#1
Posted: 1/4/14 at 2:42pm
Tonight, Spider-Man will fling his last web on a Broadway stage. SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK will close with a loss of over $65 million of its investors' and bank loans' and private loans' money.
The theatre community (and everyone who pays attention to the 11 o'clock news) is aware of what "went wrong" during the production's history. If the creative team and producers and Marvel could go back in time, I'm sure they would have improved many facets of the production, including artistic concept, writing, scheduling, communication, money-raising, and safety.
I think that the saddest thing about today is that the final chapter is closing on a STORY whose telling on Broadway could have and should have been told better. You're doing SPIDER-MAN...on BROADWAY. The source material comes with a built-in audience. And they messed it up. Out of all the shows that were being written during the years that TURN OFF THE DARK was also being created, I would have bet on this show to have the longest run and the largest success.
It's done now. The show is now a joke. It's now history.
I do want to applaud everyone involved, however, in trying to make it work. I have never, NEVER witnessed that much effort and dedication on a creative project. Stubbornness, opposite opinion, bad luck, and inexperience got in the way of greatness. It's a shame.
To better projects!
The theatre community (and everyone who pays attention to the 11 o'clock news) is aware of what "went wrong" during the production's history. If the creative team and producers and Marvel could go back in time, I'm sure they would have improved many facets of the production, including artistic concept, writing, scheduling, communication, money-raising, and safety.
I think that the saddest thing about today is that the final chapter is closing on a STORY whose telling on Broadway could have and should have been told better. You're doing SPIDER-MAN...on BROADWAY. The source material comes with a built-in audience. And they messed it up. Out of all the shows that were being written during the years that TURN OFF THE DARK was also being created, I would have bet on this show to have the longest run and the largest success.
It's done now. The show is now a joke. It's now history.
I do want to applaud everyone involved, however, in trying to make it work. I have never, NEVER witnessed that much effort and dedication on a creative project. Stubbornness, opposite opinion, bad luck, and inexperience got in the way of greatness. It's a shame.
To better projects!
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
--Aristotle
