I was lucky enough to catch Batman Live last weekend, though, in saying that, the £12 million touring behemoth of a show was nowhere near sold out, which was surprising. The show is debuting in a tour around the UK and is certainly an ambitious event. Pyrotechnics, trapeze artists and a 3D stage set of Gotham city mean that this show is much more than Batman: The Panto.
Attended by young and old fans alike, the arena was swarming with little kids in Batman costumes and grown-ups in various Bat-tastic T-shirts. We were all in for a 2 hour spectacle that was part Cirque du Soleil, part magic show. For reasons unknown, the Glasgow show was not graced with the Bat shaped mega screen, and we had to settle for a regular square, though I think it worked a lot better and the Bat screen would have been little more than a gimmick. There were two acts, with the first being exposition heavy and the second being packed full of thrills. The second act benefited from focusing mainly on the Joker and Harley Quinn, and was in places surprisingly dark, inspired, it seemed, by the Arkham Asylum video game.
Treading the line between comic continuity and family friendly fun, Batman Live is less like Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and more in keeping with Tim Burton’s vision of Gotham in Batman Returns. It was a fine balancing act for a show which had the murder of two sets of parents in the first half, but none of the kids around me seemed to be frightened so I can only say that it was a success in that regard. In light of its audience demographic, the plot was simple, yet effective, touching on Batman and Robin’s origin stories, and introducing the villains of Gotham while giving them little motivation beyond, ‘Let’s all get together and kill Batman.’
There is no denying that the acrobatics were fantastic, but there was probably one circus act too many in the first half, which slowed the pace. The stage fighting too was noticeably hammy in some parts, and very slow, but with the bulk of the Batsuit I can’t imagine it’s easy to be agile. The stand out performance of the night came from Poppy Tierney as Harley Quinn who was fun, naive and deadly in equal measure. It was interesting to see that a stage show such as this could portray her relationship with the Joker so perfectly. Harley was definitely the star of the show, in my opinion, but Robin was pretty much spot on too and the Joker was menacingly fun in the style of Jack Nicholson’s take on the character.
Everyone was entertained, from children marvelling at the effects (‘Is that real fire?’ the little boy next to me asked his dad,) to adults cheering when Bruce Wayne announced ‘I’m Batman.’ The amount of empty seats did impact the atmosphere but definitely not the enthusiasm of the crowd. While the restrictions of the SECC in Glasgow may have meant that my experience was a little different from other audiences’, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and would definitely recommend it to Batman fans of any age. I imagine once it starts a world tour, tickets will be like gold dust and you’ll be sorry you missed your chance.
Batman Live is touring until October 8th and is hitting seven other cities, including Birmingham, Belfast and Dublin. Tickets start at £20, with the most expensive ‘Gotham City’ floor seats costing £45. Family tickets and group rates are also available.
