Chauvet Professional created a visually striking environment for the Season 3 premiere of “The Vampire Lestat” at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Lighting designer Ryan Healey utilized a ground package featuring 30 CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12 fixtures to transform the venue into an immersive goth club, complete with chants of “Lestat!” and a live rock concert performance by Sam Reid.
The design’s primary goal was to establish a consistent visual language for the audience, recognizing that this was the character’s first introduction as a performer. Healey set a richly evocative mood for the performance, merging theatrical flair with rock concert vibes. The ground package, anchored by the PXL Curves, defined the stage footprint while creating texture and scale behind the band. Because the fixtures were all at deck level, they reinforced the low center of gravity the team was after, and helped keep attention focused on the performers. They also gave the team a tremendous amount of flexibility to build bold graphic looks throughout the set while remaining incredibly fast to deploy.
Logistically, the team had only one day in the venue and much of the overhead infrastructure was already occupied by the Tribeca Film Festival. To address this, Healey intentionally kept the flown lighting package as minimal as possible, allowing the ground package to take center stage. This approach allowed the overhead system to go in quickly so audio and backline teams could get to work while the lighting team built the ground package around the band setup simultaneously.
Healey also leaned into bold monochromatic looks that he felt served to tie the entire stage together, making the performers and stage seem like they existed “in the same visual world.” The monochromatic palette, combined with strong silhouettes, aggressive backlight, and ground lighting, conveyed subtle changes in mood during the set. The goal wasn’t to make the show feel theatrical or overly polished; it needed to feel like the audience had walked into the biggest rock concert in the world while still carrying the mystery and elegance that people associate with the character.
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