Preparations and Set Designs
The stage used for the tour required more time to set up than before. This was seen in the tour schedule where a considerable number of concerts were one-stop performances. Equipment, which in total weighed over 100 tons, required two Boeing 747 jet aircraft and multiple lorries to transport to each venue.
Before the tour began, Jackson and his band (which had changed a little since the Bad tour) rehearsed the whole concert. The footage of the rehearsals has been leaked into the Internet. However, the exact date and location of the performances is not clear, but it was rumored that the rehearsals took place in Jackson's Neverland home. The rehearsals included performances that never made it into the final show, including "Remember the Time," "The Way You Make Me Feel," Bad" and "Rock with You," among others.
For the tour's design, Jackson was influenced by the uniform worn in the military. For "Jam", the first performance on the tour's set list, Jackson wore two variations of a faux-military uniform. Costumes worn for the performances of "Workin' Day and Night", "Bad", as well as his later HIStory World Tour, were examples of this. During the first and second legs, the uniform was a grey-green jacket with a one bolted strap which sparkled with multicolour. For the third leg, Jackson wore a black uniform with three gold bolted straps, one going from his collar to his waist in one direction and the other two in another; he also used this costume at the first Dangerous Tour concert in Munich, first second leg concert in Tokyo, the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show in 1993, and later at the Royal Brunei Concert (pre-HIStory Tour concert) in 1996.
The tour also incorporated several stage illusions.The Dangerous era was considered one of Jackson's best. Each concert on the tour ended by a stuntman, Kinnie Gibson, who secretly switched with Jackson as he kneels down a trap hole in the stage, dressed in a full astronaut costume (therefore appearing as Jackson), flying out of the arena using a rocket belt. Each concert also began with a illusion-like stunt dubbed "the Toaster" in which following the ringing of bells and the roar of a panther, Jackson catapults on to the stage through a trap door in the front, sending off pyrotechnics that electrified the crowd. A similar version of "the Toaster" stunt was used in the beginning of Jackson's Super Bowl XXVII Halftime Show performance in 1993. In the first and second legs, the transition from "Thriller" to "Billie Jean" was another stage trick. When Jackson walks into two pillars, he secretly switches with a werewolf-masked backup dancer while he changes for Billie Jean. The backup dancer posing as Jackson is placed into a coffin which disappears when dancers posing as skeletons and zombies drape a cloth over the coffin and pull it out. Jackson appears fully dressed for Billie Jean in the upper stage level as it lowers down. The coffin portion of this stage illusion was removed in some of first leg shows and the entire third leg of the tour, and replaced with the Jackson impersonator and the backup dancers performing an encore of the "Monster Breakdown" (the dance sequence in "Thriller").
Read more about this topic: Dangerous World Tour
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