GLP X5 Dot Wash makes Broadway debut on The Rocky Horror Show
When Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show opened at Studio 54 in New York this spring with a star-studded cast and award-winning crew, the production was bound for success. It has lived up to that hype, having been nominated for nine different Tony Awards in 2026, including Best Lighting Design of a Musical. The productionalso marked the North American theatrical debut of GLP’s X5 Dot Wash, as lighting designer Jane Cox deployed 30 units as part of a 140-fixture GLP rig.
Associate lighting designer Nick Solyom handled gear specification alongside Cox and rental company PRG. He was one of four associates on the production, joined by Oona Curley as theatre associate, Erica Maholmes on spots, and Stoli Stolnack on atmospherics. Solyom’s path to choosing the X5 Dot Wash began with a recommendation fromlighting designer Neil Austin.
The case for the X5 Dot Wash centred on the footlight. For Cox, this fixture has a specific theatrical form. It was something invented to tell stories on a stage.
Solyom recessed the X5 Dot Wash units just behind each filament bulb, which yielded a few unique creative options. “We were able to make it look like the light was coming from the filament light bulbs,” he says, “Or, we could leave those bulbs at a glow and have the punch come from the X5 Dots. They were recessed just enough so that the audience couldn’t see them.”
Beyond the X5 Dot Wash, the production draws on four further GLP products across 140 fixtures in total.
Distributed throughout the auditorium, 30 impression X4 XL workhorse units act as floor washes and cross-light washes. “I was very impressed by the level of brightness I could get across a really sophisticated range of colour,” says Cox.
Two vertical strips of impression X4 Bar 20, with one on each side, just behind the proscenium, are in Cox’s words, “maybe doing the most important work in the show.” 29 units in total light the show curtain, traveller, legs, borders and all the shiny scenic masking, while offering near-unlimited flexibility for lighting performers from the side. “X4 Bars are like the light of my dreams,” says Cox. “They do everything.”
12 JDC1 Hybrid Strobe units, positioned just outside the proscenium and facing the audience, are so integratedinto the production’s visual language that Cox describes them as part of the scenery. To complete the setup, two GLP Force 120 fans, all mounted to suggest they are a part of the venue’s HVAC infrastructure.
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