A WW T-Rex presentation in association with BBC Worldwide of an arena show by William May from an idea by Bruce MacTaggart, written by Warner Brown. Directed by Scott Faris.
The Palaeontologist - Felix Nobis/Bruce Spence
Following in the successful footsteps of the BBC's docu series, Melbourne-based WW T-Rex's spinoff arena show "Walking With Dinosaurs: The Live Experience" appears poised to be an equally large hit. Spanning 160 million years of prehistoric action, show features the Plateosaurus and Liliensternus from the Triassic period, the Stegosaurus, Allosaurus and Brachiosaurus from the Jurassic and the spectacular Cretaceous creatures. Everything a dino-phile could want.
Since the dinosaurs are what everyone has come to see, it's a relief to report that they are stunning, life-size and faultlessly nimble. The smaller ones are man-operated with Julie Taymor-style puppetry, while the larger beasts are animatronic and stabilized by a T-shaped plate that runs along the floor between their legs.
In act one, the beasts parade into the arena gnashing and cavorting as a safari-suited palaeontologist describes their attributes. Only in the second half does the natural history yoke fall away as the action cranks up, culminating in a spectacular clash as a T-Rex mom defends her baby from predators.
Some smaller children in the front rows were scared by the belching beasts looming over their heads, but the general response was delight at the dinos.
And that's just as well, because the show is weak in most other respects. The script is mostly dull and cliched, while the set consists of a few jagged rocks midstage and around the edges, which on cue sprout vegetation typical of the three eras.
The vegetation seems oddly caricaturish, jarring in light of the attention to detail on the dozen or more creatures in this A$12 million ($9.5 million) show.
Projections on a screen at the back of the stage are hit-and-miss, mostly miss for auds not seated in the center rows. Action plays mostly to the front sections of the aud, accounting for only about a third of the house at the show's Sydney premiere at the Acer Arena.
Lighting design for the Jurassic period, a collage of delicate ferny shadows along the stadium floor, was quite beautiful, but this mystique was shattered by the mash of colors used to illustrate the Cretaceous.
None of this really matters, however, because Sonny Tilders' and Trevor Tighe's triumphant creature design ensures "Walking With Dinosaurs" is a truly spectacular spectacular.
Set and projected images, Peter England; lighting, John Rayment; costumes, Adam Gardnir; original music, James Brett; creature design and construction, Sonny Tilders; creature engineer, Trevor Tighe; technical manager, Graham Coffey; technical director, Graham White; puppetry director, Matthew McCoy. Opened Jan. 10, 2007. Reviewed Jan. 18. Running time: 1 HOUR, 50 MIN.
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Date in print: Sun., Feb. 4, 2007