BREAKING NEWS: SPIDER-MAN Bringing in Co-Director McKinley?

[macbeth]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 9:06am

Why did no one think to do this, oh, 3 months ago?
Click Here to Read BREAKING NEWS: SPIDER-MAN Bringing in Co-Director McKinley?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 9:10am

Bad day for Julie Taymor. First Little Miss Perfect's book gets rewritten now her direction gets pushed aside.

There is no way this show can get rewritten and completely redirected without it closing down, it's impossible. With rewrites comes a LOT of rehearsal time, sets need to be taken down/new ones built, things rewired, retracked, characters taken out, new ones put in, etc. This is not something with this show that can be done while it's still running. They'll need to close it to do this, and I honestly believe that when/if they do that, it will never reopen.

[D2]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 9:19am

Love this quote in the Post:

"...but sources said Taymor is "exhausted" by all the trouble the show has had."

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 9:20am

She should check herself into a hospital immediately to deal with her "exhaustion".

[Katurian2]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 9:42am

What are the weekly running costs again? If they shut down for even a week and then employed two new people, they'd have to be losing... a significant amount whatever that is. I agree with Jordan. They should just slink pathetically into the dark during that time.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 9:47am

Well they'd have no choice. Honestly (and I'm not bashing the show) can anyone find any possible way for THIS show to be completely rewritten and redirected while it's still running? It can't be done. This will need to close for a minimum of 3-4 weeks (and let's be realistic, it took them two years of rehearsal to even open the front doors, I find it hard to believe that they'll be able to present an entirely new version of this in a matter of weeks) which means they'll be losing millions and millions of dollars. I think they're setting this up to close, I really do.

[PitPro2004]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 10:19am

It's times like this where I take my hat off to the cast. I would be incredibly brain fried, emotionally drained and absolutely shot considering all the changes that have been made and are coming. I could never be an actor for this reason. Bad enough when changes are made that you have to throw in at the last minute and are expected to remember as a musician, even with the music still in front of you, but to have to constantly change things that you've committed to memory over the course of three months? I give them so much credit.

[Oldschool]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 10:47am

They may manage to rewrite some things, and adjust the direction, but I highly doubt that set changes are part of the solution. The show is hung. Adding things to that show given its technical complexity is unlikely.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 10:58am

Yes, but by rewriting it, it's not going to be the same thing. Chances are they will need to redo, rearrange, reorganize, (whatever) the sets at least somewhat in order to fit in with a new book.

[philly03]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 11:34am

"Honestly (and I'm not bashing the show) can anyone find any possible way for THIS show to be completely rewritten and redirected while it's still running? It can't be done. This will need to close for a minimum of 3-4 weeks"


The Scarlet Pimpernel rehearsed the new show during the day, and performed the old at night, closed for a week and re-opened for SP 2.0. Then again everyone was replaced except a few ensemble members and one lead (Douglas Sills). I don't see it happening without closing for atleast a week. Then again, Pimpernel had absolutely nothing on the tech of Spider-man!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 11:37am

Exactly. It's the tech part of it that makes it impossible to do without closing the show.

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 11:51am

I don't think the book changes need to be THAT drastic....
- Cut the geek chorus
- Cut almost every song in half (they're too damn long for boring songs)
- Cut the intermission out and cut half of act 2.... so that Spidey's main villain really is the green goblin....
- Draw out the green goblin a bit longer
- Cut the ugly pageant runway walk
- cut the shoes #
- fix dialogue so that it actually explains a story.

MAINLY THEY JUST NEED TO CUT THE LIVING HELL OUT OF IT.... cut it down to an hour and 45 minutes or 2 hours... no need for a 3 hours show full of boring crap...

the flying is amazing... the cast and scenery are amazing... it's too long and boring... needs to be cut. That's my opinion.... though you didn't ask lol.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 12:05pm

^ I was skeptical of reading the above post, that it is just someone else adding there two cents worth, but think you raise great points that make sense and are workable. Great post.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 12:10pm

Eh, I hate the idea of cutting out the intermission. If I'm spending upwards of $100, I want it to be an evening out. I want it to be this big, long epic show. It fits the size of the show, etc. You can't cut the crap out of crappy material and have a show. That's not a good way to go about it. I think they just need to rework what they are working with, and find the heart of it. I think the whole show has been blown up into this big technical show, and it has lost it's heart and motivation.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 12:35pm

BECAUSE the money has already been spent, BECAUSE they cannot realistically close down for major rewrites, and BECAUSE we want to not cut characters completely out because, frankly, no actor at this point should lose their job because NOW they decide to rewrite the show...I say do the following (in addition to some of what has been mentioned above):


- Cut the wrestling match
- KEEP the Geek Chorus but only as bookends. They should launch the story and then end the story, BECAUSE they could then bring up the "other" villains that Spider-Man would soon face, which is why...
- ...MOVE the villain fashion show to the END after Goblin has been defeated. And don't make it a fashion show. Just reveal the cool costumed-villains, have the Geek Chorus mention that Spider-Man would soon face even great foes, Spider-Man could fly over the audience and land on stage, say the line "I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!", MUSIC UP/LIGHTS OUT and CURTAIN DOWN.

This would allow Taymor to keep her villains, keep her Chorus, but actually put them to better use.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 12:41pm

I don't think you can really do a Spider-Man origin story without the wrestling match. It's the hing on which the whole Uncle Ben fate also lies. It's probably one of the two or three most iconic points of the origin.

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 12:45pm

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/SPIDERMAN_Spokesman_Says_No_Truth_to_CoDirector_Report_20010101

[bk]

Posted: 2/20/11 at 2:09pm

First off, I don't believe there's been any confirmation of either writer or director help being finalized. Whether it's true or not remains to be seen.

However, the problem with fixing any shows these days is that the shows are slaves to the technology. This was not always the case, and you could sometimes move scenes around, add entirely new scenes, and all of that. But to re-program this show would take days and would require more rehearsal time than they've got. Therefore, unless they find the time to do that, all that can happen are cuts and smallish things. They can replace all the musical numbers only if they occur in exactly the same places with exactly the same sets and lighting. Ditto for the book scenes. Otherwise, if the changes are bigger, they're in for a whole mess of tech time. Also, it is always best to remember that even if they bring in people and changes are made, they have no idea if those changes will work or if it will derail this even further.