Dream Within A Dream Tour - Development

Development

The name of the tour was based on Edgar Allan Poe's poem of the same name. The tour was directed and choreographed by Australian choreographer Wade Robson. He explained the concept of the tour, saying,

"The show is gonna be really, really theatrical—it's really complicated. It's a massive show with a lot of new music. It's just gonna be really different. You're gonna learn a lot more about her as a person. The show is gonna be really about how she's becoming a woman, how she's finding herself and her independence. She knows what she wants to do, she knows who she wants to be, and that's what the show's about."

The stage was designed by production designer Steven Cohen and production manager Rob Brenner for the HBO special. Cohen designed the main stage with an oval shape so that Spears could perform around the stage and so that it would look good from multiple camera angles. He said that the rest of the stage was created with three main components in mind: a runway, a B-stage, and a flying device over the crowd. The last was developed, as explained by Cohen, "around this Cleopatra's barge concept I got into my head while designing when the movie Cleopatra was playing in the background. It needed to be elegant and stylized but also high tech, because it was going to have to be traveling on conventional motors and transport mechanisms. Plus, it had to have a big enough performance area for her and the dancers." Brenner continued, "I wanted to try to give the kid in the back of the house the same experience as the one in the first 10 rows." The runway uniting the main stage and the B-stage was suggested by one of Spears's managers, Johnny Wright. The entire stage was built by Michael Tait from Tait Towers. Cohen said, "We took a more expanded role in preparing the drawings for Michael. We wanted to retain the essence of the look of the show, both in its overall footprint and in the execution of these various pieces. did a great job on executing the fine details like the hand railings and the floor lights and the MR-16 covers. When you're doing something for TV, all of those pieces are foreground pieces. The mirrors on the platforms and the floor painting made the show look better on TV."

"We had no idea the potential of the water screen, until we set it up in Lakeland, FL, six or seven months after we decided to put it in. There had been a lot of design and technical engineering put into it before they got back to us and said they could do it. It's actually a two-part system The water screen, which is up in the air, has pumps that feed the water screen that drops down. But we needed to be able to catch the water and pump it to the other set of pumps. So that was a unique challenge for us because it had never been done before. It took us about two months to see if we could get it to work. As much experience as Steve and I both have, this was an unknown entity and we weren't quite sure what we would have to deal with. one of the signature items on this tour. The first time they turned it on, Steve and I looked at each other and smiled because in our wildest dreams we never imagined it would look as good as it does. When we turn on the water, there is a hush that goes through the arena. You can almost hear them whispering to each other, ‘Is that water?’ They've seen so much to this point, and a lot of the kids at these shows are at their first concert, so the pyro, the lasers, the flying barge, and the bungee—all of these effects are new to them. It's all something they've never seen before, and just when you think it can't be outdone, we turn on the water screen".

Rob Brenner, explaining the development of the water screen

The video screens showed both live shoots and special footage directed by Robson. Cohen worked by Danny O'Brien at BCC Video to create double-sided custom video LED cubes that hanged above stage right. There were three larger-sized video screens above the stage area. The gyrating wheel in which Spears opened the show was made by Branam Enterprises and was attached to a platform also created by Tait Towers. 171 white light yag lasers were provided by Spectra. The giant music box from which Spears emerged in "Born to Make You Happy" (1999) was designed by Michael Cotton. Confetti was shot from machines provided by Pyrotek. Pyrotechnics were done by Gerb Fountains, whereas artificial snow was provided by Little Blizzard. During the encore performance of "...Baby One More Time" (1998), there was a water screen in which it was poured nearly two tons of water pumped at 360 gallons a minute. Cohen said, "The water screen is the keystone of the entire design because it impacts every system—electrics, staging, dancing. Rob discovered the company (Chameleon Productions of Orlando, FL) that makes the screen, and I immediately looked at what they had in stock, which was a straight line. And I knew we didn't want a straight line. We wanted a circular water screen so we could physically build a shower for her to stand in the middle of and not get wet and then walk through when she wanted to. Of course, everyone thought I was crazy, so I suggested a six-sided shape. Everyone was concerned that the gaps between the sections might cause gaps in the actual sheets of water. But I kept saying that if you put them 40' to 50' up in the air, gravity will cause the water to attach to itself, so you end up getting a solid sheet."

The lighting was designed by Cohen and his partner in Steve Cohen Productions, Joel Young, who served as the tour's lighting director. Cohen continued saying, "All of our shows heavily color-based—everything is rich in color. There is a lot of layering that is not confusing so the purity comes through". Young programmed the show on a Flying Pig Systems Wholehog II console, which he ran while simultaneously calling the 13 followspots for each show. There were eight truss spots and five house spots: four Lycian 2.5 kW instruments on the back, four Robert Juliats on the front truss, four FOH spots and one in the back." Steve Cohen Productions also served as the tour's lighting vendor and sublet the gear they required from Westsun and Fourth Phase/LSD. Syncrolite provided its own 3k lights. Apart from the Syncrolites, the rest of the lighting was a combination of Coemar and High End Systems automated fixtures and conventional luminaries. There were a total of 215 active lights.

A week before the tour began, Spears said of the show: "I come from Broadway, so I want it to be very theatrical. The whole process for me is magical. Hopefully it will be something people have never even imagined or envisioned in their head. I was going through a run-through yesterday and was thinking, 'By the time I'm 30, there's not going to be anything left for me to do'". Initial rehearsals for the band started on September 9, 2001. She joined them later after rehearsing the choreography in Los Angeles, California. The setlist was composed mostly by songs from Britney. She explained her decision in a press conference, saying, "I just want my fans to see me in a different light than they have ever seen me before. This music I am singing right now is such a reflection of me and who I am. Hopefully will come to the show and be inspired and have a lot of fun." Several songs from her previous albums, such as "...Baby One More Time", were remixed by Robson to "take in a new direction - flip up a bit".