First look: 'Marvel Universe LIVE!' tour begins in July
- Feld Entertainment is bringing a live show of Marvel characters to 60 cities starting in July
- Iron Man%2C Captain America%2C Spider-Man%2C Hulk and Thor%2C as well as the villains%2C will be in the show
- Among the skills needed for the cast%3A martial arts%2C aerial acrobatics%2C skateboarding or archery
Juliette Feld has dealt with elephants, monster trucks and Mickey Mouse on ice in her day. Never a Hulk, though.
Her family's company Feld Entertainment is teaming with Marvel Entertainment to take the Avengers, X-Men and their cadre of arch-villains on the road and to an arena near you with the Marvel Universe LIVE! tour. The show begins its two-year North American stint in Tampa on July 10, and has its world premiere at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 13 before visiting at least 60 more cities in the USA and Canada.
Tickets are on sale now at MarvelUniverseLive.com, and prices range from $45-$150, depending on venue.
Whether you're a longtime fan of Iron Man, Captain America and Spider-Man from the comics, just know the characters from the Marvel movies or are a complete novice, the creators have focused on creating a story that's engaging on all levels, according to Marvel chief creative officer Joe Quesada.
"You're going to walk in," he says, "and it's going to feel like Marvel, it's going to smell like Marvel, it's going to taste like Marvel."
The show centers on the Cosmic Cube, an all-powerful item that's split into pieces by Thor to keep it out of the hands of evildoers. However, that doesn't stop his trickster brother Loki from devising a plan to clone the Cube's powers and threaten the universe.
Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor team with Wolverine and other heroes for a globe-trotting mission to find all the parts of the Cube before the villainous likes of the Green Goblin, the Red Skull, Doctor Octopus, Electro and Madame Hydra can harness the power and take over the world.
Marvel Universe LIVE! will utilize 3-D projections and large screens — like the one with Tony Stark's Workshop, one of the central set pieces — to change the look and feel of the arena as the story progresses. While one sequence may start in the Workshop, it could then shift elsewhere in the arena to Loki's Underground Lair.
Just as important, though, is character development, says producer Feld. "Everything we do has to start with what the fans want and what they're going to expect to see."
A cast is being put together with the appropriate skills to embody each hero and villain, whether it be folks with aerial acrobatic backgrounds, those with skateboard or archery experience, or others who can do motorcycle stunts -- needed for those playing Captain America, Falcon and Black Widow.
A must for everyone: Martial-arts experience, for the inevitable action scenes right out of a comic book.
"All the superheroes are challenging because they're superheroes," says show director Shanda Sawyer, who was tapped by Feld six years ago to re-imagine Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus shows. "We really need to make these characters come alive for people, without the benefit of CGI and quick cuts and things you have in other mediums.
"How do you create superpowers in reality? Half of it is really finding the people who are already pretty superhuman."
Certain characters like the massive and muscular Hulk necessitate more thought than others to capture his personality and movements. But, Sawyer promises, "he's going to be incredible."
Even Quesada was a little shocked by the ambitious list of Marvel icons that Feld wanted to use. "I'm like, 'Come on, seriously? This can't happen!' " he says.
"It's going to happen. They're pretty remarkable in what they're coming up with."