More than 20 years after the late Whitney Houston was immortalized on the big screen with The Bodyguard, London's Adelphi Theatre is staging a musical production of the story, featuring a 151-cabinet Meyer Sound system based on the M'elodie and MINA line array loudspeakers.
The Bodyguard musical has abundant dynamic contrasts. They range from moments of hushed intimacy between the two lead characters to the goosebump-inducing show-stopping hits like I'm Your Baby Tonight and I Will Always Love You.
"The brief was to bring a filmic quality to the production, whilst bringing all of the theatrical style that one would expect," says sound designer Richard Brooker. "So we have a slightly warmer dialogue sound and more elaborate use of soundscapes and FX than might be considered usual, as well as the ability to deliver the big pop anthems in a concert style."
With sound design credits that include Jesus Christ Superstar, Never Forget, I Dreamed A Dream, and Chess, Brooker has been a proponent of Meyer Sound systems for 25 years. He is an especially keen advocate of the M'elodie, which he says has "a big box sound compared to its small footprint".
Supplied by Autograph Sound Recording and installed under the leadership of production sound engineer Raf Rutgeerts, the Meyer Sound system features 32 M'elodie and 13 MINA line array loudspeakers, 62 legacy UPM-1, 12 UPM-1P, eight UPJ-1P VariO, two UPJunior VariO, two MSL-2A, and eight UP-4XP loudspeakers. Six 600-HP and six MM-10AC subwoofers handle low frequencies. A Galileo loudspeaker management system with six Galileo 616 AES processors provides signal drive and processing.
"It has been a huge responsibility to do justice to all those brilliant, globally loved pop tunes and ballads," Brooker says, "but we have had some extremely positive comments from the public and colleagues within the industry. I'm delighted by the reaction."
The audio system for the production also includes DiGiCo consoles and microphone systems from DPA, Sennheiser, and Shure.
Producers of The Bodyguard were Michael Harrison and David Ian; show director was Thea Sharrock; musical supervisor was Mike Dixon; and arranger was Chris Egan.
