MODERN TOUCH AT TUSSAUD’S

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31519, 6 November 1967, Page 2

MODERN TOUCH AT TUSSAUD’S

(From the London correspondent of “The Press’') LONDON. Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks, which last year opened its additional spectacle “The Battle of Trafalgar,” has just opened a new exhibition called “Heroes—Live”.

In a large room of thenbig premises in Maryleboue Road, just off Baker Street, Tussaud’s have created a new environment in which visitors and new portrait figures participate in a sequence of sound, light and projection. Neither the form nor the content of “Heroes-Live” is static. The designer, James Goddard, an A.B.C. television drama director, has used 43,000 cubic feet of Tussaud’s to provide a space, which can De reorganised as often as different subjects and designers require. Sound Effects Richard Pilbrow, David Collison, and Michael Wilson, of Theatre Projects, lighting and sound consultants for the new National Theatre, have equipper the space with a flexible system to give light, sound and effects where, and in the precise sequence, required. Th choice of Tussaud’s live heroes returns to the tradition of over a century ago when the exhibition made no rigid division between living kings, actors, statesmen, sportsmen, philosopher* and criminals.

The private identity, the role, and the public image of these heroes and their relevance to us now, are the factors that have guided Tussaud’s choice, and the expression of these factors have determined the design. James Goddard’s designs and Tussaud’s studios and artists have produced a new range of experience, not only by including sound, projection and effects, but by ex-

ploring outside the conventions of wax figures of exact size—President de Gaulle is portrayed, nearly twice lifesize, in concrete. “Heroes-Live” includes new portraits of Brigitte Bardot, Richard Burton, Cassius Clay, El Corodobes, President de Gaulle, Alfred Hitchcock, Senator Robert Kennedy, Malcolm Muggeridge, Rudolph Nureyev, Frank Sinatra, Nobby Stiles, Elizabeth Taylor and Twiggy. Frequent Changes Tussaud’s expect a change every three months. “Heroes - Live” represents one of the most flexible lighting, sound, and effects systems ever installed outside a television studio. On a cue from the sound tape, the robot sound and lighting control brings the sequence to life and sets off as many as 20 changes of lighting, synchronised by the tape, until, at the conclusion of the sequence, the dimmers switch across to a new set of lighting unite for the beginning of the next episode.