A super new show.
Standing in Feld Entertainment’s practice facility in Ellenton, Florida, 24-year-old Kirk Jenkins slips on his black and gold leather gloves to test the metal claws he pops out in times of danger. The third-degree black belt from Fauquier County still has a difficult time believing he’s playing his favorite Marvel character, Wolverine, in Feld Entertainment’s new Marvel Universe LIVE!, a multi-media arena show that brings more than 25 Marvel characters together in one epic quest.
Feld Entertainment, a worldwide leader in producing and presenting live touring family entertainment experiences—think Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey and Disney on Ice—opened Marvel Universe LIVE! in July in Tampa, Florida, the first stop on a two-year national tour. The Feld organization is no stranger to spectacle. The company, headquartered in Vienna from 1989 to 2013 (Feld moved its headquarters to a larger space in Ellenton, Florida, but maintains operations in Virginia), produces four to five new shows each year, which are performed in 120 cities across the U.S. and in 75 countries around the world. A family-owned company, Feld has second and third generation management at the helm—Kenneth Feld and his daughters Nicole, Alana and Juliette.
The new production has a unique blend of aerial stunts, pyrotechnics and special effects. It gives Jenkins—the 2013 World Organization of Martial Arts Athletes champion—the chance to show off his fighting abilities. He describes his three-month training for the part as a “grown up playground.”
Marvel Universe LIVE! will be in Fairfax Sept. 11-21Richmond Oct. 30-Nov. 2Hampton Nov. 6-9.