ORBISON, CALLAS TO TOUR AS HOLOGRAMS

Shows featuring holograms of Roy Orbison and opera legend Maria Callas are the initial offerings of BASE Hologram, a new company within BASE Entertainment.

In Dreams: Roy Orbison in Concert will launch in April in the U.K. with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and tour North America beginning in September. The two shows are being showcased at the APAP conference in New York this weekend.

Eric Schaeffer, who helmed Million Dollar Quartet on Broadway, is the director.

The timing coincides with Sony Legacy’s November release of the Orbison album A Love So Beautiful featuring digitally remastered arrangements of his classics recorded with the Royal Philharmonic that was a hit in the U.K. and elsewhere.

The productions are being created to fit in live entertainment venues of various sizes, festivals and theaters, museums, attractions, malls and other mixed-use spaces.

“This is the first worldwide hologram tour ever of an iconic superstar of this variety,” said Bob Ringe, CEO BASE Hologram Distribution. “As a result, you need a name like Roy Orbison or Maria Callas to be successful. They were both not only gifted vocalists, but they were industry game-changers, just as these tours will be.”

Alex Orbison, President of Roy Orbison Music, said, “For our family it was an amazing emotional experience to see this for the first time and we know audiences worldwide will have the same reaction.”

Callas In Concert, written and directed by Stephen Wadsworth with Constantine Kitsopoulos conducting, starts in Tokyo in May. More dates will be announced later.

Sony Picture Classics is releasing a new documentary on Callas this year, Maria By Callas: In Her Own Words, and a new book and CD collection are on the docket as well.

BASE Hologram will be announcing more similar projects in the coming months.