PAR CAN SUPERSTAR

Lee Curran Lights the 70s Rock Musical for 2024

Jesus Christ Superstar was first released as an album in 1970. The stage show didn’t premiere until the following year. The current production at the Capitol in Sydney and set to tour Australia in 2025, is in many ways paying homage to the show’s origins as a rock ‘n’ roll album. First staged at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London in 2017, it has since toured the UK, with English Lighting Designer Lee Curran visiting Sydney recently to remount his design.

“The idea of the piece as a rock ‘n’ roll album is a core influence that runs through all elements of the show’s design,” Lee says. Elements include the band being on stage for the duration of the show, as opposed to in a pit or tucked away behind set. Soloists are featured in the blocking, and members of the cast play instruments and use handheld mics. At points the audience should feel as though they’re at a gig, as opposed to a musical.

This design principal extends to the lighting looks and fixtures used on the show, which Curran describes as “a sort of neat evolution of the kind of units used in rock ‘n’ roll.” With the most recent decades represented by Martin MAC Auras and Claypaky Sharpys and, for that Seventies feel, a lot of PAR cans. “In a rock ‘n’ roll sense I think there’s something iconic about the visual of an MFL CP62 bulb. For older generations the visual of that lens and bulb is such a recognisable rock ‘n’ roll look.”

At Regent’s Park, Lee used 400 PAR cans, many of which were integrated into the set. This design choice was partly due to necessity as the outdoor venue had no overhead positions, but it also helped create architecture on stage. As the design has been revised to move indoors, then becoming a touring set, it has evolved but is still recognisably the same feel as Regent’s Park.

This is Curran’s second trip to Australia this year. In May he worked with Opera Australia at Margaret Court Arena remounting Tosca, which was also a collaboration between him and Jesus Christ Superstar’s set designer Tom Scutt. Their design for Tosca received praise in The Age with reviewer Bridget Davies noting, “the dome [set piece] and intense use of lighting made the Act III finale, which often comes off as naff, incredibly successful.” The fixtures used to create that noteworthy moment were PAR cans that swept across stage on moveable booms and, like Jesus Christ Superstar, made up much of the set. The opera may seem like a far cry from a rock ‘n’ roll gig, but seeing the two shows Curran says you could recognise similarities in their design.

When asked if it is a coincidence that both his designs in Australia this year feature the same instrument so heavily or if he really just loves a PAR can that much, Curran says that it is both. The productions were designed by Curran and Scutt within 18 months of each other. “It was obviously something we were interested in exploring at that time.” Of course, budgets are always a factor when deciding on what fixtures you use. Curran says if he were to ask for hundreds of any moving light fixture, a production manager would most likely laugh at him.

But it is clear he does have a fondness for the old fixture which he calls “a unique beast even amongst other tungsten sources.”

All conventional lights are becoming somewhat of an endangered species. Curran acknowledges there are good reasons for that, but says it is a shame to contemplate as a designer. “We are going to lose unique tools that give us some looks that aren’t reproducible by other technology. I think the PAR can is the absolute best example of that. The quality of dimming and the colour change, I don’t think there’s another fixture, even among other tungsten units, that has that degree of colour shift across intensity change.”

This makes it the perfect tool for Jesus Christ Superstar as, at its brightest, the source becomes white, heavenly, and the rich amber quality at their dimmest “can also be reminiscent of the other place.” The colour palette of Jesus Christ Superstar is led by the PAR cans, but like any modern live music event or musical, there are moments of saturated colour provided by the moving light rig. Curran is intentional with his use of this colour.

“Some musicals it feels like every number is a different colour and by the end of it, it can feel, no pun intended, like oversaturation. It can be difficult to read if there’s any intention of what the colours are doing. In this show when there is intense colour there is a reason for it, rather than just being a background setting.”

Intention and restraint seem to be guiding principles of Curran’s designs, that are led by dramaturgy rather than “showing off all the toys we’ve got.” He thinks of his designs as musical scores with high points, low points and shifts. “Even in straight plays, a piece always has a sense of timing and a musicality even if there’s not literal music playing.”

Reading Curran’s bio, his recent and notable works see a focus on contemporary dance, theatre and opera. He has worked as a full-time designer for just over a decade, but his career in lighting spans back much further than his bio. He was technical manager at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London at a time when they did a lot of live music and gigs. The familiarity with live music fixtures and looks was obviously useful for Jesus Christ Superstar, but what he learnt working in that venue has informed all aspects of his career. “The mode of working was different. I wasn’t watching rehearsals. A lot of it was busking and I got the feel for the gig as it went along.” Busking taught him the ability to improvise, which is a necessity for a designer. “We’ve all been in a situation where you go into tech and you start making the show and the things you imagine just don’t work when you try and realise them on the stage. You can’t draw time on tech and send everybody home while you come up with Plan B. You need to think of a solution.”

Improvisation is not to be confused with winging it, as the job also requires a lot of detailed planning, imagining what the cues are going to be and discussing what kind of looks you are going to achieve with the director and the designer. And Curran believes in the importance of attention to detail as “absolutely nailing it can make a work sing.”

He uses an example with the PAR cans. “They all need to be rigged at the exact spacing and all the bulbs have to be the same. If that bulb is behaving differently, we are going to swap it out. We go through and curve and proportion every single one so they all look exactly the same when they’re sitting at eight per cent or 11 per cent.” This level of detail has an impact that he describes as “exponentially greater than when it’s nearly right.”

Curran was nominated for both the Olivier and the Knight of Illumination award for his design on Jesus Christ Superstar and the production won the Olivier for Best Musical Revival. With it now touring around Australia almost eight years later, Curran should feel confident he has nailed it this time.

“Fundamentally it’s a great show,” he says, and that “the design team were really in tune with each other making a really good piece of work.” Despite the musical now past its fiftieth anniversary, Curran thinks audiences will feel like they’re watching a show that could’ve been written last year. “I don’t think there’s that many productions you can say the same about.”

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Lee Curran is a lighting designer of theatre, dance, and opera. Lee has worked with artists and organisations such as the National Theatre, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, Royal Opera House, Hofesh Shechter, Royal Exchange Manchester, Rambert Dance Company, LIFT, Boy Blue Entertainment, and the Royal Danish Opera.

Lee has been nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design four times – A Streetcar Named Desire (2023), Summer and Smoke (2019), Jesus Christ Superstar (2017), and Constellations (2013). He has also been nominated for a Knight of Illumination award three times, for Summer and Smoke, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Orphee and Eurydice.