I went to see Batman Live at the 02 stadium just before it disappears from London.
This was my first time at the 02. It's a large venue, but most of the audience ends up sitting so high up and far away from the stage. The stage itself was reasonably sized, but not as big as we thought it would be. Initially it starts off with lots of models representing the buildings of Gotham City, which are moved out of the way as the show commences.
The storyline briefly covers Batman's origin story, and then focuses on Robin's origin story. We see the Riddler, Two Face, the Penguin and Poison Ivy, with a greater emphasis on Joker, Harley Quinn and Catwoman. This was my first criticism - the latter 3 villains and Robin take up most of the show. Batman himself is left as a bit player, and comes across as rather feeble, getting outsmarted and defeated at several points, hardly an unstoppable vigilante of the night.
My second criticism was the distance between the stage and the seats. I was sat quite far away, so the people looked tiny, and I was in one of the medium distance seats - people sitting further away must have really strained their eyes to see what was going on. Why did they not film what was happening and project onto giant screens, like they do during music concerts? That would have looked awesome.
Thirdly, the fighting looked terrible and amateurish. THey did several mock fights, when really they should have incorporated real martial artists who would have lent it an air of authenticity. The initial fight of Batman vs Catwoman, resulting in them bouncing around in the air, looked daft.
Despite all that, it was not all bad. The Batmobile was very cool, the acrobatics of the club dancers and the circus performers was great, the sound quality was very good, and the use of the giant background screen to set the scene and act as a backdrop was brilliant. The storyline was a little basic, characterisation was left to its barest bones.
Overall, a lot of spectacle and special effects, but so many missed opportunities.
