Batman Live

On Sunday the 21st of August I went to see a stage production at the Birmingham NIA. I sat in the second row to the left facing the stage, ready to watch a stage production which I had been waiting, oh I don't know, two months maybe? That sounds about right. But anyway, there I was, waiting patiently for the production to start, and that production was....Batman Live.

My God I didn't expect to see this happen. I mean, maybe a small production but nothing on this scale. A huge screen dominated the background, which, in between acts and before the start, showed Gotham City in all its glory. Cars are heard beeping, blimps are flying through the air, and even minor details like the monorail going round in a circle.

But let's get onto the plot. It follows Robin's origins. Yeah, what I believe is the first big budget live adaptation of Batman, and it focuses on the origins of Robin. Now I admit, I'm not a big Robin fan. He is essentially a character for younger kids to interact with, so he alienates the older audience who just want to see the dark superhero Batman kick ass and chew bubblegum. But in this production it worked. In fact, now that I think about it, it might be the only story that would work in a live stage performance that can appeal to the whole family, especially since half the cast were circus performers. But even though this is a family production where kids are around, it does keep the story serious, with murder being mentioned quite a bit. I mean there's Bruce's parents, there's Dick Grayson's parents, there's Zucco's death and most of Arkham's guards are killed (or at least implied).

On the stage were miniature buildings representing Gotham, which mad me think that Batman and the Joker were going to fight like Godzilla versus whoever. But we then start off with Bruce and his parents walking away from the cinema after watching 'Mask of Zorro', makes a change from the opera I guess, where we get our mugging gone wrong scenario, after Bruce's dad runs after the mugger after he said that he now knows where the Wayne's live. But doesn't everyone know where they live? That big mansion on top of the cliff? The big mansion called Wayne Manor?

Flashforward to the present where we meet our grown up Bruce Wayne, Commissioner Gordon and Grayson family, with Bruce Wayne and Robin played by Sam Helighan and Kamran Darabi-Ford respectively, at Haly's Circus where we get to see some amazing acrobatics. Or at least I think it was Sam Helighan and Kamran Darabi-Ford, both Batman and Robin were played by two different actors. I'm guessing this was so that they can rest for each one each production, but I then don't understand why all the other parts don't have two different actors or actresses, some even doubled. The actor playing Commissioner Gordon also plays the Penguin for example. But it's not a huge problem as everyone played their roles well.

But it was the person playing the Joker that I was eager to, what's the word, look at. As we all know from my 'Top 15 Batman Villains' the Joker is my favourite villain, and so I was worried that for a stage production they would make him too family friendly. My God was I worried for nothing! Whilst the Joker has been toned down from his psychopathic persona, he was still a serious villain, he was still a maniac with a Tommy gun and Mark Frost did a great job playing him. I was disappointed with their version of the Scarecrow though, whilst he did pretty much defeat Batman before Poison Ivy came over, the Scarecrow didn't really do much. He just waved his arms in the air to signal the bursts of air to come from the stage floor, and his voice was just played over the PA system. Actually whilst Poison Ivy did more then Scarecrow, she didn't really do much either, she kissed Batman and was around for the brawl scene, but she just more or less scowled at the heroes.

But don't let that throw you off, we've still got the Penguin, Two-Face, Catwoman, Harley Quinn and the Riddler around, and they were played greatly in their roles. Christopher Price's performance, or also tripled in fact for John Grayson and Joe Chill, reminded me of Jim Carry's peformance from 'Batman Forever', he truly was the perfect choice for the Riddler. And I want a Riddler cane. Yeah I want one. It looks awesome! Back to the villains anyway, yes Penguin was spot on, Harley Quinn was brilliant, then there's Two-Face. Whilst I do like what they did with the character in which he literally spoke with both personalities, sort of, I think. Well he goes "(Gruff voice) I'm not going to tell you anything! (Normal voice) I'll tell you everything! (Gruff voice) Shut up Harv!". But the weird thing is, he has two guns, they're his trademark weapon in the animated series, so why doesn't he use them?! Seriously in the fights with Batman, rather than shoot him like normal people would do, he walks up to Batman and tries to pistol whip him! WHY?! Then there's Catwoman, she was really good, but they did this weird 'she hooked up with Zucco' thing. It isn't really a huge problem, it makes Batman go to her while trying to find him, but it just seems like a weird pairing. Did Selina Kyle hook up with him before she became Catwoman? I just don't see it happening.

Speaking of Batman and Catwoman meeting up, that's where we see our first fight scene. It opens up on the Gotham Museum of Art, shown on the big screen whilst a security guard wonders why the building has been shrunk on stage. He hears a cat and says "Don't worry, it was just a cat,". He must be new to Gotham, since that obviously means Catwoman was about. So the Museum of Art opens up to reveal a big cat's head made out of what looked like diamonds, only for Batman to show up. They fight, using wires and the small building props as rooftops. I'm sure further away from the stage it may have looked good, but in the second row, the fight looked sloppy, the wire work wasn't really that good, it was just a disappointment. Thankfully when Batman fights Penguin, Riddler, Two-Face and their henchmen at the Iceberg Lounge scene, it looked much better, it was more believable and fast paced. The same can be said when Batman and Dick Grayson (he hasn't become Robin at this point) fight Joker's goons, then again there were still some iffy moments like Batman wondering around doing nothing and henchmen not attacking because Batman wasn't facing them. The performance Joker's men did with the canes though was interesting and pretty entertaining.

The sets were really good too, though they were brought more to life by the screen than the actual stage, except for the Iceberg Lounge, Arkham Asylum and Wayne Manor, oh and Gotham itself  which was made up of little prop buildings. The Iceberg Lounge had a circle platform in the middle, which also had some entertaining dancers and acrobatics, Wayne Manor had this funny huge chair and table, which was especially amusing when Dick Grayson went and sat on the chair, which dwarfed him. The Batcave was again brought mainly to life by the screen, with the exception for a control panel placed at the other end of the stage. The Arkham courtyard was pretty okay, it only had a building prop which Catwoman came out and Harley sat on, but the actually interior was very well done, with chains reaching to the ceiling with a people in a straight jackets on each one, making it very creepy and disturbing.

The costumes were amazing, they looked like the came straight out of the comics. Joker's suit looked awesome, Batman's cape looked awesome, Catwoman especially looks straight out of the comics, Harley Quinn...looked nothing like her comic or animated self, but then again in the recent Arkham games she doesn't look like that either, whilst the Robin costume makes him look like McLovin from Kick-Ass. Poison Ivy still looks like a Goddess and the Scarecrow, whilst I do feel he was greatly underused, is still scary looking.

Now there's one last thing to talk about; the Batmobile. Yes this production actually had a Batmobile! And not one of those cheap looking cars, oh no, for Batman Live they went big. They brought in Professor Gordon Murray, a racing car designer, who created one awesome looking Batmobile. If you look in the programme you'll see he designed an actual blueprint for the Batmobile, detailing every aspect of the vehicle, I mean let's see we have lasers, water exhausts, afterburner, anti-detection devices, afterburner and so on. Who knows how long it took him to designed such a vehicle, but it must have been hours of painstakingly hard work. But boy was it worth it. Not only does this thing shoot fireworks, but it actually has a thruster! We also get an animation sequence of Batman driving the Batmobile across Gotham towards Arkham Asylum whilst Joker's men block his path. This is essentially what happens when Batman gets lost, but the animation scene was good fun.

So final thoughts? It was awesome! It's not perfect, but it's certainly a brilliant production well worth going to, definitely if you're a Batman fan.