Performance
Marvel Universe Live!
SSE Hydro, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
four stars
ALTHOUGH its acoustics have proved much better for music than those of many similar venues, this show is surely what Glasgow's riverside arena was really built for. A spectacle that makes more of the vast theatre-in-the-round designed by Norman Foster's partnership than even Beyonce and Madonna achieved, Marvel Universe Live! – running until Sunday with as many as three shows on Saturday – is part circus, part panto, and with more than a touch of Edinburgh's perennially popular tattoo.
As a piece of theatre it is perhaps better than any of those antecedents. A production that might be assumed to appeal chiefly to geeks, nerds and small boys turns out to be a hugely enjoyable entertainment that goes out of its way to explain itself to the uninitiated, mainly through voice-over by the Stark family's loyal retainer, Jarvis. The story, which is almost entirely told before the interval to allow for an all-action second half, is of the battle between Thor and Loki, with a full cast of superhero Avengers assembling on the side of good. Video projection on every available surface, characters flying on wires throughout, skateboard and bike stunts and plenty of pyrotechnics, ensure there is never a dull moment, but director Shanda Sawyer has still found room to shape the characters through the scriptwriting of brother and sister team Adam Wilson and Melanie Wilson Labracio. Favourite line in all the witty banter exchanged amid the marshal arts punches? "One word – narcissist." It hardly matters who said it of whom – although I think it was Hawkeye of Iron Man – because it pretty much sums up the glorious egotism on constant display. If the human beings look too small amid all the smoke and mirrors to justify the bold words to begin with, that is just a device to prepare us for the transformation of Bruce Banner into The Incredible Hulk.
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