The spectacular new production of the classic multi award-winning musical Mary Poppins is currently embarking on a UK and Ireland tour. Presented by Cameron Mackintosh and Disney Theatrical Group, this record-breaking show recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary and continues to dazzle audiences on a nightly basis. Starring acclaimed Australian stars Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers as Mary Poppins and Bert, it features a lighting design by Hugh Vanstone who approached White Light (WL), a d&b solutions company, to supply his touring lighting rig; with the company having also supplied the show’s first UK tour back in 2008.

Based on the classic stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film, the show tells the story of the world’s favourite nanny who flies into Cherry Tree Lane and begins to turn the lives of the Banks family into something magical. As lighting designer, Hugh finds himself returning to the show once again, having first lit a West End run five years ago. He comments: “When I first became involved in 2019 at the Prince Edward Theatre, it was in a ‘revival schedule’ so I had to tailor my ambitions to the available time. On subsequent versions, I’ve done a little more each time and, in this latest version, the lighting is completely revised throughout”.

When discussing his lighting design for the latest tour, Hugh explains: “Bob Crowley’s design has a beautiful hand drawn aesthetic, with delicate lines and frequent use of perspective. I tried to support this by using lighting to create perspective shapes on the floor and using custom gobos to continue the hand drawn feel. Luke Halls’ subtle projection design also enhances the visual language”.

A large consideration of Hugh’s design was the fact that this had to be a touring lighting rig. He comments: “I worked with my Associate Simon Sherriff and Production Electrician Ian Moulds to adapt the rig to be tourable. We removed nearly all fixed focus instruments to make focusing faster on the road while programmer Rohan McDermott worked tirelessly to reduce the number of focus presets as far as possible”.

Knowing what he needed to achieve both artistically and practically from his rig, Hugh contacted Stuart Porter and the Hire team at WL. He explains: “The rig is mainly Encore Performances (both cold and warm) with Viper DX and GLP X5 as the washes, augmented by GLP X bars and FR1s and FR10s.

He continues: “The lighting design depends heavily on four followspots which highlight the protagonists. They work tirelessly throughout the evening. Mary Poppins is a huge show to tour by today’s standards because its storyline requires so many intricate settings and special effects. The touring team, led by Tom Howard,  have a real challenge ahead of them but audiences are leaving absolutely delighted by this lavish, full scale production”.

Mary Poppins opened at the Bristol Hippodrome where it will play all of this month, before moving onto Dublin, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Manchester to name but a few.

WL’s Hire Business Development Management Stuart Porter comments: “We’re thrilled to have supplied the rig for Mary Poppins and work with Hugh once again – in what we believe is the largest touring production in the UK this year. What’s particularly special is that Mary Poppins is a show we’ve developed a long-term relationship with, given we’ve now worked on it for almost two decades! Throughout all of that time, and with the various incarnations, we have always been able to supply the lighting solutions it requires – a fact we’re incredibly proud of”.
 
Contact our Hire team for any further information 020 8254 4800.

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