More on Ben Hur Première

Following on from yesterday's post about the live version of "Ben Hur", The Guardian website has a video feature about the show. The $14 million production premières tonight and has gained a fair bit of media attention. The Guardian's video talks to some of the key members of the production team including creator Franz Abraham, who talks very passionately about his show. There's also some footage (presumably from some of the rehearsals).

I still find it difficult to imagine what it will be like to watch. I imagine the audience will be so far away that it will be totally different to watching theatre, and so I can understand director Philip McKinley's description of it as an "operatic sports event".

I'm hoping it runs long enough for the ticket price to come down a bit, as I am certainly intrigued. Even if they don't, Abraham talks about being ruined if this fails to come off, so hopefully it will run long enough for it not to be a total disaster for him, even if it doesn't run for 50 years.