Robe Brings Color and Magic to UK's Panto Season

	In Aylesbury, Webb needed power and punch to light and texture all the cloth drops, as well as to form a base layer for all the key lighting. Photo: Barry Rivett

Robe moving and LED lights, including the newly launched T3 Profile, appearing for the first time on a UK theatre show, was chosen by lighting designer Andy Webb during the UK's 2025-26 pantomime season.

Webb, an expert at illuminating this very specific performance genre, lit two very different Jack and the Beanstalk shows, both for leading panto producers, UK Productions; one at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury and one at the Festival Theatre in Malvern.

The T3 Profile moving light was already in Webb's thoughts for Aylesbury, where the throw from the front-of-house positions to the stage is 40m. Here, he needed power and punch to light and texture all the cloth drops, as well as to form a base layer for all the key lighting.

Webb says Robe's T-series multispectral light source is "a brilliant choice" for making colors and costumes pop, while the range of CT whites available is perfect for producing incredible flesh tones.

He also appreciates being able to use the fixtures for covering the stage with sharply focused gobos one minute, then dialing in the frost so the same fixture becomes a quality wash for when characters are on stage, seamlessly slipping back to the gobo looks when they exit.

"It's incredible being able to do this with one fixture," he underscores, referring to the versatility of Robe's impressive ProFrost progressive frost system.

The T3s were also plenty bright enough for this and other tasks in the venue, says Webb, who ran them mostly at around 70% intensity for the show.

Onstage, eleven T1 Profiles were positioned on LX bars 1 and 2, and these, coupled with the T3s, worked harmoniously for coloring and key lighting.

For the specials, nine MegaPointes were rigged upstage on LX 3 and 4, used for tight and bright gobo work, as well as in spot mode for high-impact back-lighting effects and for creating additional depth in the big musical production numbers.

Additionally, from these upstage positions, the MegaPointes made great "hero" lights for Jack and Jill whenever they were onstage.

Another pair of MegaPointes were rigged on either side of the stage on the front ladders and used for audience participation moments and as specials to light two mirror balls rigged on the advanced truss to great effect.

For the three stage-left and right-side booms, Webb chose a combination of Robe ParFect 100 and 150 LED fixtures, a pair on each of the booms, utilizing 12 fixtures in total. These were fitted with 20-degree diffusion filters for an extra touch of softening in the side light.

They were augmented with a further four ParFect 150s a side in the front-of-house positions.

Sixteen LEDBeam 150s on the side ladders, plus four at the front of house and another six on LX5, were used to create specials when the beanstalk appeared out of a trap door in the stage, part of an eye-catching stage set designed by Jon Harris, which grew voraciously towards the ceiling.

The beanstalk looked especially eye-catching when lit with the LEDBeam 150s twinned with the tightly shuttered T3 Profiles for gobo work.

At Malvern, where last year's production of Sleeping Beauty won Webb a UK Panto Award for Best Lighting, he opted to use seven Robe ESPRITE Profiles in the front-of-house positions, positioned for lighting the stage and for texturing the cloths.

He again chose 12 ParFect 100s for the side booms, and on LX5 to illuminate the cyc, he used eight CycFX8s, 1m moving linear LED battens.

Two DL4S Spots, from Robe's original range of LED theatrical moving lights, were rigged at the front of house and used for specials, while a pair of LEDWash 300s, one each side of the proscenium arch, were used for some cool shadow work and low-level cross-stage uplighting. The compact size was good for this position, the company says, together with the quality output.

Both shows ran 3D effects, so there were large screens and projection systems that had to be lit around, requiring the highly accurate lighting of parts of the stage and set without any spillage. The advanced shuttering of the T1s and ESPRITES was a vital feature in these productions, enabling spot-on key lighting to be delivered to exactly the right places.

Webb prepared and pre-vized both shows with Avolites, utilizing Capture and programmed everything on his own Avolites TigerTouch II console in Malvern, ending up with over 300 cues in the desk. In Aylesbury, he worked with the venue's technical manager, Alex Johnson, on the programming phase of the production.