{"id":1197813,"date":"2026-04-30T09:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T07:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.l-acoustics.com\/?post_type=press-release&p=1197813"},"modified":"2026-05-21T15:16:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:16:41","slug":"l-acoustics-l-isa-turns-broadway-play-dog-day-afternooninto-a-cinematic-sound-experience","status":"publish","type":"press-release","link":"https:\/\/www.l-acoustics.com\/fr\/press-releases\/l-acoustics-l-isa-turns-broadway-play-dog-day-afternooninto-a-cinematic-sound-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"L-Acoustics L-ISA Turns Broadway Play Dog Day Afternoon Into a Cinematic Sound Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tony Award-winning sound designer Cody Spencer brings L-ISA Hyperreal Sound to the August Wilson Theatre, giving a Broadway play the sonic scale of a film<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

NEW YORK CITY \u2013 April 2026 \u2013 <\/strong>When director Rupert Goold and sound designer Cody Spencer began planning Dog Day Afternoon<\/em> for Broadway, their starting point was a play, not a musical. No songs, no score to carry the story. But the 1975 Sidney Lumet film it is based on has one of the most recognizable sonic identities in cinema history: the relentless pulse of a New York summer, a crowd that grows angrier by the hour, and a climax that drops from the sky. Spencer\u2019s challenge was to bring all of that into the August Wilson Theatre on 52nd Street and make a live audience feel it. His answer was L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound, and a speaker system that raised more than a few eyebrows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starring Jon Bernthal and Eben Moss-Bachrach, Dog Day Afternoon<\/em> tells the true story of Sonny Wortzik\u2019s 1972 Brooklyn bank robbery, a botched heist that turned into an hours-long standoff with police and a media circus. The play uses music strategically throughout: 1970s classic rock dropped with cinematic precision, a crowd participation sequence built around the infamous Attica!<\/em> chant, and a helicopter descent that closes the show. None of it is incidental. Spencer designed the entire sound world with the same care a film sound supervisor would bring to a feature. The system he built to deliver it is, as PRG Vice President of Audio David Strang puts it, the size of your average musical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"A
A scene from Dog Day Afternoon<\/em> featuring Jon Bernthal (\u201cSonny\u201d), Danny Johnson (\u201cMr. Eddy\u201d), and Jessica Hecht (\u201cColleen\u201d) \u2013 photo credit: Matthew Murphy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A scene from Dog Day Afternoon<\/em> featuring Wilemina Olivia-Garcia (\u201cLorna\u201d), Andrea Syglowski (\u201cAlison\u201d), Jon Bernthal (\u201cSonny\u201d), Elizabeth Canavan (\u201cRoxxanna\/Gloria\u201d), Paola L\u00e1zaro (\u201cGuadalupe\u201d), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (\u201cSal\u201d), and Michael Kostroff (\u201cButterman\u201d) \u2013 photo credit: Evan Zimmerman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember Cody telling me what he was imagining, and I thought: That\u2019s fantastic\u2014you\u2019re going to be the first person to put a musical-scale speaker system into a Broadway play,<\/em>\u201d says Strang, whose company provided the sound reinforcement for the production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer was unequivocal about why the scale was necessary. \u201cI wanted the music to be big and full, not just heavy on the low end or oversaturated,\u201d he explains. \u201cI needed it to feel like you\u2019re watching a film, where the music drops in and fills the whole room. That\u2019s what led me to L-Acoustics and L-ISA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Supplied
Supplied by PRG, the main system is built around a split L-ISA Scene configuration of five L-Acoustics A Series arrays, each comprising a single A15 Focus over two A15 Wide, plus two cardioid subwoofer hangs of three SB18 flanking the center array<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A second tier of five more L-Acoustics A Series arrays, each made up of one A10 Focus over one A10 Wide, provide spatial delays to the front mezzanine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Designing the Sonic Architecture of a Street Siege<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer initially sketched a conventional left-right-center configuration with some playback. Then the conversations with Goold pushed the concept further. The set rotates between the interior of the bank and the street outside, and Goold wanted the crowd, which is gathered just beyond the doors, and invisible to the audience, to be a constant presence. As the perspective shifts from inside to outside, sound filters open and close, drawing the audience into the sonic point of view of the characters. At one point, the audience itself becomes the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith L-ISA, I knew I could make every seat in the house feel like the crowd is just on the other side of that wall,\u201d Spencer says. \u201cI\u2019ve used it enough to trust it completely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the crowd, Spencer built up subliminal low-frequency tension throughout the show, seeding the soundscape with random New York street sounds that blend with the actual ambient noise that sometimes drifts into the theater from West 52nd Street. The 1970s rock tracks accumulate in intensity toward the helicopter finale, designed to land as a full physical event. Even sub coverage was an explicit priority, something Spencer says he had never before tackled to this degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four L-Acoustics SB10i were mounted to the underbalcony ceiling to ensure consistent low-frequency extension across the room. \u201cI spent a lot of time with L-Acoustics system engineers on this,\u201d Spencer says. \u201cWe developed a tuning approach so the SB10i deliver a small amount of sub energy on their own, and when combined with the mains they maintain exactly the same level as you move under the balcony. The coverage is seamless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L-Acoustics Soundvision was central to the design process. Spencer used it to model sub coverage on the vertical plane, an unconventional application, but one that gave him the acoustic data he needed before a single cabinet was hung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Seven
Seven L-Acoustics X8 enclosures further serve as mezzanine delays<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The mezzanine\u2019s front-firing L-Acoustics X8 delays are complemented by additional X8 as rear-firing surrounds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Scene System Built for Object-Based Immersion with L-ISA A Series<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main system is built around a split L-ISA<\/a> Scene configuration of five A Series arrays, each comprising a single A15 Focus<\/a> over two A15 Wide<\/a>, flown over the stage lip. A second tier of five A Series arrays, this time one A10 Focus<\/a> over one A10 Wide<\/a>, provide spatial delays to the front mezzanine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two cardioid subwoofer hangs of three SB18<\/a> flank the center A Series array in the main Scene system. These are complemented by the four ceiling-mounted SB10i<\/a>. Seven ultra-compact X4i<\/a> run along the stage lip, with two colinear Syva<\/a> systems positioned as orchestra sources. The under-mezzanine delays comprise eight X4i, seven X8<\/a>, and seven 5XT<\/a>, with seven additional X8 handling mezzanine delays in the balcony. Four 5XT serve as near-fills and mezzanine fills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surround system is extensive: eight Syva and 34 X8 provide discrete immersive coverage across multiple seating zones spanning the full orchestra and both mezzanine levels. On stage, a pair of X8 and one 5XT reinforce stage sources directly, while two X12<\/a> flown above the deck give performers monitoring. The entire system is driven by an L-ISA Processor II<\/a>, with object-based mix control managed via an L-ISA Controller<\/a> paired to a DiGiCo SD10T console at front of house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strang notes that Spencer\u2019s use of the Syva deserves particular attention. \u201cHe\u2019s blending different parts of the system together using the Syva in ways I hadn\u2019t seen before,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"L-Acoustics
L-Acoustics Syva systems are mounted to the side walls as surrounds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Thirty-four
Thirty-four L-Acoustics X8 provide discrete immersive coverage across multiple seating zones spanning the full orchestra and both mezzanine levels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound: Clarity, Control, and the Cody Spencer Method<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer came to L-ISA through a deliberate creative progression. His first use of the technology was on Broadway Bounty Hunter<\/em>, and he subsequently brought it to Here Lies Love<\/em>\u2014the first time L-ISA was deployed on Broadway. He won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Musical for The Outsiders<\/em>, deploying L-ISA to place the audience inside the world of the Greasers and the Socs. With Dog Day Afternoon<\/em>, he is applying the same approach to the specific demands of a play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Dog Day Afternoon<\/em> is a comedy with densely layered dialogue, Spencer leaned harder on close-miking than he typically would for a straight play. L-ISA\u2019s object-based processing gave him the ability to isolate each voice and assign it to a specific speaker or group of speakers, increasing clarity without losing naturalism. \u201cI can give an individual speaker to a single mic, and that isolation gives you a lot more clarity in scenes where multiple people are talking,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also credits recent advances in L-ISA, specifically the new source trims feature, with making the process faster. \u201cI can finesse the levels in every fill, delay, and zone to make sure the coverage is complete,\u201d Spencer explains. \u201cMusic, sound effects, and vocals are the three main groups, and the goal is that every seat has the same sonic experience. L-ISA gives you the tools to actually achieve that, not just aim for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"The
The SB18 subs flown in the main Scene system are complemented by low-profile L-Acoustics SB10i subs mounted to the ceiling underneath the mezzanine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Full Score<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The production\u2019s climax is a test of everything the system can do. The Attica!<\/em> sequence draws the audience into the scene, the sound places them on the street outside the bank with the crowd surrounding them. When the helicopter arrives, L-ISA renders it as a physical presence overhead, with the sub hangs and ceiling-mounted SB10i combining to create a sensation that has been causing genuine double-takes in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Attica!<\/em> moment is when you realize the system is doing exactly what we designed it to do,\u201d Spencer says. \u201cThe audience isn\u2019t watching a crowd, they\u2019re inside one. And when the helicopter comes in at the end, people genuinely look up. That\u2019s the whole point: you\u2019re not sitting in a theater watching a film happen. You\u2019re in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Spencer, the working relationship with L-Acoustics is as important as the technology itself. \u201cL-Acoustics listens to what I\u2019m doing and helps my team develop faster ways to work,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is genuinely complicated and having that support makes it possible to push the creativity further during previews rather than just keeping up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"A
A line of ultra-compact L-Acoustics 5XT coaxials supply delay coverage to the rear orchestra-level seating area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For more information on Dog Day Afternoon<\/em>, visit www.dogdayafternoon.com<\/a>. More information on PRG can be found at www.prg.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press release assets are found by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Award-winning sound designer Cody Spencer brings L-ISA Hyperreal Sound to the August Wilson Theatre, giving a Broadway play the sonic scale of a film NEW YORK CITY \u2013 April 2026 \u2013 When director Rupert Goold and sound designer Cody Spencer began planning Dog Day Afternoon for Broadway, their starting point was a play, not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":1198063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"news_tags":"","tags_api":"","footnotes":""},"news-tag":[],"class_list":["post-1197813","press-release","type-press-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nL-ISA Turns Broadway Play Dog Day Afternoon Into a Cinematic Sound Experience- L-Acoustics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tony Award-winning sound designer Cody Spencer brings L-ISA Hyperreal Sound Experience to the August Wilson Theatre\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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