Next To Normal is an emotional hard-hitting musical with a rock score written by Pulitzer, Tony, Emmy and Grammy Award winner Tom Kitt and book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Brian Yorkey.  The stellar cast of six all provide vocals and are accompanied by an on-stage live band featuring drums and percussion, bass, guitar, real upright piano, violin and cello. 

“The A Series is dealing with the variety of instruments without colouring any of them. There’s a fantastic detail and accuracy to the HF which helps keep the sound of every instrument intact in the mix.” he says. “JBL have built a loudspeaker that sounds amazing out of the box without the need for excessive DSP. The only tuning needed is just for a specific room, which I do on the desk.” 

This system itself comprises of two main hangs of eight VTX A8 line-array elements which cover all but the first 5 rows of the stalls. Two ground-mounted B18 subwoofers and two  flown B18 subwoofers reinforce the bottom end.  

“I could have extended the array but the sightlines would have been compromised in this theatre, especially given the height of the band’s position on set.” Tony explains, “The arrays are angled slightly inwards to centre the energy a little and keep sound off of the audience boxes”.