Putting together NBC’s “The Voice” is no easy task.
Behind the scenes of the live show, now in its 13th year, its trusty team is a well-oiled machine that ensures that the highest level of production is delivered to the audience tuning in each week. Amid the rotation of judges and contestants, the department heads — from makeup and sound to editing and more — have remained constant, helping drive the show’s success by bringing their A-crew and A-game to the table.
The live performance factor brings a great deal of uncertainty, says exec producer Audrey Morrissey, and that’s not something the audiences are typically privy to. The only element Morrissey and her team of producers know is what songs will be sung — not who is singing which song nor who will be moving on each week.
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“We start to think about the creative moving forward, and often that night, we’re already rehearsing with a team, with a coach, rehearsing their song on the stage, getting that out of the way,” she says.
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All the wheels turn simultaneously — from costuming and choreography to coaching and staging. “They’re building set pieces, they’re buying wardrobe, they’re building dresses,” says Morrisey. By Wednesday, everything is handed to Robert Malachowski Jr., the supervising editor, who begins work on the packages.
On the second day after dry blocking and rehearsal, production mixer Michael Abbott will go in with a full audio team on site. He also credits having had the same team for the entire run of the show to the success. “When ‘The Voice’ started, the expectations were so high that we knew we were going to bring the best we could to the business,” Abbott says.
That best includes finding top-tier vendors and manufacturers that give him the first run of a product, such as a new piece of audio equipment.
Malachowski collaborates frequently with Abbott in the editing process as he prepares to deliver packages. Abbott is on speed dial. “I’ll say, ‘Where’s this?’ or ‘Are we hearing this correctly?’”
His goal is a simple one: find the story, listen and find the artist in between all the hours of footage that comes his way. “We don’t have to worry [about] anything but getting that story out and getting their stories to picture,” says Malachowski.
Makeup artist and department head Darcy Gilmore also praises her crew of “top-tier” artisans, who “give their time to the show because they love” it, she says. “They come back season after season because of the respect they get. We get treated very fairly. We get the time that we need to do our jobs.”
Gilmore and her team will often begin their day at 7 a.m., creating looks for the contestants that need to last for hours. But it all comes down to teamwork. “We don’t want to compete with wardrobe or hair,” Gilmore explains. “It’s a complicated, nuanced position because you have to be professional yourself, but you are also aware of every other person that you’re working with and trying to fit into that position with everybody and become one.”
With technology allowing audiences to screenshot and expand images, Gilmore knows she can’t make mistakes. “There can’t be a smudge or any problems with the makeup,” she says. Research and staying ahead of trends is important to her job, knowing it could become the next TikTok or Instagram trend. But she stays laser-focused on “The Voice,” and tries not “to get too outrageous with the looks.”
Malachowski admits, “It’s a challenge to elevate. From technical to creative, it’s different every season. Every artist brings something new; every story is something new, and it’s a chance to create something new and showcase people.”
