Stage Directions: Set to the beat of their greatest hits, Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations brings the untold story of the legendary quintet to Broadway, gathering ecstatic reviews and a Tony award. WorldStage is providing extensive video support for the musical at The Imperial Theatre where audiences thrill to the story of brotherhood, family, loyalty and betrayal as they follow The Temptations’ extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
4 comments:
I remember watching the Temptations medley during the Tony's this past year and being enthralled by the dance moves and singing of the actors on the stage. I never really thought about the set beyond, wow those walls look really cool, and that marquee is HUGE! Going back and reading this article while rewatching the scene, I am amazed that the scenery is all completely LED projections. The black and white brick walls on the screens look very real and convincing. I thought that the only projections were the newspapers that floated in and out on the walls, but now I realize, it is ALL projections, including the wall. Usually LED's have a very noticeable look, but these in this set really don't. It might be due to the fact that all of the projections are in black and white, or it could just be I am not very observant and the technology has just gotten that much better over the years. Whatever it is, I absolutely love the look and think it complements the music and actors very well.
I really wanted to see this show! I was going to try and see it this summer but there were some problems with getting tickets because of the prices. The story is amazing and one of my favorite lighting designers happen to also design the show. I think I've looked at 5 articles that have talked about LED screens in different shows. Projection and LED screens are really talking over the entertainment industry and adding something new to the design area of theater in particular. I do enjoy shows with technology like this but sometimes it can be distracting or over the top in my opinion. In the Tony Award performance by The Temptations, the media was amazing and very interesting to watch but I would really like to see how they used it in the actual Broadway show. With a story like the one of Aint To Proud, I would think that it could be a challenge to find the balance of technical design elements and the actual story and direction. I really enjoy all the spectacle that is on broadway but sometimes I do think that they can miss the story and focus too much on the cool things the production company can do because they have money. It is interesting to see how projection is being incorporated into shows now. Technology keeps getting better and better, but at the same time I, personally, don't know if I'm in love with how much it is taking over the live theater. There is something about seeing an actual building compared to an image on a flat surface. I can't wait to see where projection and media that live theater but I hope that technology doesn't take away the heart of theater. You go to a live theater to see living people on stage not to watch images on a screen (you can do that in your home).
I really appreciate the use of media in production, but to a certain extent. The way it is being used in this production is very interesting. Combining media with flat black surfaces sounds like it could make a really cool and dynamic scenery for this show. My concern is when media replaces scenery. I think there is an element of traditional scenery that makes a production come to life. I feel like there should be some three-dimensionality involved, which is what this specific production of Ain’t Too Proud seems to be aiming for in conjunction with media usage. It is very amazing to see the advancements in the LED and projection technology, however. Images now almost look like they are real, tangible objects because of the crispness of the media itself. I’m really for combining media with some interesting scenic elements to come up with a cohesive and interesting design. All in all, this production of Ain’t Too Proud sounds like it should be a really great and innovative show.
This look into Ain't Too Proud was super interesting! I think it's incredible to see shows that utilize LED projections because I do think it can change the landscape of a lot of theatre we see. It's important to be careful with video projections, though, as I think it's easy to overdo them and make the production look more tacky than inventive. This show does a great job at using these projections tastefully to enhance the production and make use of the scenery, not to overtake them.
One of my favorite shows (in terms of its technical aspects and definitely not its book) that I've seen is King Kong. They had a great and complete set and (need I say?) INCREDIBLE puppetry, but they also used projections in a very smart and exciting way. For example, as King Kong has to run through NYC as it says in the script... the problem arrises: how do we make it look like he's running across NYC when we can only make him "run" in place. The video/projection team created a video of NYC being passed by at great speed, so as the puppeteers created King Kong's running motion over and over, it looked... well, really realistic. I don't know how that problem could've been solved through scenery, and I think that creates for an interesting discussion of when video/projection should be used. When scenery can't exactly do the trick, video/projection technology should.
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