“Walking with Dinosaurs” thunders through Billings arena
Published: February 5, 2010
For 200 million years the dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Now, they’re back roaming through MetraPark Arena in Billings March 31-April 3 in an extraordinary new theatrical production, “Walking with Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular,” based on the award-winning BBC Television Series. Tickets go on sale Feb. 6.
Internationally renowned designers have worked with scientists to create 15 life-size dinosaurs, including the terror of the ancient terrain, Tyrannosaurus-rex.
The a dazzling 10-million-pound arena spectacle of unprecedented size and quality captivates young and old alike, who will marvel at the story of their 200-million-year domination of life on earth. Watch them walk. Hear the roar. Be there as they fight for survival and supremacy.
Ten species are represented from the entire 200-million-year reign of the dinosaurs. The show includes the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the terror of the ancient terrain, as well as the Plateosaurus and Liliensternus from the Triassic period, the Stegosaurus and Allosaurus from the Jurassic period and Torosaurus and Utahraptor from the Cretaceous. The largest of them, the Brachiosaurus is 36-feet tall, and 56 feet from nose to tail. It took a team of 50 – including engineers, fabricators, skin makers, artists and painters, and animatronic experts – a year to build the original production.
The show depicts the dinosaurs’ evolution, complete with the climatic and tectonic changes that took place, which led to the demise of many species. With almost cinematic realism, the show has scenes of the interactions between dinosaurs, and the audience sees how carnivorous dinosaurs evolved to walk on two legs, and how the herbivores fended off their more agile predators.
The history of the world is played out with the splitting of the earth’s continents, and the transition from the arid desert of the Triassic period to the lush green prairies and forces of the later Jurassic. Oceans form, volcanoes erupt, a forest catches fire – all leading to the impact of the massive comet, which struck the Earth, and forced the extinction of the dinosaurs.
“The dinosaurs are stunning, life-size and faultlessly nimble. In act one, the beasts parade into the arena gnashing and cavorting as a safari-suited paleontologist describes their attributes ... in the second half, the action cranks up, culminating in a spectacular clash as a T-Rex mom defends her baby from predators,” writes Variety. “‘Walking With Dinosaurs’ is a truly spectacular spectacular. It is everything a dino-phile could want.“
The production has won the THEA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Touring Event (2007) and the Billboard Touring Award for Creative Content (2008) as well as the Pollstar Concert Industry Award for Most Creative Stage Production (2009).
Show times are 7 p.m. March 31-April 3, with additional matinees at 1 p.m. Thursday and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday. Call 406-256-2400 or order tickets at www.metrapark.com.
