Those up for taking a lifelike look into prehistoric times, take note: “Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular” offers a glimpse of just that.
The show features 20 accurately sized dinosaurs that represent 10 species, complete with realistic movements and sounds.
The show will be running at the Barclays Center from Wednesday through Sunday and it’s back in NYC for the first time since 2010.
The 20 dinosaurs featured in each show represent a period of over 200 million years.
Essentially, the production follows the endeavors of a curious paleontologist who travels back in time to see the three major periods in which dinosaurs existed.
“They’re quite complicated on how they’re made,” said Creature Technology Company creative director Sonny Tilders.
Tilders and his team built the sophisticated puppets for the show. The entire process took a total of 12 months, he said. He describes the show as groundbreaking, saying that it really gives viewers an ultrarealistic peek at what dinosaurs were actually like.
“I’ve always been fascinated by animals — dinosaurs in particular,” Tilders said. “Dinosaurs are a universal brand, they’re incredibly popular.”
The largest dinosaur in the show, the Brachiosaurus, is 36 feet tall and 56 feet long. Each of the larger dinosaurs is operated by three people and made from more than 970 square feet of fabric and more than 50 gallons of paint. And it takes 12 truck batteries to run each of these behemoths.
“[Live theater] is an exciting medium,” Tilders says. “It’s a little scary but a pretty amazing show.”
