Touring Musicals Equipment Setup & Getting use to a stage? (Hairspray)?

Question

Hi, I just currently saw Hairspray on Tour at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco and I noticed all the sophisticated set changes and sets dropping down from the ceiling. They do all this work for just a two week run in SF and they move to another location. Their next destination is just in two days. Sometimes they only run at a destination for a weekend or a few days. I wonder if the sets are already set up at the theatres already or do they have to pack up all the sets and move them.

I also wonder how long it takes for the actors to get used to the new stage they're performing on. How do they do all this in only a 2 day transition?

Answer 1

The sets are traveling. It has to be when you do so many shows. Its just traveling theatre. And it has to be good.

Actors have to be able to adjust fast. But they have rehersal.

Answer 2

Sometimes the big tours have two sets, so one is always ahead  of the tour at the next venue, but generally the crew strike the set after the last show in a venue, pack it into a truck and it goes to the next venue, where they unpack it and put it in.  The sets are all built in sections, so they come apart - and when you've loaded a show in and out of theatres enough times it becomes second nature as to how they go together, and everything is built to make it easier and faster to load into a theatre.  Sets dropping from the roof (the "flys") is easy - theatres have any number of bars on counterweights so you just attach the piece and fly it out, ready to be brought in when it's needed.  Most of the theatres are pretty standard in terms of size - they have to be for the sets to fit - and so to the cast, one theatre is the same as the next.  It's a well-practiced art; there are enough crew so that they work around the clock in shifts so that no time is wasted; the cast would probably have one, or if they're lucky, two rehearsals on the new stage to get used to any acoustic or staging differences and then it's on with the show.