Batmobile Crashes During Batman Live Rehearsals

Just the Facts:

• The latest version of the Batmobile, a creation by Formula One designer Gordon Murray, crashed during rehearsals of the Batman Live World Arena Tour, which debuted on Tuesday.
• The greenest version of the Batmobile crashed onstage into the Bank of Gotham, according to media reports out of Britain.
• The F1-inspired Batmobile is controversial and has been called "the Jetsons-obsessed afternoon scrawling of an elementary student."

MANCHESTER, England — The latest version of the Batmobile, a creation by Formula One and electric-vehicle designer Gordon Murray, crashed during rehearsals of the Batman Live World Arena Tour, creating a media buzz in Britain and prompting comparisons with the ill-fated Spider-Man musical on Broadway.

"It (the car) literally came out, swizzled around and crashed into the Bank of Gotham," Batman Live set designer Es Devlin told the BBC News. "The Bank of Gotham took a bit of a hit, but we patched it up and I don't think anyone would notice."

A spare Batmobile filled in for the crippled version. But comparisons were quickly made between the crash and Broadway's Spider-Man musical. One actor was seriously injured in a fall in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and some equipment fell into the audience during one performance. The Spider-Man musical was also critically derided, with Ben Brantley, the chief theater critic of The New York Times saying it may "rank among the worst" musicals in history.

Critics have been kinder to the Batman arena show — and the new Batmobile.

Writing in The Telegraph, critic Rob Hughes gushed about the arena show and said "best of the lot, however, might just be the Batmobile. Invented by Formula One designer Gordon Murray, it's a neat, sleek, flame-spitting wonder of carbon-fiber engineering." The Guardian likewise raved about the Batmobile, calling it "a study in stealthy, rocket-propelled F1 styling."

Those remarks are noticeably kinder than the reaction the Batmobile received when it debuted a month ago. One critic called it "the Jetsons-obsessed afternoon scrawling of an elementary student."

The latest version of the Batmobile is the greenest thus far, with a hydrogen fuel cell, electric motor and lithium-ion batteries — but it still spews fire from a carbon-ceramic afterburner.

In one interview, Murray — the man behind the McLaren F1 sports car and the T.27 city car — said the Batmobile "could be a real car of the future."

"It's quite green," he added.

Batman Live tells the backstory of how Batman and Robin became a team. It features trapeze artists, circus-trained acrobats and big-screen special effects.

The arena show is expected to tour the world for the next five years and is expected to roll out in North America next August.

Inside Line says: Sounds like just a bump in the road for the latest Batmobile, as the show goes on.