ATC: Spider Man is officially off.... — Page 4

As stated by many actors in the book Making It On Broadway, the say that Broadway is turning into spectacles, where people are paying to see a chandelier fall and a helicopter descend. It's not all about the talent anymore which is kind of sad.

Does Spiderman need a reworked theatre and the spectacle? What ever happened to simple stage craft and story telling?

I'm going to play devil's advocate for a minute and say that staging the story of Spider-Man is going to inherently require a certain amount of spectacle and effects. It's going to require flying and swinging and whatnot because that's what Spider-Man does. He does it in the movies, comics, tv shows, etc.

The Green Goblin (Alan Cumming's role) is a character who zooms around on a rocket glider, which will require some innovative flying and/or effects. Basically what I'm saying is that to tell this story properly is going to call for a very technically demanding (and therefore expensive) production. Clearly they are hoping that the Spider-Man/U2 name recognition will sell tickets.

...But on the other hand, how much spectacle is too much? At a certain point it becomes more about the effects/sets themselves and not the story, and I think that's what worries a lot of people here. Is there a way to do the show without extensive renovations to the theater? Probably, but from all reports the word 'budget' is not a part of Julie Taymor's vocabulary. In that case, it's up to the producers to rein her in and stop the production from bleeding money. Like I said earlier, I'm still a little skeptical about this whole thing, but I hope it's still a go because I am morbidly curious as to how it'll look on stage.

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Updated On: 8/11/09 at 11:14 PM

Kad, I think I might have to make that my signature.

But they never said they would set a $200 ticket price, did they?

No, I just kinda pulled the number out of the air. Though I'm afraid it's not that far away.

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Top ticket is advertised as $135

http://www.playbill.com/events/event_detail/17100-Spider-Man_Turn_Off_the_Dark_at_Hilton_Theatre

It doesn't matter how much the show costs as long as it WORKS. There are directors that can make it work by miming props, clothing the actors in all-blacks, and using a bare stage with minimal lights. There are directors who can collaborate with designers and get fancy-schmancy sets/costumes/props/effects and make it be just as effective. Different, but both can work in their own way.

Spectacle is ALWAYS involved with theatre. The musical genre is a spectacle in itself!! The orchestra is a spectacle factor, the music is a spectacle factor, the singing and dancing are spectacle components, too! *gasp*

In the case of SPIDER-MAN, the producers think they can get their money back best by going with eye candy -- the pyrotechnics, flying, aerial stunts, etc. And I happen to agree that this is the best way to get their money back. Broadway is commercial theatre (minus the not-for-profit companies).

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There is a problem when a director cannot take no for an answer. You have shows bleeding money in every direction. Perhaps the Producers looked a Lion King and thought, "Hey if she can do it for that...". Disney allowed her lots of liberties with the look but she had to remain faithful to the story. One of the problems I had with Lion King is it seemed a schizophrenic musical. We had the Disney story and then we had the flying Africans on wires and the other WTF "Julie is a genius" moments.
With Spiderman she is writing the book, creating new characters, trying to reinvent the franchise by making it her own. I have yet to see anything she has written and directed that has a heart or a soul. It is all nice images and tableaux that is about it.
I wish the production well thought is not something I can see myself going to.

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^To be fair, the marketing for all three was horrendous.

I'm not sure why spectacle and storytelling are being regarded as mutually exclusive in this discussion.

Although it IS Julie Taymor we're talking about. But in general, it's not a fair way to look at it.

"Dracula, Pirate Queen, and Dance of the Vampires all had "state of the art" stagecraft."

"To be realistic the shows themselves sucked and relied on spectacle."

Yeah, but the stagecraft sure didn't.

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Actors released from their contracts with no pay-or-play clause.
Link

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so they're actually pulling the plug? that's insane. how much money did they lose? and when they say that they ran out of money do they mean the whole 45 mil? or that they ran out of what they had to start with?

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