Opening in Manchester, England on July 20, 2011 is Batman LIVE – an arena tour set to kick off in the UK and (hopefully, possibly, if we're "lucky") North America by the summer of 2012.
Wait… what?
Specifics of the show aren't exactly clear, but Batman LIVE will be a live-action, acrobatic arena show featuring Batman, Robin, Alfred, and the Joker. As far as I can tell, no one will be breaking into song or skating around on ice. I'd image it will be similar to a stunt-show that has a very loose story and lots of pyrotechnics – something you'd expect to see at Six Flags or Disney World.
Broadway World.com has details on the production team – who have varying degrees of theater experience – and some quotes from DC Entertainment:
"With the touring BATMAN LIVE show, we're bringing Batman's adventures to live audiences for the very first time," said Geoff Johns, Chief Creative Officer, DC Entertainment. "The idea that we're doing it with a production team this talented and with this much passion is thrilling."
"When a character has as wide an audience and as rich a history as Batman, it's truly exciting to see him introduced into an all-new storytelling medium," says Jim Lee, Co-Publisher, DC Comics. "BATMAN LIVE will bring a completely new experience to fans of the character – it's great to be able to give them something they haven't seen before."
Obviously this didn't come together overnight, but it's interesting to see this announcement shortly after Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark postponed its opening because of safety issues.
Tickets for Batman LIVE go on sale this Friday, November 12 for tour dates in Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Sheffield, Birmingham, London, Liverpool, Nottingham, Dublin and Belfast.
I'm sure you all have opinions.
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Could be fun! At least its not a musical.
Bizarre. It really does sound like they’re taking a Six Flags show on the road…
Might check it out in Liverpool!
Ah awesome! I will probs get a London ticket
Even better idea if acrobatics is involved – cirque du soleil with a Batman theme…
Read about this in the paper today, it sounds bizarre. Depending on the price, I may attend the Glasgow show…
For the opener they bring a kid on stage and gun his parents down in front of him.
Stunt show? Maybe cool.
Cirque du Soleil? Maybe not so much. You know what Patton Oswalt said about that…
At least it’s not a musical per se. That Spider-Man song preview here sucked @**.
As long as there are no BOOM!, POW!, BAMF! sound effects I’m down.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, oh my God yes. I am so there.
Epic! A musical would’ve been rad though, Jim Steinman was working on a Batman musical for a while. A couple tracks of it are on Bat out of Hell 3.
I will be seeing Spider-Man: Turn of the Dark though, oh yeeeeah!
This does bring up fond memories of the Six Flags Batman Forever show…
I know Doctor Who is doing a similar thing with live UK shows. I wonder if this is some new trend.
This sounds like the Ninja Turtles tour from when i was a kid except without rock music. awesome!
I remember seeing a stunt show when Batman Forever came out and it was really cheesy.
i would see this in a heartbeat.
these things are pretty common in japan. there’s a live show every summer for the current super sentai series. whatever that’s worth.
also, i saw the yo gabba gabba live show last summer. it was spectacular. it’s a really powerful feeling when you see someone in real life that you’ve only known through media. this thing could really work.
WTF!
This is retarded.
And yeah I am going to be confident in my judgement to put it out there and say this withought seeing the spandex and broadway choreography first.
We all ignore the hokeyness and camp of six flags crap. Bc we assumeit’s for the kids and DC in’t really trying to make any kind of staement with that portrayal.
But this is the Chief Creative officer saying I am proud of this?!
So this is the type of new ventures genius Geoff is going to bring to new media?
Intersting.
Every time I think of presenting Batman on some sort of live stage atmosphere, I can imagine Terry McGuinness and old Bruce sitting in the very back.
"You hate me… don’t you?"