An interesting article about the seven(!) stage managers on Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Talk about the most difficult job on Broadway right now… On stopping and safety:

Says [PSM Randall] White: “There are certain things where absolutely you have to stop no matter what. There are other things you work around. They’re called B-plans, and it takes about six months, but you learn all the B-plan options.” A crucial part of the stage managers’ job is safety […]

On calling the show:

Broadway stage managers often work without a view of the stage, instead watching the action on video monitors from somewhere below or in the wings. With performers flying out over the audience, though, White says he felt it was essential that he and Purvis have a direct view of the entire house. So a total of six seats were killed in the lower balcony to build booths for their vantage points. Purvis calls lighting and LED-panel cues from house left. White handles flying and scene-change cues from house right. {Co-PSM Kathleen] Purvis’ booth has as the normal gear of a Broadway “caller,” including communications and monitors showing the stage. White’s booth, though, more resembles a space shuttle cockpit, with an array of video and computer monitors, comm controls and computerized cue lights. In front of him sits a row of lighted buttons controlling 23 cue lights for prompting scenery moves: light on for warning, light off for “go.” During tech rehearsals, Spidey’s debut scene was broken up into sections. When they tried to run it straight through, he had to stop. “There were 27 cue lights in three minutes, plus all the flights. I could not get my hands in the right places on the lights and watch the flyers the whole time,” White says. “I remember going over to Julie, and she asked, ‘Can we run it?’ And I said, ‘I cannot run this. I cannot connect all of this. I have to get an automated cue light system in here.’?” That took two weeks, and added yet more to the technical budget. But now those scenery cues are run through CueVision software, which White operates through a simple two-button controller at his left hand — though he still has manual overrides for every cue light, in case he needs to improvise if something goes wrong.

Spidey spins epic technical challenge