulvaeus) and Benny (Andersson) from ABBA were the ones who originally turned us on to V-DOSC," says Aitken. "They had chosen it for a theatre they worked with in Stockholm and really wanted to push the British show of Mamma Mia! in the same direction, so Andrew and I went with their recommendation and were extremely pleased with the results."

Since then, Aitken has used many different L-Acoustics products on various productions of the two musicals. For example, ARCS were employed as the main PA speakers for the Madrid run of We Will Rock You, as well as utilized on both touring productions of Mamma Mia! and the new version of London's Mamma Mia! when the show moved to the Prince of Wales Theatre this past spring. When the time came to design a rig for We Will Rock You's Las Vegas production, Aitken, Patridge and Sharratt chose to call upon a line array system with a truly respected rock and roll pedigree: V-DOSC and dV-DOSC.

"Bobby chose to use these speakers primarily for their sound; they really do sound great, especially on a rock musical like this," notes Patridge, who also serves as the show's production sound engineer. "There are certainly many other line arrays on the market these days, but we've not been impressed enough with anything else to venture outside of a product range that we've come to know and like. The L-Acoustics system is solid, performs predictably, and achieves a level of audio that we're very happy with.

"Plus, we've also always felt very well supported by the company, both through people like Paul Bauman in France and Bernie Broderick here in the US. They are always available via cell phone or email when we have questions and have been willing to customize solutions for us when needed. I can't say enough good things about their support. Many other manufacturers are not nearly that responsive."

At the same time that Masque Sound procured the L-Acoustics system for We Will Rock You, the company also made a serious investment in V-DOSC and dV-DOSC cabinets to supplement its own live division in New Jersey and Orlando shop.

"With this purchase, I believe that we have the largest arsenal of L-Acoustics products in the world," says Masque Sound VP/Co-Owner Jim Shearing. "Our current inventory of L-Acoustics products now includes over 100 V-DOSC systems and over 160 dV-DOSC systems. We like them because they sound really clean, provide great coverage and can handle a lot of power. We're particularly fond of the dV-DOSCs for their compact size and lighter weight, and currently have them out on productions of Miss Saigon, The Lion King and 42nd Street in addition to Mamma Mia! and We Will Rock You."

The Las Vegas production began previews on August 16 at the Paris resort, with a gala opening on September 8. A Moscow production is now also on the verge of its debut, with the German premier topping off the year on 12th December at Cologne's Musikdome

News Type:

latest news headlines

We Will Rock You Rocks with L-Acoustics

13th October 2004

HEADLINES

news archive

search stories