Elton John and Tim Rice's AIDA

You can typically tell how busy I am by the amount that I write. Last week my life was consumed by Showcase.  And frankly showcase wasn't worth reviewing.  And after a long weekend (not nearly long enough) I was thrown into Aida.  Doing theatre at the performance center is impossible. We have no orchestra pit, no wing space, no space at all.  And there is no time to put on a production properly.  Last year we pulled off the impossible with a production of Parade.  When the director (Sharon Brown) told me this year we were doing Aida, I managed not to laugh in her face, and told her "That's...ambitious". And yet here I am five months later after another successful production.  After two nights of scrambling, frustration, annoyance, and exhaustion, I come out on the other side very proud to have been at part of it. And happy with the job that I did.  I must say I have a new found respect for broadway sound guys. I had 12 wireless omni body mics, full rhythm section, orchestral percussion, strings, woodwinds, brass, and a harp that was added the day of the show (awesome).  I managed to squeeze the orchestra onto 12' deep risers going 30' across. Knowing there'd be no room I had almost the entire band with clip on mics.  I used the Berger method of clipping a lav mic on the percussionist instead of over heads, they both thought it was genius (Yeah Brad!).  While the clip ons help my space problem it did make getting a nice natural sounding mix difficult.  Ordinarily I would use only a few over head mics to pick up the orchestra, so they take care of the mix themselves. Since I was unfamiliar with the music this would have been ideal. But live sound is about compromise, and there is no way I could have gotten the orchestra over the rhythm section with section mics, so clip ons it was.  I wish I had one more day.  I think everyone wanted another day. It was hard to dedicate enough time to all of the  different elements that I was controlling, while reading along in the script. It was slightly controlled chaos, which I managed to wrangle in and make sound half way decent. My challenge for the next time is finding a way to mic the ensemble. This is where my admiration for theatrical sound lies.  I couldn't figure out how I could place unobtrusive microphones with enough level to hear them well while at the same time avoiding the enevitable feedback.  I've had some suggestions but unfortunately no time to try them out.  I hope they will have a longer run in the future.  As for the performance, it was a very Berklee production. It sounded amazing, it looked great but lacked substance. I felt that the singing was exellent, but the acting left much to be desired. It was as if they were simply going through the motions until the next song. There was zero chemistry between Radames and Aida, the only sincere moment was at the end with "Written in the Stars" which was beautifully heart breaking.  The show stealer for me was the young man who played Zoser.  I remember him from last year's "Parade" where he was also exellent. There is a level of commitment in his performance that overpowers the rest of the cast, in a good way. So while I was blown away by some parts I was dissappointed by others. And the rest of the time I wasn't paying attention. But, good or bad I look forward to doing it again next year.