The lunatic is on the grass.

Roger Water‘s echoing voice rang out from all sides as lasers collided on stage into an image of a roughly drawn man walking on the grass. The theater is large, and one could hear dozens of audience members singing along to Pink Floyd’s Brain Damage. Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs. The beams reorganized to form a dice, chains made of daisies, and finally a smile. By the time the “lunatic is in a hall” rang out accompanied by another literal image, it is obvious that the creators of Paramount’s Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular were not taking any creative liberties.

The show’s idea, to accompany Pink Floyd’s music with cerebral lasers, holds a lot of promise. A cave-like space splattered with roaming lights would seem to be an accurate physical representation of Pink Floyd’s psychedelic space rock. Millions of people agree since the show is the longest touring theater show in American history. However, if one were to judge the show’s value void of its musical advantage, it fails to be innovative in a medium where there is room for much innovation.

Much of the show featured lines from the song illustrated word for word, decorated by floating auxiliary lasers. Even the pictures were crudely drawn, invoking absentminded doodles in high school math notebooks. The imagery did much to destroy the magical sense of weightlessness that was provided by the floating lasers alone.

That being the case, it still should come as no surprise that the laser show continues to be a big hit for Pink Floyd fans. At the very beginning Ryan Waters asked the crowd how many of them have seen the show before, and half the hall answered. Though they come for the light show, and the promise of a legal out-of-body experience, they stay for the sense of community that develops as the show progresses. This might also have more to do with Pink Floyd’s infamous set of dedicated followers, but one cannot deny the special atmosphere created by packing hundreds of fans into a dark room with a show led by the enthusiastic Courtney Ryan Waters.

The soft scent of an illegal plant was permitted to linger in various corners of the room, despite the presence of security. And there were numerous sing-alongs and shout outs that no one seemed to mind. Including one by a director, who replied to “Mother should I trust the government?” by yelling into the mike: “Hell no!”

By its end, only a critic could weed out the flaws of the endearing show.
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Check out a promo video for the Laser Spectacular: