black friday
starkid productions at the hudson theater mainstage
Directed by nick lang
music & lyrics by jeff blim
book by nick & matt lang
Pictured: Angela Giarratana as Hannah Foster, and Wiggly.
Lighting by Sarah Petty
Starkid Productions has been producing hilariously smart musicals for a decade. I designed the sound system for their 2019 horror-comedy musical Black Friday. From the Starkid website: “When the holiday season’s hottest new toy, the Tickle-Me Wiggly, hits the shelves, the city of Hatchetfield goes mad for it, literally…When Wiggly comes to town, will the world survive Black Friday?”
The space was quite small and the set was tall. The top section was a balcony and with my original speaker plot, many audience members would not be able to see actors doing scenes. Thanks to the flexibility of the Meyer UPJs that I rented for my left, right, and center speakers, I was able to obtain hardware necessary to rotate all three speakers horizontally. The final touch that made the accommodation possible was being able to rotate the high frequency drivers for good coverage.
I loaded in most of the sound system myself, so it had to be done very easily. Dante Level II certification to the rescue! Running just two CAT5 cables and patching everything ahead of time in Dante Controller increased the efficiency of load in by hours. Shure’s new Axient transmitters/receivers and DPA 4060 lavs made for a solid wireless package for a cast of 13 in the middle of Hollywood.
Starkid Productions’ unique offer is filming their stage musicals for YouTube. We filmed and recorded three performances and several of pickup shots. This was another reason why I spec’d a Dante system. Dante Virtual Sound Card was the virtual audio interface into ProTools to capture multitrack recordings of the 13 actors, a 12-input band, five channels of playback, and a room mic. I also mixed the recordings for Youtube, which can be enjoyed below.