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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Evening Standard rating
Reader rating
Thrilling: the £10 million show coming to London next summer will feature snarling and roaring life-sized dinosaurs from every period
Instinct: a mother tyrannosaurus rex fighting to protect her baby
Dinosaurs are roaming the earth once again — in a spectacular £10 million show that will conquer London next summer.
Based on the award-winning BBC TV series Walking With Dinosaurs, The Arena Spectacular has won widespread acclaim during two sell-out tours in Australia and America and promises to be one of the most groundbreaking shows ever seen in Britain.
Featuring 15 realistic, snarling and roaring animatronic dinosaurs, the show will take over the O2 arena for five nights from 5-9 August followed by six nights at Wembley Arena from 26-31 August.
The cast includes an allosaurus, a torosaurus and a utahraptor. The largest, the brachiosaurus, is 36 feet tall and 56 feet from nose to tail. Top billing goes to a terrifying 20ft tyrannosaurus rex which, in a dramatic climax, tries to protect her baby from predators.
Tim Haines, creator and producer of the original BBC series, worked on the live show as a consultant. He said: “At its core, the spectacular manages to do what the TV series did so successfully, which is to make people imagine they are looking at real dinosaurs.” The beasts are operated by “voodoo puppetry” which involves a backstage team manipulating miniature versions with the same range of movements as the life-sized counterparts. Movements of the puppets are replicated on stage.
Newsweek hailed it as “that rare entertainment beast that parents and kids can enjoy together”. Variety said the dinosaurs are “stunning and faultlessly nimble”.
The show has been seen by two million Americans, including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Tickets go on sale tomorrow. Call 0844 875 9000 or see www.dinosaurlive.co.uk
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Sorry, but I have to agree with the 'dissappointed' amongst you. I went to Wembley.Paid over £200 for 6 of us ( 4 kids) and I expected something good following all the hype. Instead , the sound was muffled, you had to crick your neck to see the screens properly ( if you weren't at the far right end), and the same screens seemed very temperamental in terms of what they did broadcast.
Getting back to the dinos- what a con!!!! the actors legs showing on the smaller dinosaurs and huge contraptions attached to the larger ones made the whole thing real dissapointment. At the very least they restricted the dinsosaurs movements. They seemed to be doing the tango rather than fighting! What an absolute waste of money. And thats before I even begin on the cost of programmes and refreshments at the place.
The show was barely 90 mins if you leave out the extensive break. And we only saw a handful of different types. I suggest you watch Jurassic Park instead. Much better.
Pahhhhh......
- V Johnson, London
Saw this at Wembley - it was pretty impressive. We had seats low down (you complainers - try buying your tickets earlier for better views). Yes, they weren't, er, real dinosaurs and so needed help to get around so well done you genius people for spotting that. But I took three children including a normally sarcastic teen and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Public transport to and from Wembley was very easy too and the venue staff most helpful.
- Mary, London
Very expensive. Bad seating in the Gods although sightlines were good. Not at all scary and unconvincing. The actor's legs showing and the logs (mobility scooters) hanging underneath completely spoiled what little magic there was. No realistic fighting and certainly no blood! Very over-rated. Where was the brontosaurus? And the plants were a joke. Sorry, I love the staging in any production but this was a disappointment. Perhaps if I'd paid £45 for 8 tickets (!) the view from lower down might have made it a bit more thrilling. The tv series was certainly more fascinating.
- Disappointed And Now Impoverished Grandmother, Norwich, Norfolk
What a total waste of time! After all the hype I was so excited to go to the O2 Arena with my partner, son and daughter (both over 16!). With the cost of the tickets over £35 with booking fee, a nightmare journey involving the O2 express boat (as Jubilee Line down), and the cost of food/drink in the area, we blew well over £200 and what for - to see men running round in dino suits, some robotic dinosaurs on wheels!! which could only move forward and backwards, a flying dino on wires and some 'pop up vegitation' which would not look out of place in a pantomime! Please do not waste your time or money!
- Chrissy Robinson, Cambridge UK
To take a family of four with public transport and even water at 2.50 a bottle at the O2 arena would cost the best part of 250 pounds. Do not waste your money. We paid 35 pounds plus handling charges per ticket up in the gods - it would have been far far better to have watched the original BBC TV production at a decent large screen cinema.
- David Loveday, Shaftesbury UK
A terrible show. Badly staged with inadequate stage direction. The flying sequence ( all executed at at low level) resorted to old fashioned back projection on two tiny screens that were awkwardly positioned and not large enough. No decent sense of scale ( surely dinosaurs should loom over heads) and all swamped by the huge arena. Compared to the brillant War Horse or BBC proms Doctor Who - this was a total let down. No 'raptors in the aisles, and no menace from the T Rex. Should have been built as a Conan Doyle's 'Lost World' scenario maybe, but this weak 'edu-tainment' vehicle just lacked everything. And the O2 is a nightmare. Finally - A special note for fans of public transport: allow at least three and a half hours to get there.
- Richard Nye, Rickmansworth
Oh dear! If your kids are more than 10 years old they will spot and immediately identify the human legs of the smaller dinosaurs, and the 'mobility scooters' (their words not mine) that the larger ones needed to get about. This would be very good for a school panto but for a £10,000,000 show? The footfall of nearly all these giant reptiles was entirely silent and the flying dinosaur was truly terrible. Don't even get me started on the tectonic plate demo!!
- Nick Roberts, Ripon, UK
I am all set to go on Sunday and am soiling myself with excitement. How they managed to find any of these magnificent beasts is beyond me and training them in the theatrical arts must have been an overwhelming task. I'll bet even Lloyd-Weber couldn't have managed that, even though he looks like a dinosaur himself, well, an ugly, fat pale toad really. In any case it's going to be brilliant. I just hope they don't eat me or run away. You certainly don't want diplodocus having a nice sit down on the Cutty Sark now do you, and her majesty would not be amused if T-Rex emptied his guts on her front lawn, I'll wager.
- Curt, Huntingdon, UK
Watch at Sheffield Arena. Absolutly fantastic. we loved it. Wasn't sure what to expect but we were stunned by the life like dinos! Can't say enough, was a fantastic show wanted it to go on and on. FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!
- Deb N Cam, E Yorkshire
Saw this show in the ACC in Toronto last year. Absolutely stunning. After about 10 mins you forget the animatronics and get sucked into the whole event. I am so glad it has crossed the water to the UK. Definitely going again.
Can't recommend this enough.
Watch out for the T-Rex.....
- Chris, Cardiff
