Leap Of Faith question

[Younger Brother]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 1:28pm

I was listening to the Leap Of Faith cast recording and a friend of mine told me how it rained on stage during the final number.
I got thinking, wouldn't this affect the microphones and be potentially dangerous to those wearing them? The only thing I can think of is it being pre recorded as the 110 in The Shade revival's final number was. But the dialogue leading up to the song?
Hopefully someone can offer some insight

[bdn223]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 3:36pm

The final scene was not prerecorded..I sat front row I think I would have noticed, though they may have sweetened it with some pit singers. None of the ensemble was wearing mics in the finale, and neither were most of principals if memory serves me right. For the most part they used drop mics which were clearly visible. There were no lines during the rain, except for a brief couple lines by Jonas(Esparza) who walked out onto the catwalk in the audience saying this is my story..blah blah blah..., which he screamed/projected the hell out of because he wasn't miced, he was later handed a mic which worked due to the show within a show element, but after that line the rain stoped and the drop mics were turned back on and they sang a final chorus while playing in the puddles.

Updated On: 3/17/13 at 03:36 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 4:53pm

I also sat pretty close, twice, and it was definitely live.

[Taryn]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 6:04pm

There are waterproof mics for actors. Case in point: Kelli O'Hara in South Pacific.

[roadmixer]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 7:09pm

Hate to rain on everyone's parade but other than the solo lines by the few players who had them, the end of LEAP was recorded. There were no "drop mics" whatever those are. There were no area mics. The end of the show number was pre-record. The mics used were chosen for their ability to resist being completely ruined by the water - they had to be dried out every show and exchanged with another set every other show. The use of the handheld by Jonas at the end was staged that way because his mic was almost always totally dead by the end of the rain.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 8:24pm

Don't they have mics now that can be completely submerged under water and still be usable? I thought I was a video about it.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 9:02pm

Well, Kelli O'Hara said she once dropped her mic in the toilet during the run of South Pacific and it still worked, so obviously the waterproof mic the designer chose was pretty good (to be fair the pack was also wrapped in Saran Wrap in addition to the normal condom usage)

[wonkit]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 10:24pm

roadmixer - what is your source for this information, since it does not correspond to anything I have previously seen? Or anything I saw during performance, for that matter.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 10:30pm

Singin' In The Rain in London has every member of the cast singing live onstage in rain.

[DEClarke]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 11:07pm

Didn't DRACULA in Stuttgart also have a finale in the rain with live miked vocals?

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 3/17/13 at 11:25pm

Roadmixer, your statement doesn't make sense. Why would using waterproof microphones force them to prerecord the finale? The waterproof mics would have just the opposite effect, and allow them to perform the finale live.

Which, in fact, is exactly what happened. They did have water-resistant mics, and more than one set that they swapped out every other performance or so, but I can assure you that, based on my own personal, firsthand experience of the show, both in Los Angeles and New York, each and every performer was singing live in the finale at each and every performance.

It seems you got your information about the waterproof microphones from the same place I did, an article/interview with either the sound designer or sound engineer while the show was running. My memory is not what it was, I just can't remember where the article appeared, so I can't link to it directly. But nowhere in that article do they say that they finale, or indeed, any other part of the show, was pre-recorded.

[roadmixer]

Posted: 3/18/13 at 11:52am

I didn't just throw out that response without actual knowledge of the situation on LEAP. I worked on the show. I'm an audio engineer. There are no such things as mics that are impervious to water entirely. Dipping a mic in water or raining on it will almost always kill it at least temporarily. Drying them out will work to a point but the lifespan of the mic is greatly reduced. The people who had mics on still in the final scene of the show either had lines in the final scene prior to the rain or no time to take them off. The final song was tracked. Trust me.



Updated On: 3/18/13 at 11:52 AM

[finebydesign]

Posted: 3/18/13 at 12:06pm

I sat close as well, and I thought it was lip synced. I remember just before the rain noticing something was off/different. And the singing was oddly perfect in the end. Especially with Leslie Odom and I think that little kid. They were just too good and it was raining.

Also it only rains for the last minute seems like a huge waste of budget to give them all water-resistant mics for one song.