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Coming to an arena near you: Dinosaurs
The Brachiosaurus visiting Tacoma this week isn''t alive, but is a lifelike puppet and one of the stars in the touring show. The show, based on the award-winning BBC Television series, is supposed to be educational and fun. The story, which travels 200 years from Triassic to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, features 15 life-size dinosaurs from 10 species including a mother Tyrannosaurus Rex and her baby. The show is so big it can only play to two-thirds of the seating at typical American arenas. The Tacoma Dome, for example, will seat 8,000 for each of the eight performances. It will take a crew of 65 people and 27 trucks to transport the show to about 100 other cities over the next two years, said Bruce Mactaggart, executive director of Emersion Entertainment Group of Melrose, Australia. "It's one of the biggest shows that has probably ever toured," Mactaggart said, pointing out that the dinosaurs and their entourage require one or two more trucks than the Rolling Stones use when the rock stars go on tour. Tacoma was chosen as the first U.S. city for the North American tour — the 90-minute show was developed with $20 million over six years in Australia and had never played outside that continent. Mactaggart said his plan was to open on the West Coast and he chose Tacoma because it has a seaport capable of welcoming the dinosaur ships, and the people who run the Tacoma Dome were aggressive in their pursuit. After five days in Tacoma, the show moves to Spokane, Wash., and then on to Edmonton, Alberta, St. Louis, Toronto, Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio. It's being billed as a family show, but tickets are pricey: $34.50 to $79.50 for adults, and $24.50 to $79.50 for kids 12 and under and seniors. TRAVEL ARTICLES
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