Walking with Dinosaurs − The Arena Spectacular
The Arena Spectacular is a live adaptation of the award-winning television series Walking with Dinosaurs. Like the TV series, The Arena Spectacular has to recreate dinosaurs to the point of the viewers accepting the creatures as real. Created by late renowned Artistic Director and Visionary - William ‘Bill’ May.
Production
The Arena Spectacular was created by The Creature Technology Company.[1] The production cost $20 million to stage and used puppetry, suits, and animatronics to create 16 Mesozoic era creatures representing 10 species.[2] Each large dinosaur weighs several tons, and is operated by two "voodoo puppeteers" and a driver beneath the dinosaur who also monitors the hydraulics and batteries.[3] The smaller dinosaurs (marked by an *) are suits operated by the person in it, each weighing from 20–30 kg (44-66 lbs).[3] There are six puppeteers for these suits, which only have side views.[1] The ten prehistoric creatures featured are:
- Allosaurus
- Ankylosaurus
- Brachiosaurus (1 adult, 1 adolescent)
- Liliensternus*
- Plateosaurus (1 adult, 2 hatchlings)
- Stegosaurus
- Torosaurus (2x)
- Tyrannosaurus (1 adult, 1 juvenile*)
- Utahraptor (3x)*
- Ornithocheirus also appeared as an animatronic in earlier versions of the tour, before being replaced with a CGI video sequence
There was also the carcass of an ornithopod and a video sequence about the Ornithocheirus. The dinosaurs initially did not have feathers, but they were later added after new research showed dinosaurs possessed plumage.[1] This also necessitated rewrites of the script, which were added to later iterations of the show as well as improvements in the animatronics, making them more responsive to puppeteers and giving them the ability to "eat" food and spray water vapor as "breath".[1]
Tours
The Arena Spectacular originated in Australia in January 2007 (as Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience), and toured North America in 2007–10, Europe in 2010, and returned to North America until 2011. It also toured Asia beginning in December 2010. In 2011 the show came to its final destination of its first tour, New Zealand. In 2012, the show toured the UK, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands.[4][deprecated source] For 2018, the show will be touring only the UK from Summer until Christmas 2018.
Tour dates
| Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular tour dates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Venue | City | ||
| 20–22 July 2018 | Metro Radio Arena | Newcastle-upon-Tyne | ||
| 26–28 July 2018 | Arena Birmingham | Birmingham | ||
| 31 Jul-1 Aug 2018 | Echo Arena | Liverpool | ||
| 3–4 August 2018 | Manchester Arena | Manchester | ||
| 7–8 August 2018 | Motorpoint Arena | Nottingham | ||
| 10–11 August 2018 | FlyDSA Arena | Sheffield | ||
| 14–19 August 2018 | O2 Arena | London | ||
| 22–23 August 2018 | First Direct Arena | Leeds | ||
| 25–28 August 2018 | SSE Hydro | Glasgow | ||
| 29 Aug-2 Sept 2018 | SSE Arena | SSE Hydro | Belfast | Glasgow |
| 3–26 September 2018 | SSE Hydro | Glasgow | ||
| 19–23 December 2018 | 3Arena | Dublin | ||
| 27–30 December 2018 | SSE Arena, Wembley | London | ||
Reception
Elliot Wagland from Huffington Post UK called the show "an enchanting way to spend an afternoon", saying that it "stunned" his son into silence.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d "245 million years of history on stage". Retrieved 2018-01-12.
- ^ ""Stepping into the world of dinosaurs:" Sneak peek of "Walking with Dinosaurs" arena spectacular!". FOX6Now.com. 2014-10-15. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
- ^ a b "Behind-the-Scenes of 'Walking with Dinosaurs' | BBC America". BBC America. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
- ^ "T-rex comes to town: Stunning £10m show with life-size dinosaurs stomps towards Britain". Mail Online. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
- ^ "Walking With Dinosaurs (REVIEW): Prehistoric Monsters Roar Into The 02 In Spectacular Style". HuffPost UK. 2013-01-02. Retrieved 2018-01-12.