Written by Arya Ponto
Tuesday, 12 April 201one
batmanlive
Fear that the upcoming Batman Live stage tour can mirror the disastrous Spider-man: Flip Off the Dark Broadway show was addressed today when the assembly unveiled the cast and costume in a media launch in London. At the terribly least, they are already doing 3 things right: the script is written by a comic book writer, it's no newly created-up villain, and Bono is nowhere near this factor.
Yes, as the producers keep stressing, this can not be a musical like Turn 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 something against a Batman musical (Hey, The Brave and the Bold did it brilliantly), but it's most likely better for this production to concentrate on stunts and awes rather than songs, and to draw as a lot of distinction as doable from one in every of the largest trainwrecks in Broadway history.
In the video below, watch as Joker introduces the opposite villains, before having his monologue interrupted by you-recognize-who.
The actor will a reasonably sensible Joker. The body language of Cesar Romero combined with the deep, lip-smacking voice of Heath Ledger? As way as Joker actings go, much worse have come back and gone.
The media launch conjointly showed the concept styles for what the sector can seem like, as well as this beautiful badass miniature Gotham City. Alternative sets include Arkham Asylum (naturally), Penguin's Iceberg Lounge, Wayne Manor, the Batcave, and the massive Top circus scene where Dick Grayson's folks tragically die, pushing him to become Batman's sidekick Robin. On high of the sets, the show also options a whole new design of the Batmobile, concocted by Formula One designer Gordon Murray.
All this, for less than 1/three of Flip Off the Dark's budget.
The hardest factor to stomach, and is doubtless to be the primary gripe people will fixate on, is the look of Batman and Robin's costumes, that are too close to Joel Schumacher for comfort. Do not let it shadow the full production, though, as a result of A) They do not have nipples, and B) No one has yet 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, which they then had to turn into a dirtbike get-up in The Dark Knight.
Speaking of—one in every of my initial worries when this was announced was that they'd strive to piggyback off of the Christopher Nolan movies, however it looks like they're going for a more colourful, comic book look. Some Batman fans can insist that Batman can only be portrayed during a dark and edgy urban crime context, that is requesting a betrayal of the character's made history.
It's a smart thing that, despite Nolan's insistence on Batman being a lone vigilante, the show isn't sidelining Robin's existence. Far from it: the story really centers on Dick Grayson's journey into becoming Robin. Sadly, for whatever reason, they had to create him an older teen a la Batman Forever, rather than a ten-year-old child.
The target Robin is smart knowing the author, Allan Heinberg. Heinberg has had success as a TV writer on shows like Sex & the City, The OC and Grey's Anatomy, however is better known to comic fans as a author on Wonder Woman and, additional importantly, as the creator of Young Avengers. He's no stranger to the approaching-of-age stories of teenage superheroism.
It's a neat plan, really. Batman, Joker, and every one the opposite villains will be iconic and set in place, however have the audience align with Dick, who sees these people as the mythic figures they are and must enter that world.
The show premieres July nineteen in Manchester.
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