Review: Batman Live, Liverpool Arena

Suspend your disbelief. Batman Live is like nothing you will have seen before. No show can be all things to all people, but this one has a pretty good go. All human life was to be found in the audience of Batman Live, from geeks and goths to toddlers and footballers. This lively, colourful production did its best to appeal to everybody. A huge arena event that recapped the story of Bruce Wayne and how he came to team up with the young boy who would become Robin, the production used a massive bat-shaped screen as a backdrop to provide scene changes in a way conventional theatre could not. Moving from the Joker’s circus (with one hell of an entrance from the man himself) to the Penguin’s underworld nightclub, and the Batcave to the chillingly gothic Arkham Asylum, Batman Live has the technology and imagination to take you there. Even the Batmobile was designed by an F1 top bod. A broad storyline took in an introduction to Bruce Wayne becoming Batman in the wake of his parents’ murder and how it mirrored the fate of Dick Grayson (later Robin). All the classic baddies had a little turn, which gave time to marvel in the scale of the world of DC Comics (no pun intended). Some surprisingly strong and authentic performances from villains such as the Joker and Harley Quinn helped to draw the audience in, and an endless parade of circus skills, gymnastics and special effects kept things moving at a pace. It’s lavish, it's ambitious, it’s OTT, and it’s seriously good fun. Let yourself get carried away with the absurdity of the spectacle and it’s impossible not to enjoy. Batman Live is on at Liverpool Arena until Saturday.