Masque Sound Provides Custom Audio Equipment Package for A Christmas Story, The Musical

	A Christmas Story, The Musical. Photo: Carol Rosegg

Masque Sound, a theatrical sound reinforcement, installation, and design company provided sound designer Ken Travis with a custom audio equipment package for A Christmas Story, The Musical. This is the third straight year that Masque Sound worked with Travis on the hilarious, holiday favorite. The show opened in New York City at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on December 11, following performances at Hartford's Bushnell Theatre and the Wang Theatre in Boston.

Directed by Tony award-winner John Rando and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, A Christmas Story, The Musical is a hilarious account of Ralphie Parker's desperate quest to ensure that the one thing he wants for Christmas, an official Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle, ends up under his tree. The musical, based on the classic 1983 film, which itself was derived from stories by legendary radio humorist Jean Shepherd and a book by Joseph Robinette, features funny and heartfelt songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

After a successful holiday run on Broadway last year, the show returned to the Big Apple once again and, for Travis and his team, the unique layout and large size of the 5,000-seat theater at Madison Square Garden (MSG) presented some interesting challenges.

"We are limited with what we can do from a sound design point of view due to The Theater at MSG's low ceilings," says Travis. "We cannot hang a center cluster like we do in many Broadway houses, because there is simply no room for it. In addition, The Theater at MSG is three times as wide and three times as deep as a typical Broadway house, and seats about two and half times more people. There is also no orchestra pit, so the orchestra is seated in boxes on house right. Add all of that up and you can see why designing the sound had its obstacles. We are basically trying to cover the house as best we can, so we are supplementing the in-house system with the gear that Masque Sound provided us."

Another challenge Travis faced was the limited run of the show -- a month and a half during the holidays. "We had to build [a sound system] based on whatever the shop had on the shelf," adds Travis. "You can't ask the shop to hold a system that is going to be out for only six weeks of the year. Fortunately, Masque Sound knows the gear I like to use and has an excellent inventory for us to work with."

In order to provide complete coverage with great sound, Masque Sound provided Travis with a Studer Vista 5, his preferred console and the same one that he used for last year's production. "The Studer console is very flexible, solid, sounds great, is fast, and definitely easy to program," adds Travis.

To complement the existing house speaker system, Masque Sound provided Travis with an array of L-Acoustics dV-DOSC speakers for the main left and right and Meyer Sound UPA-2Ps for the fill system. In addition, Masque Sound also provided 30 Sennheiser SK 5012 transmitters and matching 1046 receivers, as well as RF frequency coordination for the show.

"My associates, Zach Williamson and Justin Stasiw, along with mixer Mike Wojchik and the rest of my crew did an amazing job," concludes Travis. "My team and I always enjoy working with Masque Sound, and their rental gear and support helped make this year's show another success. The audio package looks good and sounds great."

A Christmas Story, The Musical ran at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, December 11-29.