Broadway Bounty Hunter

Context

The Team

Broadway Bounty Hunter is a Knock-Out with an L-Acoustics Sound System  

Broadway Bounty Hunter is described as an electric musical comedy with an irresistible, soulful score. It follows Annie, a hapless aging actress who is about to quit showbiz when a new, reinvigorating gig crosses her path. She’s asked to join a group of real-life, Kung Fu-fighting bounty hunters and capture a South American drug lord. With elements borrowing heavily from the campy martial arts film genre of the 70s, the production showcases scenes with big sound and kung-fu action, solos, and upbeat music.  

The Challenge

Turning a 20,000 square-foot ex-steel manufacturing facility into a world-Broadway Bounty Hunter is a dynamic, immersive show that puts the cast on stage for some scenes, and for others, they’re performing right in the audience area. Moving the vocals around would be necessary since the cast traverses all over the venue’s space throughout the show. Coupled with the Greenwich House Theater being smaller with a low grid, the show needed an immersive system with localization tools and loudspeakers that would fit the smaller theater, without compromising the lighting and visuals’ allocated space.   

The Solution

On choosing L-ISA Hyperreal Immersive Sound technology for the show, Sound Designer, Cody Spencer, stated, “I had wanted to use L-ISA for a long time. It seemed right for this production because the show was so immersive.” It ultimately provided the ability to localize the vocals and space different instruments across the stage’s panorama, leading to crystal clear vocals and a full-sound band with the capability to rock out, but pull back and retain the fidelity of the band when needed.  

Spencer also chose a frontal system of five X12 coaxial loudspeakers and two SB15m subwoofers form the base of the 13.1, 360-degree immersive system installed at the Greenwich House Theater. These were the smallest speakers that could fit in the space and give him the quality of sound he was after. Nine 5XT loudspeakers power the immersive system, with another pair of 5XT serving as near proscenium fills. A series of four X8 coaxial loudspeakers work as a fill system for the small balcony. At the same time, seven LA4x amplifiers power all of the loudspeakers in the room. The rigging options allowed the speakers to be installed without compromising sightlines for lighting and projections.   

System pictures

The Result

The L-ISA deployment was considered a resounding success. Director and Choreographer Jennifer Werner was delighted with how Spencer contributed creatively to the production with L-ISA. “Joe Iconis’s score is the heart and soul of Broadway Bounty Hunter, and the L-ISA audio design brought that score with our six-piece band fully alive—the music sounded so exciting! L-Acoustics was able to meet the gamut of audio design needs with a tricky venue space. I was able to have moments where the richness of the R&B/Funk score could really rock out, as well as have more intimately crafted moments of sound in the book scenes. The flexibility of L-ISA also gave me the tools to support any storytelling idea, which gave me the ability to create a fully environmental production where the audience was truly immersed in the sound.”

Project photos