Dr Seuss’ The Grinch Musical

Pantomime Season may have been cancelled due to Covid-19 but The Troubador Theatre in Wembley put on a family Christmas extravaganza in the form of Dr Seuss’ The Grinch Musical!, broadcast on Sky One on December 20.

This was, remarkably, a full theatre show, complete with American cast, pulled together in just four days, and after a year that has seen stage shows hit very hard, it was a joy to be involved. We worked closely with Sound Supervisor Conrad Fletcher and The Mixbus, who recorded the show, providing radio mics, foldback system and recording system to capture the show for broadcast.

With the show being performed in two parts ‘as live’ over two days, the orchestra was recorded in advance, off-site, and the recording transferred to cues on the QLab playback system. The cues were then triggered during the performance by the MD, conducting the singers via a TV monitor, with Plus 4 Audio operator sitting alongside.

On stage the performers used the new digital Sennheiser 6000 radio mics and had in-ear monitors, but also needed some foldback via speakers, at low level and very distributed to avoid colouration of the recorded sound. Keeping the sound clean was a major challenge, especially when we picked up the squeak of the wheels on some parts of the set. We were able to replace them with our own, silent wheels, which made all the difference.

We supplied a Digico SD5 mixing console, which is ideal for live theatre, and the signal was sent via the MADI ports to the truck outside.

Christmas may have felt a bit like the Grinch really did steal it this year, but at least with this show the spirit of Christmas musicals lived on.