Hyper Sixers Hire Broadway Lighting Designers

Somewhere, P.T. Barnum is stroking himself to a picture of new Sixers CEO Adam Aron. 

The Sixers front office is like a marketing department on a (perhaps deadly) combination of acid and Red Bull. The team Tweeted 26 updates from today’s media day. 26. They’ve hired a self-proclaimed “social media sponge,” who they sort of threatened in an email. And they’ve put out press releases for nearly everything. 

Mascot hysteria? Check.

900-year-old PA announcer? Check.

New owner running marathon? Check.

Tony Battie, lower ticket fees and Sixers dance team help tip off the season of Philadelphia’s first and only Latino youth basketball league? Check, check and triple fucking comprobar.

All of those announcements just in December. And the latest? Showtuuuuuunes!!!

Sort of.

In continuing their crusade to bring you the greatest show on the hardwood for this 2011-2012 limited engagement, the team announced the hiring of Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhaur, “the most celebrated Broadway lighting designers,” to handle all the lighting duties for the “entertainment portions of the total game experience.”

Earlier in the month, Aron said that the “Lakers-style” lighting seen in Los Angeles wouldn’t be possible right away because of it’s extreme cost. But that reality didn’t stop the team from focusing on some other aesthetic enhancements.

The highly successful duo of Fisher and Eisenhauer have worked with one another for over 25 years, collectively working on over 150 Broadway productions and individually earning 27 Tony Award nominations. As a pair, they have earned Tony Awards for Lighting Design on Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk (1996) and Assassins (2004), while being nominated in the category as a duo six times.

Additionally, Fisher and Eisenhauer have brought their unparalleled experience in the field to feature films. They worked with cinematographer Dion Beebe for the lighting design on Chicago, the Oscar-winning film for Best Picture, They also designed the lighting for Burlesque, School of Rock, Dreamgirls and The Producers, among other films.

Good lord, you have to respect the effort (and most of the moves), but this is going to go Jessie Spano in a hurry. At some point, the folks in the Sixers front office are going to come down off this high and realize they actually need to win basketball games. That, or they’re just going to crash. I’m so excited, I’m so excited, I’m… so… scared!

Our friends from SportsTalk Philadelphia (La Salle University) were down at media day today. They do a nice job covering local sports, so hop it for some video from today's media availability.