Hi jack63ss.
Everything that's been said above about mic placement, mic selection,
stage layout, music direction,
inverse square law,
etc., is true, and equally applicable to your problem. What everyone seems to be assuming however, is that your show has both the main choir and smaller ensembles singing at the same time. I don't think that's the case – or at least not always.
I've worked with a number of choirs that feature the same elements as you've described, and for the most part the larger choirs (90-100 voices in some shows) are not singing at the same time as the ensembles or when skits/dancing is happening. That makes some of the information provided by others less applicable. In general, we've found an X-Y mic pair on a stand in front of the ensemble to be very effective. If the main choir is also singing during that part of the show, it's generally during the chorus, and you can
fade the mics down until the next verse. If
stage space is limited, the X-Y mics can be wireless, making them easy to carry on and off
stage, but limiting the mic selection somewhat. For skits we'll use either area mics (
Crown PCC160) on the lip of the
stage, body mics on the principle actors, or both. In addition to these mics I've also used 2-4 hanging mics for the main choir in a couple of venues which are acoustically "dead" from where the choir is positioned – these get used when it's just the choir, and sometimes a little gets added to the mix if the other mics on
stage aren't giving the balance we're looking for.
All of the above requires a good person on the sound
console, and good script of the show where you can make notes about when to make changes.
My
current show is an opera that's been scaled down a LOT due to the space we're in. Due to those space limits, and COVID, we have only a 10-person chorus and it is located well off
stage. It's mic'd with an X-Y pair of small
diaphragm condensers about 8 feet in front of them, and that's working out very well.
@RonHebbard and
@TimMc: I don't own the Yellow
Book you referenced, nor any BS25 or BS36 stands (mine are all AKG and K&M tripods), but totally get what you're saying. My wife is an excellent A2, and wears a
button that reads "Feet first or sideways?" when she works festivals. She refuses to get me one . . .