Great expectations

“The show will have the speed of a musical, the depth of great theatre, the power of a rock concert and the visual opulence of a Hollywood blockbuster,” Abraham cried from the metaphorical rooftops.

Published in 1880, Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur – A Tale Of Christ is a story of betrayal, condemnation, revenge, and ultimately redemption. And while its overtones are religious, for younger readers it was Roman galleys, pirates, swordfights and a chariot race first, and it went on to be the best selling book of the 19th century.

Despite, or because of, its spectacular nature, and the fact that Christ was in the cast, Wallace was doubtful his story would translate successfully onto the stage. But Marc Klaw and Abraham Erlanger convinced him it could, and their production opened on Broadway in 1899, with eight horses trained to pull two chariots on a treadmill, and the background on a cyclorama. Going on to tour the States, Europe and Australia, more than 20m people saw the show, with some 6,000 performances in 21 years. Jesus, incidentally, was depicted as a beam of white light.

Abraham claims his take is based on the book rather than William Wyler’s 1959, multi Oscar winning movie, but it’s a fickle world, and Charlton Heston is synonymous with Ben Hur to most people. So, why do it?

“There are several points of motivation,” Abraham told me from Munich, on a crackling hands free. “The speed, the fights, the danger, and on the other side, the spirituality, the religion and the emotional development of the values, of old school heroism. Ben Hur is the best story in the world, which makes this a fascinating thing. It’s a completely new dimension to performance.”

Behind shows, via Art Concerts, from the likes of David Bowie, Paul Simon and the Rolling Stones, launching the Art Project festival in 1996 and bringing big budget opera to the masses, latterly with the acclaimed Carmina Burana, Ben Hur – Live is a step up nevertheless, even for Abraham. It’s a fantasy he’s nurtured for 15 years about to come to a colossal reality, thanks by and large to the endeavours of the stellar cast behind the scenes. Award winning Broadway director Philip McKinley, Police drummer Stewart Copeland, who composed the soundtrack, Mark Fisher and company who designed the set, LD Patrick Woodroffe, four time BAFTA nominated effects specialist Chris Corbould, the list goes on.

“We have an expert in each division, and I would hesitate to take it on without that [capability],” McKinley drawled. “There are always road bumps on projects of this scale and it’s great to be working with people who have been through the wars who can laugh at them a bit”.

Philip McKinley, Broadway director

“It’s an interesting venture doing theatre at an arena, which is primarily a sports venue,” he added. “My task is to make it fit the space, so the market scene in Ben Hur is a 12 ring circus, the pirates who attack the ship are on quad bikes, there’s sword play, all of which have their roots in sports. And who doesn’t want to see a chariot race?”

With Abraham scheming and dreaming, his team, from writer Shaun McKenna to the designers at Stufish, had to subject him to regular reality checks. £500m might be a big budget, but this is no ordinary play. There are 400 performers, 100 animals, 400 tonnes of sand, 220 moving lights, 120 motors, 500m of truss, 300 speakers and a 250m chariot track on the inventory.

“We won’t realise all my dreams, but less is sometimes more after all,” Abraham conceded. “We concentrated on the basics, lights, pyros, animals, acrobats, and the sound will be far more intense and sophisticated than a Metallica show.”

In tongues

Ben Hur – Live has a narrator who tells the story in the language local to the performance, otherwise dialogue is in Latin and Aramaic and mercifully sparse. So the action shamelessly shoulders the burden of putting the sex, figuratively speaking, into the spectacle.

“It’s like trying to write a silent movie,” McKenna said. “It’s not remotely literary or character-based, it’s more like a ballet, relying on visuals informed by the characters and the story and people will be surprised how passionate it is.”

“It was a huge fight to get the money to put it on, but it will run for 50 years and longer.”

Franz Abraham

Naturally, the sand is there for the duration, which as anyone who has run on a dry beach can testify, is another set of hurdles for all things bar the horses. And with regular scene changes, from land to sea to amphitheatre, the props have to move.

“They are all propelled by manpower, which requires a skeletal design,” Stufish production designer Ray Winkler told this magazine. “You recognise that you’re looking at a ship or a house but you don’t have to have all the padding. It’s not literal. There’s no water, the galley is on sand, but with the right light, Patrick can create the mood.”

It’s a neat representation of the physicality of the times too, conveying the strain of slaves moving a ship for example.

“The show is done in the round so you’ve got to think about sightlines around the action as well, and the style emerged out of that mindset,” Winkler explained. “In rock ‘n’ roll there’s no narrative, and it comes with a huge brand identity, so the set is almost the emperor’s new clothes. With Ben Hur conversely, it’s through a magnifying glass and the audience gets the story almost by proxy. The scenery, the choreography and the lighting have to convey the emotions.”

No straight lines

On cold paper, this epic idea for Ben Hur – Live must have looked intimidating, despite its pedigree. Indeed, Abraham confirmed that the promoters he approached with the idea wouldn’t touch it.

“It is a financial gamble, but spectacle has always had a place in events. Of course it depends on the subject matter, but Franz chose wisely, and I love working on these things,” McKinley added. “Theatre colleagues ask me why I’m doing this, and I tell them I remember working with the father of American theatre, George Abbott, when he was 100 years old. I asked him, ‘How do you do this for more than 80 years?’ And he said he stuck to two principles. ‘I never do the same thing twice and I always do things that scare me.’ There is no formula for success any more; you just have to put your heart into it.”

“Most people have a lack of fantasy,” Abraham shrugged. “But if this delivers even 80 per cent of what we promise, they will want it. Tickets are selling fast for the London dates and in Spain as well, it’s all very positive. There will be a real explosion in August when we start a six week rehearsal in Düsseldorf and another one at the world premiere.”

It’s hard to believe that this is only the second summer proper for The O2. It’s instinctively the place for the big productions, musical or otherwise, see Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Prince, Walking With Dinosaurs and Michael Jackson for reference, and it was AEG’s David Campbell who signed up Ben Hur – Live.

“London is the metropolitan city, in front of Europe and above comparison to any German city, and The O2 is one of the best venues in the world,”

German promoter Franz Abraham

“David was the first to recognise the potential of the show. It’s a secular world, and people think belief in God is childish, but the message won’t be silenced and every reasonable man will understand that it’s not preaching. This is a very high class show. It was a huge fight to get the money to put it on, but it will run for 50 years and longer. It will come back to the strong cities like London every two or three years and there will be some permanent installations as well.”

Qui audet adipiscitur!