Written by Arya Ponto
Tuesday, 12 April 201one
batmanlive
Fear that the upcoming Batman Live stage tour will mirror the disastrous Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark Broadway show was addressed nowadays when the production unveiled the forged and costume during a media launch in London. At the terribly least, they are already doing three things right: the script is written by a comic book author, it has no newly made-up villain, and Bono is nowhere near this issue.
Yes, as the producers keep stressing, this can not be a musical like Flip Off the Dark, despite being directed by Anthony Van Laast, who's famous for choreographing musicals like Mamma Mia!, Sister Act and Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Not that I even have anything against a Batman musical (Hey, The Brave and therefore the Bold did it brilliantly), but it's in all probability better for this production to target stunts and awes rather than songs, and to draw as much distinction as possible from one in all the largest trainwrecks in Broadway history.
In the video below, watch as Joker introduces the other villains, before having his monologue interrupted by you-apprehend-who.
The actor will a pretty sensible Joker. The body language of Cesar Romero combined with the deep, lip-smacking voice of Heath Ledger? As way as Joker actings go, abundant worse have come and gone.
The media launch also showed the concept styles for what the arena will seem like, including this gorgeous badass miniature Gotham City. Alternative sets embody Arkham Asylum (naturally), Penguin's Iceberg Lounge, Wayne Manor, the Batcave, and the massive Top circus scene where Dick Grayson's oldsters tragically die, pushing him to become Batman's sidekick Robin. On prime of the sets, the show conjointly options a brand new design of the Batmobile, concocted by Formula One designer Gordon Murray.
All this, for but one/three of Turn Off the Dark's budget.
The hardest factor to abdomen, and is probably to be the primary gripe people will fixate on, is the planning of Batman and Robin's costumes, that are too shut to Joel Schumacher for comfort. Don't let it shadow the full production, though, because A) They do not have nipples, and B) No one has nevertheless to pull off a satisfactory and convincing live-action Batman costume, anyway. Even in Batman Begins, it was a lot of like Fat and Cannot Breathe Leather Man Begins, that they then had to turn into a dirtbike get-up in The Dark Knight.
Speaking of—one of my initial worries when this was announced was that they might attempt to piggyback off of the Christopher Nolan movies, but it looks like they are going for a more colourful, comic book look. Some Batman fans can insist that Batman can solely be portrayed during a dark and edgy urban crime context, which is soliciting for a betrayal of the character's made history.
It's a good issue that, despite Nolan's insistence on Batman being a lone vigilante, the show isn't sidelining Robin's existence. Way from it: the story truly centers on Dick Grayson's journey into turning into Robin. Sadly, for whatever reason, that they had to make him an older teen a la Batman Forever, instead of a ten-year-recent child.
The specialise in Robin is sensible knowing the writer, Allan Heinberg. Heinberg has had success as a TV writer on shows like Sex & the City, The OC and Grey's Anatomy, however is best known to comic fans as a writer on Wonder Woman and, a lot of importantly, because the creator of Young Avengers. He's no stranger to the approaching-of-age stories of teenage superheroism.
It's a neat idea, really. Batman, Joker, and every one the other villains will be iconic and set in place, however have the audience align with Dick, who sees these folks because the mythic figures they are and must enter that world.
The show premieres July 19 in Manchester.
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