Julie Taymor confirms...- Page 2

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/17/11 at 10:59pm

Had Cirque worked on the idea with Bono and The Edge, and came up with something that was a cross between The Beatles show "Love" and "Movin' Out" and opened in Vegas, it would have made a ton of money.

It's Julie in over her head and on Broadway that are the two biggest problems.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 1/17/11 at 11:19pm

This show was born for Vegas. Seriously. If Taymor wants to compare her show to Cirque, then she needs to run it like Cirque. These huge, bombastic Cirque shows out west (Ka cost double as much as Spider-Man) play to packed houses of high rollers ready to shell out $150 for any seat in the house. The casino that houses the show bankrolls the construction of its lavish theatre and keeps the show going. The audiences are looking for spectacle, spectacle, spectacle. When I saw "O" (still one of my favorite theatrical experiences ever), I didn't give a crap who that guy was playing the piano in a clown mask and why those Mongolian acrobats were on a giant lilypad. All I knew is that I couldn't let myself blink for fear of missing another indelible image.

But of course Taymor and Bono wouldn't ever be caught dead working on a Vegas show. That's why it just HAD to be a Broadway musical, and that's why it's so ridiculous to see Taymor backing away from that label now.

[Justaguy2]

Posted: 1/17/11 at 11:27pm

I know it's been said before but this is just more confirmation that Broadway has it's very own Lord of the Rings now. Only, it's been taken up a notch...which is impressive. As you can see from this link LOTR also wasn't a "musical".

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/97667-Massive-Lord-of-the-Rings-Delays-First-Preview-By-Two-Days-Starts-Feb-4-in-Toronto

I recall that as word got out that the music was not very memorable the producers played the "we never said it was a musical" card as well. One of those producers was of course Michael Kohl who is fronting Spider-Man. I think the Cirque card was played as well come to think of it.

This link is good too:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4840278.stm

And there are many more....

And we know how LOTR ended.......

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 1:00am

So, first it was performing as a musical while still in previews, but now it's never been a musical at all?

WHOA, dude. I've got to sit down now. That's some trippy **** right there.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 1:13am

Wasn't LOTR taking the "theatrical experience" angle from the get go? I haven't seen either show, but have been under the impression that the LOTR score only had about a third of the songs with lyrics. At least Tolkien's book had several songs in it, so an argument could be made, even if stretched, for that line of thinking. Spider-man seems like it was always just simply a musical and is only just now trying to move away from that idea.

[Overkill]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 2:29am

So, would she say the same for THE LION KING? No. Know why? It's successful. SPIDEY ain't. :/

[yournamehere]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 3:03am

She might when she remakes The Lion King to include flying lions.

[crewdude]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 4:23am

Hey JoeKv99 maybe you could get those "nomadic traders on camels in the Sahara" that "know the story" to explain Act 2 to me, because there is NO STORY to Act 2. Which you would know had you actually seen the show before you thought you would write what, i can only assume, you thought MIGHT be perceived as clever or witty instead of falling flat on it's face as uninformed.
AND BTW people in Haiti do "whine more" about clean water and housing than people paying $300 to get herpes from this musical...oops, not musical....show? rock spectacle? waste of $65 million.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 9:03am

Piragua, "O" remains one of my favorite experiences too.

I don't think Bono would have hesitated for a second to be a major collaborator on a Cirque show. The problem was, he signed on to do a Broadway musical.

[Justaguy2]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 9:32am

Jimmycurry01 you're right, LOTR did say from the beginning that it wasn't going to be a "conventional musical". Although the word "musical" appears many times in the original playbill announcement.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/91746-Lord-of-the-Rings-Musical-to-Bow-in-Toronto

But I do recall a major shift in spin once previews started and one of the major issues was the lack of a memorable score.

The truth is that these shows would be better served in Vegas both from an audience point of view and a resource point of view. Having said that, no casino in Vegas would want such lengthy shows. From what people are saying about Act 2 of Turn Off The Dark perhaps the solution is to move it to Vegas and cut Act 2. Actually, it would be pretty cool at New York New York.

[PReeves2]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 2:11pm

couldn't agree more with PiraguaGuy.

[sundaymorning6am]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 2:29pm

quizking: have you even seen Spider-man yet?

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 4:13pm

Act 2 has a story. It's just a really bad story.

[Billy Boy]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 5:12pm

Based on the title of this thread, I somehow imagined new lyrics to the Cole Porter Classic "Miss Otis Regrets".

something like

....And from under his Spidey gown,
He screamed "Sh*"t as he tumbled down and down, Julie,
Miss Taymor confirms, we're unable to matinee...

Updated On: 1/18/11 at 05:12 PM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 1/18/11 at 6:48pm

Oprah interviews Julie Taymor