Multi-award winning actor Russell Crowe is going to be narrating the two live stadium productions of Ben Hur at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium on Friday and Saturday October 22 and 23.
“It’s not a play. It’s not a musical. It’s a spectacle. And you know you’ve got your chariot races, you’ve got a boat being boarded by female pirates, Pontius Pilate making his decision over Christ’s future, so it’s gigantic, it’s amazing,” said Crowe at a press conference in Sydney on Tuesday, July 27.
The 46-year-old Australian actor won an Oscar playing the Roman commander Maximus in the epic film “Gladiator,” a story of a slave who stood up to the Roman Emperor.
The original stadium version of Ben Hur was created by renowned French director Robert Hossein, an expert in large-scale productions. The French version debuted in Paris and was watched by 300,000 people over five nights. It was an adaptation from the 1959 movie Ben Hur, which starred Charlton Heston and won 11 Academy Awards.
The 2010 version is exclusive to Sydney and is the first production outside of France, having a $15 million budget and using 200 cast members. Nine chariots were brought in from France and 40 horses are currently being trained for the show in Queensland.
Ben Hur is the Biblical epic that tells the dramatic story of a hero. The stadium will be transformed into a Roman amphitheatre and one of the climatic scenes in the play is a scene depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Executive Producer Andrew Guild said the creator of the original French production was considering touring the world, not just Australia.
“They can see that it can be done in one of these enormous venues 12,000 miles away,” Mr Guild said.
“It’s not a play. It’s not a musical. It’s a spectacle. And you know you’ve got your chariot races, you’ve got a boat being boarded by female pirates, Pontius Pilate making his decision over Christ’s future, so it’s gigantic, it’s amazing,” said Crowe at a press conference in Sydney on Tuesday, July 27.
The 46-year-old Australian actor won an Oscar playing the Roman commander Maximus in the epic film “Gladiator,” a story of a slave who stood up to the Roman Emperor.
The original stadium version of Ben Hur was created by renowned French director Robert Hossein, an expert in large-scale productions. The French version debuted in Paris and was watched by 300,000 people over five nights. It was an adaptation from the 1959 movie Ben Hur, which starred Charlton Heston and won 11 Academy Awards.
The 2010 version is exclusive to Sydney and is the first production outside of France, having a $15 million budget and using 200 cast members. Nine chariots were brought in from France and 40 horses are currently being trained for the show in Queensland.
Ben Hur is the Biblical epic that tells the dramatic story of a hero. The stadium will be transformed into a Roman amphitheatre and one of the climatic scenes in the play is a scene depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Executive Producer Andrew Guild said the creator of the original French production was considering touring the world, not just Australia.
“They can see that it can be done in one of these enormous venues 12,000 miles away,” Mr Guild said.
