How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular

Touring the U.S. through Feb. 3, 2013

**

For its visual impact alone, this DreamWorks venture earns the “spectacular” in its title, said Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune. With its digitized backdrops, elaborate set,and nearly two dozen 3,200-pound flying animatronic dragons, it provided thrills during its stay at Chicago’s United Center that an Imax movie might envy. “The range and scale of movement of what these dragons can perform is remarkable indeed.” But “no movie, brand, or budget” can eclipse the need for a good story, and this arena-size remake of a 2010 children’s movie only occasionally allows room for the film’s affecting tale of a boy who befriends and tames a wounded beast. “It’s early in the tour”: Maybe the humans involved in this production will figure out that adding more quiet moments to the show could make it more dazzling.

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In spots, the show literally soars, said Jeff Labrecque in Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a marvelous moment when Hiccup (Riley Miner), a jittery young Viking eager to earn his horns, climbs aboard one of the deadly dragons his clan has sworn to destroy.” Other scenes, though, “feel like a limp parody of a Scandinavia-set Winter Olympics opening ceremony.” That may well be a consequence of the show’s scale—since so little can be left to chance, there’s less room for spontaneity than in a traditional play. Yet “whenever the two-hour show begins to drag,” another blazing dragon appears. Even cynics might find themselves gasping at the amazing stagecraft on display.