SGPS ShowRig Elevates New Kids On The Block Vegas Residency with Flying Pods

New Kids On The Block’s Las Vegas residency gives fans the chance to see the iconic boy band like never before – including a moment during the show when the guys float above the crowd in custom flying pods complete with integrated wireless LED lighting.

The group – which features brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight along with Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood – are gearing up to return to Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas in October for the residency’s final eight shows. The gigs were booked as part of “The Right Stuff Remixed Las Vegas Residency,” which began with an eight-show run in June and July. In a post on Instagram earlier this year Wahlberg explained that the 16 “Remixed” shows would feature more songs, surprises and twists.

An announcement from the group’s PR added that along with all-new song selections and special surprises, the residency will continue delivering “a scale of production and performance elements that cannot be replicated on tour, creating a one-of-a-kind experience unique to Las Vegas.”

The production is brought to life thanks to a team that includes SGPS ShowRig, production manager Omar Abderrahman, designer Travis Shirley, NKOTB manager Jared Paul and creative producer/associate director Pam Chu.

SGPS ShowRig VP of Touring Benjamin Lampman explains that one of the reasons the group’s debut residency has been such a success is that NKOTB and its team allowed plenty of time ahead of the “The Right Stuff” launch in June 2025 for planning and having “true artistic conversations about what they wanted to do.”

He added, “Look, I work for a company that is successful because we’re able to react fast and we’re able to do things quickly. But it does really show that if you do take your time to plan, you can do a lot. And sometimes you can do a lot at better prices.”

Before involving the band, the SGPS ShowRig team met early on at the 6,400-capacity Dolby Live with production manager Abderrahman and designer Shirley to examine what’s possible. And then, months before rehearsals began, SGPS Showrig executed an off-site pre-build strategy by bringing creative producer/associate director Chu as well as NKOTB’s Wahlberg and Jordan Knight into SGPS ShowRig’s 250,000-square-foot North Las Vegas headquarters for a show-and-tell/test run.

Lampman got his start working in regional theatre and went on to work on Broadway shows including “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” “Book of Mormon” and “Moulin Rouge!” He noted that an off-site, pre-build strategy is pretty unique to a concert or residency but that it’s definitely something you’d do more of with a theatre show.

“One of the interesting things with New Kids On The Block is their show really works because of the theatrics … so, it was really appropriate for a show like theirs to have this [pre-build]time … I think what it allowed them to do is get comfortable with what they wanted to do. … I think that’s why the business sometimes seems so crazy because there’s so many last-minute changes, last-minute adjustments. Because they did this, I think it went much smoother [at Dolby Live]. The install and everything went much smoother. I think they got to focus on what was important – their dancing, their choreography and their movements around the stage.”

For NKOTB, Lampman says it was really about creating moments, with each song having its own look. Plus, it was a priority for the band to be able to get close to the audience.

The production on the tour includes a custom band riser incorporating a 24-foot conveyor and two stage lifts, a horseshoe-shaped staging structure in front of the main stage, an automated stage creeper used to move a subway car on and offstage, and a custom lift that reveals a piano integrated into the stage floor.

SGPS ShowRig initially used the concept of a piano that lifts up from the floor on Aerosmith’s residency and after the piano was auctioned off for charity, the company built it again for the New Kids’ residency.

“It was a nice moment instead of watching roadies or a bunch of stage hands push a piano out on stage. And they also never would have pushed a piano that far downstage if it hadn’t been for effect like this. … This once again brought the performers closer to the audience,” Lampman says.

During the tour at SGPS ShowRig’s headquarters, the guys mentioned they wanted to incorporate a treadmill into the show and were able to try out the choreography on the spot.

“They got to try what they wanted to do on the actual piece they were going to get as opposed to waiting weeks for something custom to be built for them. … They really got to get a feel,” says Lampman, who notes that the 30-foot-long treadmill was previously used in a Ricky Martin show.

He adds, “A lot of our gear is like Legos. So really we mix it all together to kind of come up with some cool effects. There’s a fun part where [NKOTB] get in a little pod that is supposed to look like a ferris wheel pod … it goes past the front of the stage and then lands down and they get out of it. That’s all based off a tracking system we have that we’ve used on everything from Travis Scott to some of the country stars we work with like Luke Bryan and Trans Siberian Orchestra … Because we have this kit of parts from so many different shows, it really allows us to try to meet clients’ needs based on what we already have in house. The reason we’re able to turn things around quickly and turn things around on a sometimes a pretty tight budget is because we have such a great inventory to pull from.”

As for the custom-built items in the show, Lampman refers to the custom performer flying pods with integrated wireless LED lighting as “probably the absolute wow moment of the show.”

“They kind of look like phone booths at first, but they’re not enclosed. They’re very much open. … There’s lights on them that light them and illuminate them. … almost like a toy box with a Barbie doll in it – but it’s one of your favorite New Kids,” he says. “It’s all battery powered so that we didn’t have to have big cables running down to the phone booths to these pods. So that allowed them to have a neat moment there where it looked like it was levitating and getting picked up. And then on the bottom we put a graphic that was the New Kids on the Block logo … so, even if they’re flying over your head, you’re looking up and getting a cool image of the New Kids on the Block logo.”

“The Right Stuff Remixed Las Vegas Residency” returns to Sin City Oct. 2-3, 7, 9-10, 14, 16-17. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster.

Fans won’t want to miss the final dates because NKOTB has said the shows are their final performances until 2028.

Visit nkotb.com/events for more information.

_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/09/11/how-sgps-showrig-helped-new-kids-on-the-block-bring-the-right-stuff-to-its-vegas-residency/)._