Thunder Audio (Livonia, MI and Nashville) is providing sound reinforcement, including RCF line arrays, for Tyler Perry’s latest touring stage production entitled “Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned,” working with tour management company Peachez Entertainment Services in a relationship that stretches back more than 20 years.
Since 1999, Perry has produced a new stage production almost every year, and the 300 live shows that he presents each time out, in association with Peachez Entertainment Services, are attended by an average of 35,000 people per week. The current production features nine actors, including Patrice Lovely from the hit TV sitcom “Love Thy Neighbor” and R&B Artist Cheryl “Pepsii” Riley.
The show, which also includes a five-piece band and three backing vocalists, segues from spoken dialog to songs and back again, requiring a system to meet these sonic demands. The challenge is met with 28 RCF TTL55-A line array modules and 4 TTL36-AS subwoofers.
“The actors use lavalier mics, which aren’t really designed for loud-volume singing – the challenge is making that sound not too harsh and loud, while preserving the clarity of the spoken parts,” says Ron Hurd of Thunder Audio who’s serving as front of house engineer for the tour. He’s engineered sound on Perry’s shows since 2000 and has seen a dramatic turnaround in theater-goers’ post-show comments as they exit past the soundboard since incorporating RCF into the production.
“With RCF, the transition from voice to song has been so seamless,” Hurd says. “We used to get some comments from patrons as they were leaving about how the vocals were hard to understand, or that the musical numbers were too loud… Now we get compliments on the music and the clarity of the actors’ voices.”
Production director Norman Williams of Peachez Entertainment Services has presided over every theater date of the tour, primarily venues with an average of 3,000 seats, and has similar praise for the sound reinforcement. “Sometimes we have very tight load-in schedules, and the RCF system is incredibly easy to load in and get positioned,” says Williams.
“Thunder Audio’s customer service is outstanding,” he continues, recalling a situation at a show in Chicago where additional sound equipment was needed. “Within six hours, Thunder Audio had a truck down here from Detroit with the necessary gear.”