Broadway’s ‘Spider-Man’
This past Sunday, the public got its first look at Broadway’s long-anticipated musical take on ‘Spider-Man.’ The show has an incredible pedigree: written and directed by ‘The Lion King’s’ Julie Taymor, with a score by U2′s Bono and The Edge. But Sunday’s preview did not go well. Judgment was harsh and, thanks to the Internet, swift. ‘Spider-Man’ officially opens January 11th, but as Jeff Lunden reports, it’s tough being a high-profile work in progress in the Internet age.
Jeff Lunden: The tweets started just before the curtain rose 24 minutes late on the first preview of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” and continued during the show. Quote, “Spider-Man musical preview.
Glitch stops show mid-first act. Actress suspended above stage for five minutes now,” unquote.
And for the next several hours during the show, which stopped four more times for technical difficulties, and the next day, on blogs and in newspapers, ‘Spider-Man’ was sliced, diced, dissected and declared dead on arrival. All on the basis of its very first public showing.
- Spiderman Broadway musical.
U2’s 65$ million Spiderman Broadway musical (which, for the record, is the most expensive Broadway musical ever) had some, er, issues on its opening night. But the men behind the production, Bono and the Edge – who also composed the score – feel confident they’re bringing art to life, and that the project is part of an illustrious tradition marrying rock n’ roll and comics. In an interview with MTV, Bono expounded on this theory, and praised comics for their contributions to more ‘traditional’ high art:
“There’s always been a thing with punk rock bands and comics. It’s always been there. Even the Ramones, who are also from Queens [New York] like Peter Parker and Mary Jane, they covered the theme to Spider-Man. It goes through all, not just rock and roll culture, it’s in modern art. You see it in Roy Lichtenstein’s work, all the pop artists’ work; they all sample from comics.”
He went on try to define the stage production – which sounds like a hodgepodge of (rough-around-the-edges, at least for now) acrobatics and ambitious stage sets – as its own new kind of art:
“It’s like a graphic novel, but a three-dimensional one. I’m calling it a pop-up, pop-art opera, because I’m pretentious.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StHorF81t5A
‘Spider-Man’ on Broadway flaunts music created by U2’s Bono and The Edge, has director Julie Taymor who also directed The Lion King, and is the most expensive show ever with its two dozen flying sequences. However, the show’s first preview performance opened to multiple technical issues, including at one point having its titular character left hanging over the laughing audience, says Reuters. The New York Times says the show was stopped at least five times.
Reuters adds that while the previews allow the show time to fix any problems, Spider-Man is experiencing more than most shows. In fact, production on the show had to be delayed several times because of the tech problems, as well as running out of financing. The show already cost a record 65$ million.
Taymor admits that two actors have already badly injured themselves during rehearsal for the physically demanding flying sequences.