Nathan Alves Calls on CHAUVET Professional for Barry Manilow's The Last Concerts Tour

	Alves changes the look of the stage by calling forth various colored washes, changing video content, and making scenic elements appear and disappear.

Barry Manilow's The Last Concerts Tour began its six-city UK segment on June 9 in Glasgow, before embarking on an extended North American run.

Manilow's lighting and production designer, Nathan Alves, says about the tour, announced after his client's hiatus from live performing, "We were planning this one for a few months, but the window from the time of the finished band rehearsals to the first show was tight. The first Glasgow show was rehearsed in the Braehead Arena, then was moved to the Hydro O2. Most of the pre-production was handled via pre-viz. We didn't have a lot of time to assemble and tech."

Hitting the ground running, Alves and his team tossed the show into the arena in a day, then spent one day and night making sure the pre-viz looks translated well into real life. "I couldn't have done this one without my long-time collaborators out here," Alves says. "Aaron Swetland is my lighting director and programmer. Erica Santucci is the production stage manager for our Vegas shows and our coordinator on all road dates. The 4Wall UK team [suppliers of the gear] was also great, showing up with really good kit and ready to go." This really is a team sport, and without their help I wouldn't have been able to get this off the ground."

Featuring well-placed downlighting on the star, an uncluttered deck, a stylish backdrop with lighting, drapery and a video wall that often displays images of Barry Manilow, as well as stage left and stage right risers for band members, the stage exudes classic sophistication.

Alves enlarges this polished aura with his deep, monochromatic color palettes, which play off against the bright overhead lighting. He also changes the look of the stage by calling forth various colored washes, changing video content, and making scenic elements appear and disappear.

Making a key contribution to this vision is a collection of 64 CHAUVET Professional fixtures. "They are basically the foundation of our floor package," says Alves, adding that in addition to the 4Wall gear, the riser package and custom ramp were from All Access Staging, with audio supplied by Solotech.

Featured in the mix of fixtures are 26 COLORado PXL Bar 16 motorized battens, 10 COLORado PXL Curve 12 units, and 18 Rogue Outcast 2X Washes. "These fixtures perform very well for us," Alves says. "Given the time pressure we were under in the UK part of this tour, we really valued the reliability at the start of the tour."

The PXL Bar 16 battens in Alves' rig line the front of the LED fascia and run up the ramp in the middle of the stages. This helps shape the stage and define the design's structure, notes Alves. The PXL Curve 12s act as a light curtain upstage of Manilow, allowing Alves to fill the negative space behind him.

"We have ten of our Rogue washes on the floor for some downstage flare," Alves says. "Their ability to tilt up and flare at cameras is of huge value. The remaining eight Rogues are on side truss and used as key light on band members. The color in those Rogue fixtures is fantastic!"