Roy Orbison may be dead, but he's still playing Fort Myers' Mann Hall on Saturday
Charles RunnellsRoy Orbison is dead. He’s been that way for 30 years.
But never mind all that. Here he is, anyway, traveling the country on a new 28-day tour that visits Fort Myers this Saturday.
Scott Saxon, general manager of Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, says he can’t wait to see the rock icon come to life onstage and sing “Pretty Woman,” “Only the Lonely,” “Crying," "It’s Over” and other classics.
“I’m really excited,” Saxon says. “A lot of people didn’t get to see Roy Orbison when he was alive. This gives them sort of a chance.”
No, it’s not a rockin’ zombie. Or even Orbison’s ghost, back from the grave to entertain the masses in his trademark sunglasses and a spiffy red guitar.
Instead, it’s a hologram version of Orbison “starring” in a first-of-its-kind tour called “In Dreams: Roy Orbison In Concert - The Hologram Tour.” The show features an orchestra, remastered vocals and all-new song arrangements from a 2017 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert.
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The hologram tour fits neatly into the huge tribute-artist industry, where performers recreate the look and sound of defunct — often dead — acts such as Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. Only in this case, you’re watching the real deal, in virtual form.
After a while, insists Marty Tudor of show creators BASE Hologram, you almost forget you’re watching a hologram at all.
“You’re watching it, and there’s this live presence onstage,” the company CEO says. “And after about 10 minutes, you just accept that you’re watching somebody. It’s really, really fascinating.”
This isn’t the first time a dead star has come to life as a hologram, of course. The late Tupac Shakur returned from the grave, virtually, to play Coachella in 2012. And a hologram of Michael Jackson played the Billboard Music Awards in 2014.
Still, nobody’s ever taken one of those holograms on tour before, Tudor says. So he and his company decided to do just that.
BASE Hologram — a spin-off of longtime live-entertainment company BASE Entertainment — recreated Orbison with the help of a body double and countless photos and videos of Orbison in action. Everything was fed into a computer to build the singing, moving digital-laser projection starring in the nearly sold-out show Saturday at Mann Hall.
Tudor won’t go into more detail about the process, though. BASE isn’t the only hologram company out there, after all, and he doesn’t want to tip off the competition.
“A magician never gives up his tricks,” he says.
The hologram is modeled on the late 80s version of Orbison, the one that saw newfound success with the classic-rock supergroup The Traveling Wilburys. The band racked up two hit albums in 1988 and 1990 — the second released posthumously after Orbison’s death on Dec. 6, 1988.
Both the hologram and the tour have the stamp of approval from Orbison’s family, who Tudor says worked closely with BASE Hologram on the project.
None of Orbison’s family members were made available for a News-Press interview. But here’s what his son, Alex Orbison, said in an August news release announcing the Fort Myers show: “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.”
The Fort Myers show will feature local back-up singers and about 26 members of Gulf Coast Symphony. Symphony Music Director Andrew Kurtz admits he's never done anything quite like this before.
"It's very cool," he says. "It's fairly new technology. It's kind of exciting to be part of something that's cutting edge."
Like the real-life Orbison, the virtual version doesn’t move around much onstage, Tudor says. He just stands there and sings and doesn’t interact with either the band or the audience.
“It’s an authentic experience,” Tudor says. “I could have made him do backflips if I wanted to. But that’s not what he did.”
BASE Hologram hopes to turn the idea into an ongoing series of tours. If Roy Orbison is a success, they’re planning to roll out more shows featuring other late stars, including Maria Callas and Amy Winehouse.
They chose Orbison to kick off the venture, Tudor says, because he’s an iconic performer who people still love three decades after his death. His songs appear in movies, TV shows and commercials, for example, and there’s a whole Orbison tribute in the new Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper remake of “A Star Is Born.”
“He’s a classic artist that’s still very, very relevant today,” Tudor says.
Saxon of Mann Hall says he was intrigued by the idea of a virtual Roy Orbison, so he took a chance and signed on as one of the first U.S. venues to host the groundbreaking tour.
“It’s brand-new,” he says. “Nobody else has done something like this.”
People are hungry for this sort of thing, Tudor says. For proof, check out the nearly 1 billion YouTube views of the Tupac hologram performing at Coachella.
There’s a built-in audience for something new that takes the tribute-show experience to an all-new level, Tudor says. And that's the Roy Orbison hologram's moment to shine.
“It’s as close as you’re going to get to the real Roy and the real Roy’s voice singing with a live band,’ he says. “Where else are you gonna get that?”
Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells (Facebook), @charlesrunnells (Twitter), @crunnells1 (Instagram)
If you go
What: “In Dreams: Roy Orbison In Concert - The Hologram Tour”
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Barbara B Mann Performing Arts Hall, 13350 FSW Parkway, south Fort Myers
Tickets: $42-$74 (plus applicable taxes and fees, prices subject to change)
Info: 481-4849 or bbmannpah.com