Ryan Healey Evokes Moody Vibe for Vampire Lestat Premiere at Beacon Theatre with CHAUVET Professional

	"Because this was the audience's first introduction to Lestat as a performer, I thought about this design less in terms of individual songs and more as one continuous statement," Healy says.

Last month, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, thousands of people, most of them dressed in dark, velvety Gothic garb, queued up outside the Beacon Theatre, waiting for the third-season premiere of The Vampire Lestat, the hit AMC series inspired by Ann Rice's The Vampire Chronicles.

Those lucky enough to gain entrance into the famed venue instantly found themselves in an immersive goth club, with moody visuals covering the entire space. Chants of "Lestat! Lestat! Lestat!" rattled the walls. After a showing of the season's first episode, the big screen covering the Beacon's stage rose, and there for all to see was Lestat himself -- Sam Reid, who plays the character in the TV series, on this night performing songs from the show with his band.

For Ryan Healey, of the design firm 22 Degrees, who lit the 45-minute performance, the transition from film premiere to concert was one of the evening's most powerful moments. "The audience watched the episode on a full screen that completely masked the stage," he says. "As the credits rolled, the screen flew out to reveal the band already in position, and within seconds the premiere became a live rock concert.

"Because this was the audience's first introduction to Lestat as a performer, I thought about this design less in terms of individual songs and more as one continuous statement," Healy says. "Every song had its own identity, but they all needed to feel like they belonged to the same world. The audience was meeting this version of the character for the first time, so establishing a consistent visual language felt more important than creating completely unrelated looks from song to song."

Healey set a richly evocative mood for Lestat's performance by merging theatrical flair with rock concert vibes. His design drew much of its strength from the lighting created by a ground package featuring 30 CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12 fixtures supplied by CT.

"The ground package really became the foundation of the design," Healey says. "The PXL Curves were one of the primary architectural elements of the design, defining the footprint of the stage, while also creating texture and scale behind the band. Because the fixtures were all at deck level, they reinforced the low center of gravity we were after and helped keep attention focused on the performers. They also gave us a tremendous amount of flexibility to build bold graphic looks throughout the set while remaining incredibly fast to deploy.

"Because we only had one day in the venue and much of the overhead infrastructure was already occupied by the Tribeca Film Festival [which was scheduled to take place at the theatre], we intentionally kept the flown lighting package as minimal as possible," he explains. "That allowed the overhead system to go in quickly so audio and backline teams could get to work while the lighting team built the ground package around the band setup simultaneously.

"From a creative standpoint, I also liked what that approach did for the show," Healey continues. "Keeping so much of the lighting at stage level naturally drew attention to the performers. It created a lot of energy around the band and helped fill a theater the size of the Beacon without relying on a massive overhead rig."

Healey also leaned into bold monochromatic looks that he felt served to tie the entire stage together, making the performers and stage seem like they existed "in the same visual world." The monochromatic palette, combined with strong silhouettes, aggressive backlight, and ground lighting, conveyed subtle changes in mood during the set.

"There are moments where the show feels glamorous, and others where it feels raw and almost confrontational," Healey says. "The goal wasn't to make the show feel theatrical or overly polished. It needed to feel like the audience had walked into the biggest rock concert in the world while still carrying the mystery and elegance that people associate with the character. It was really all about Lestat."