Does Batman Live deliver as a large-scale action spectacular? Adam Dolan reviews the superhero's theatrical adventures.
Batman Live, the multimillion pound production from popular theatrical mainstay Anthony Van Laast, has arrived at London’s O2 arena, for a limited eleven-day run.
Batman Live is ostensibly the retelling of Batman and Robin’s respective origin stories, and a depiction of the Dark Knight’s epic battle with villains from the Rogue’s Gallery but, in reality, it’s far less than that.
It suffers from exactly the same issues as the majority of Batman-based entertainment; an over-important focus on the back-story and far too little Batman. The production is so heavily laden with expositional speeches from Bruce Wayne and the Joker that The Dark Knight’s time on stage amounts to little more than a glorified cameo.
In the entire first half of the show Batman appears on-stage for approximately ten minutes. Things only get worse after the intermission, when Batman Live degenerates into a third-rate Vegas casino lounge 'woman in a box' magic act. Speaking of Vegas, Circ de Soleil’s influence is depressingly evident: at its core, Batman Live is essentially a circus show. Most of the 'action' consists of a group of acrobats flipping and tumbling their way across the stage. It’s effectively the same performance, most likely from the same group of actors in different costumes, repeated three or four times, while Batman sulks backstage, grumbling that it’s not fair they get all the stage time since his name’s on all the posters.
Batman Live is a small production on a large scale. The purpose-built stage, while impressive aesthetically, is dwarfed by the expansive O2 arena. Even from my relatively good seats the fight scenes are hard to make out, and I couldn’t pick any of the actors out of a line-up (even the ones not wearing masks).
Though this does appear to be the Joker’s show; the other villains are given little more than walk-on cameos. Excepts Catwoman that is, who features fairly heavily: she even gets to share one of the few action scenes with Batman. The rest are woefully neglected – the Riddler (a personal favourite) has about two lines in the entire production.
There are few standout performances, except Poppy Tierney who plays Harley Quinn and is the embodiment of her character and Poison Ivy (because who doesn’t love a sexy redhead in a skin-tight leafy leotard). Even the Batsuit is a disappointment; and the Schumacher-esque armour restricts the wearer’s movements so much that during fight scenes he resembled an awkward rubber action-figure wading through custard.
I really don’t know who the target audience is for Batman Live. It’s certainly not a play – it’s too shallow and lazily written to be called theatre – but it’s far too slow and laborious to be an action spectacular, and kids would be bored to distraction. Of all the things I expected Batman Live to be, boring wasn’t one of them. How in the hell a manic eleven year-old is expected to stay focused on the stage is beyond me.
I’m a dedicated Bat-fan, and have been since I was a kid. When I heard they were creating a live-action show I was giddy like a giant manchild about the prospect of an all-action Batman stunt spectacular. Sadly, this isn’t it. I guess I’ll just have to wait for the inevitable reboot.
Batman Live is at the O2 Arena until 4 September.
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