Dinosaurs roam earth in big show at Quicken Loans Arena

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I magine going back in time when creatures, quadruple the size ofelephants, roamed the earth. Shrieks and roars pierced the silenceat twilight, and the ground rumbled beneath the clawed feet of theTyrannosaurus rex.
No need to climb inside a time machine.
Fifteen such species, extinct for millions of years, will comealive this week during Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
Make no mistake — this is not an exhibit. The production is atheatrical show, complete with a script and musical score.Performed in two acts, it's an amazing mix of Disney, StevenSpielberg and a scientific documentary.
The production recently visited Rose Garden Arena in Portland,Oregon. The newspaper there, The Oregonian, wrote in its review ofthe show: ''These creatures may be animatronic puppets . . . butyou have to keep reminding yourself that they aren't real —and that you aren't destined to become their next lunch.''
During the 96-minute
extravaganza, in which master puppeteers operate creatures with theuse of new and special technologies, the dinosaurs walk around thearena floor. One of the stars of the $20 million show, based on theaward-winning BBC television series, is a 56-foot-longBrachiosaurus that stretches its neck into the audience.
''If you've never seen a dinosaur, the show is the closest you willever get,'' resident director Cameron Wenn said.
Though the show is written for all ages, there is a fair amount ofrealism to simulate things like earthquakes and volcanoes.Sometimes the roars of the dinosaurs can startle the audience, butWenn said it's more a feeling of exhilaration ''like that of aroller coaster, not a run-from-the-theater kind of show.''
The show originated in Australia, where it played for 10 sold-outweeks in five cities. Now on tour in North America, the spectacularhas already drawn more than 1 million patrons since opening in July2007.
The audience is thrust back millions of years, to the time ofdinosaurs' evolution. Ten species are represented during thecreatures' reign, including the Tyrannosaurus rex, the terror ofthe ancient terrain; the Liliensternus from the Triassic period;Stegosaurus and Allosaurus from the Jurassic period; and theTorosaurus and Utahraptor from the Cretaceous.
To make the dinosaurs appear lifelike, ''muscle bags,'' made fromstretch mesh fabric and filled with polystyrene balls, arestretched across moving parts of the body. Puppeteers manipulatemany of the dinosaurs with the help of voodoo rigs, miniatureversions of the reptiles. The actions are then mimicked by theirlife-size counterparts. A driver hidden below helps to maneuver thecreature around the arena.
Inside five of the dinosaurs, puppeteer specialists work magic.
It took a year and 50 people, including engineers, fabricators,skin makers, artists, painters and animatronic experts, to buildthe original production. The computer hardware is based on similarsystems used to control animatronic creatures in films. In eachcity the show visits, Wenn said, it takes 24 hours to set up.
As the New Jersey Star-Ledger wrote when the show visited thattown: ''They pulled it off! Walking with Dinosaurs is staggeringly realistic . . . dinosaurs so life like they makethe audience oooh and aaah — the sound of awe andamazement.''