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VOA report about the Arena Spectacular

Walking with Dinosaurs − The Arena Spectacular was a live adaptation of the award-winning television series Walking with Dinosaurs. Like the TV series, The Arena Spectacular has to recreate dinosaurs to the point of the viewers accepting the creatures as real. Created by late renowned Artistic Director and Visionary - William ‘Bill’ May. The show played its last show on 22 December 2019 at the Taipei Arena.^[1]

Production

Walking with Dinosaurs − The Arena Spectacular was created by The Creature Technology Company.^[2] The production cost $20 million to stage and used puppetry, suits, and animatronics to create 16 Mesozoic era creatures representing 10 species.^[3] Each large dinosaur weighs several tons, and is operated by two "voodoo puppeteers" and a driver beneath the dinosaur who also monitors the hydraulics and batteries.^[4] The smaller dinosaurs (marked by an *) are suits operated by the person in it, each weighing from 20–30 kg (44-66 lbs).^[4] There are six puppeteers for these suits, which only have side views.^[2] The nine prehistoric creatures featured are:

Allosaurus
Ankylosaurus
Brachiosaurus (1 adult, 1 adolescent)
Liliensternus*
Ornithocheirus also appeared as an animatronic in earlier versions of the tour, before being replaced with a CGI video sequence
Plateosaurus (1 adult, 3 hatchlings)
Stegosaurus
Torosaurus (2x)
Tyrannosaurus (1 adult, 1 juvenile*)
Utahraptor (3x)*

There was also the carcass of an ornithopod and a video sequence about the Ornithocheirus. Some of the dinosaurs initially did not have feathers, but they were later added after new research showed dinosaurs possessed plumage.^[2] This also necessitated rewrites of the script, which were added to later iterations of the show as well as improvements in the animatronics, making them more responsive to puppeteers and giving them the ability to "eat" food and spray water vapor as "breath".^[2]

Tours

Walking with Dinosaurs − The Arena Spectacular originated in Australia in January 2007 (as Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience), and toured North America in 2007–10, Europe in 2010, and returned to North America until 2011. It also toured Asia beginning in December 2010. In 2011 the show came to its final destination of its first tour, New Zealand. In 2012, the show toured the UK, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands.^{[citation needed]}

Tour dates

North America

Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular tour dates
Date	Venue	City
July 11-15, 2007	Tacoma Dome	Tacoma
July 18-22, 2007	Spokane Arena	Spokane
July 25-28, 2007	Rexall Place	Edmonton
August 1-5, 2007	Scottrade Center	St. Louis
August 8-12, 2007	Air Canada Center	Toronto
August 16-19, 2007	Wachovia Spectrum	Philadelphia
August 22-25, 2007	Schottenstein Center	Columbus
September 5-9, 2007	Philips Arena	Atlanta
September 12-16, 2007	Bi-Lo Center	Greenville
September 19-22, 2007	Verizon Center	Washington DC
September 26-30, 2007	Norfolk Scope Arena	Norfolk
October 3-6, 2007	Continental Airlines Arena	East Rutherford
October 10-14, 2007	LJVM Coliseum	Winston-Salem
October 17-21, 2007	Sommet Center	Nashville
October 25-28, 2007	American Airlines Center	Dallas
November 8-11, 2007	ALLTEL Arena	Little Rock
November 14-18, 2007	Cobo Arena	Detroit
November 28-, 2007	MTS Centre	Winnipeg
December 5-9, 2007	Bradley Center	Milwaukee
December 26-30, 2007	HP Pavilion at San Jose	San Jose
January 3-6, 2008	ARCO Arena	Sacramento
January 9-13, 2008	Thomas & Mack Center	Las Vegas
January 16-20, 2008	Rose Garden Arena	Portland
April 9-13, 2008	North Charleston Coliseum	Charleston
June 11-15, 2008	Xcel Energy Center	St. Paul
July 30- August 3, 2008	Madison Square Garden	New York City
August 7-17, 2008	United Center	Chicago
September 26-28, 2008	Staples Center	Los Angeles
July 30 - August 2, 2009	Pepsi Center	Denver
September, 2009	Gwinnett Arena	Duluth
July 28- August 1, 2010	Allstate Arena	Rosemont
August 16-19, 2010	Wachovia Spectrum	Philadelphia

UK

Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular tour dates
Date	Venue		City
20–22 July 2018	Metro Radio Arena		Newcastle-upon-Tyne
26–28 July 2018	Arena Birmingham		Birmingham
31 Jul–1 Aug 2018	Echo Arena		Liverpool
3–4 August 2018	Manchester Arena		Manchester
7–8 August 2018	Motorpoint Arena		Nottingham
10–11 August 2018	FlyDSA Arena		Sheffield
14–19 August 2018	O2 Arena		London
22–23 August 2018	First Direct Arena		Leeds
25–28 August 2018	SSE Hydro		Glasgow
29 Aug–2 Sept 2018	SSE Arena	SSE Hydro	Belfast	Glasgow
3–26 September 2018	SSE Hydro		Glasgow
19–23 December 2018	3Arena		Dublin
27–30 December 2018	SSE Arena, Wembley		London

Reception

Elliot Wagland from Huffington Post UK called the show "an enchanting way to spend an afternoon", saying that it "stunned" his son into silence.^[5]