Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film- Page 21

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 11:01am

Dunno where YOU’VE been, but the official poster was released weeks ago: 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 12:08pm

It's such a bland poster, especially that Canva title treatment. 

[joevitus]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 12:11pm

The font is bland, but the image startling. Admittedly the 1985 movie poster was superior.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 1:31pm

I like the image too, would have been a great basis for a poster, maybe silhouetted or framed in a Saul Bass-y web or something, but it just looks like a social media post to me as is. Not the one-sheet that represents a whole film! 

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 3:54pm

I think it's a great poster. The movie? We'll see. The reaction seems to be kind of "meh" based on the film festivals.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 4:00pm

joevitus said: "I have a question about the two cast recordings. Is the reprise of "Morphine Tango" missing from the Vanessa Williams revivalbecause they just oddly left it off, or is it something that luckily was captured because the original castwas recorded in London, and it was dropped for the Broadway transfer?"

 

Although I don't have a direct answer to that question, the Vanessa Williams CD was recorded on the cheap by reusing the orchestra recordings for the OBC. Perhaps it was a cost-cutting measure?

[joevitus]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 4:15pm

The Distinctive Baritone said: "joevitus said: "I have a question about the two cast recordings. Is the reprise of "Morphine Tango" missing from the Vanessa Williams revivalbecause they just oddly left it off, or is it something that luckily was captured because the original castwas recorded in London, and it was dropped for the Broadway transfer?"



Although I don't have a direct answer to that question, the Vanessa Williams CD was recorded on the cheap by reusing the orchestra recordings for the OBC. Perhaps it was a cost-cutting measure?"

Oh, wow, that is really fascinating because the two don't sound the same to me, though I put a lot of that down to how they were produced (the OBC has a much warmer sound). Interesting that in fact the same orchestral tracks are being used. 

Updated On: 9/18/25 at 04:15 PM

[Ke3]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 5:13pm

That Vanessa Williams cast recording feels like such a marvel considering how rare it is for a replacement to get a cast recording. Even rarer when that replacement has a record deal to consider. Rarer still when the show was bleeding money. You'd think Garth would've been a bit tighter with the purse strings to try and keep the fraud going longer. But I love that recording so thanks Garth!

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 5:26pm

Worth it just to hear Stokes sing "Marta"!

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 5:28pm

joevitus said: "The Distinctive Baritone said: "
Although I don't have a direct answer to that question, the Vanessa Williams CD was recorded on the cheap by reusing the orchestra recordings for the OBC. Perhaps it was a cost-cutting measure?"

Oh, wow, that is really fascinating because the twodon't sound the same to me, though I put a lot of that down to how theywere produced(the OBC has a much warmer sound). Interesting that in fact the same orchestral tracks are being used."

Well it's simply not true that the recording was done on the cheap (Drabinsky never did anything on the cheap) or that they reused any of the tracks (which is obvious if you listen--in particular since Williams sings in different keys and different musical material is covered.)

As I said I love both recordings for different reasons but I think the second recording gives a better sense of the show due to it being produced by Thomas Z Shepard, probably the best cast album producer we have (at least since his mentor, Godard Lieberson.)  He talks about the recording in his memoir last year, Recording Broadway, and trust me, he would have mentioned if he was using pre-recorded tracks as he does mention that when discussing other recordings.  Here's some of what he has to say (I can't say I agree with him about the cast being better, but fascinating stuff)  Any errors are due to my own typos and a poor attempt to scan from the book itself :

"Kiss of the Spider Woman finally made it to Broadway on May 3, 1993, with the same principal performers and proved to be worth the wait. The New York reviews were much better (even Frank Rich, whose 1990 review had been particularly scath-ing, found some good things to say about the show), and Carver, Crivello, and Rivera all won Tony Awards, as did McNally's book and Kander & Ebb's score. The show ultimately ran for more than two years.

So far it was a classic Broadway story about The Little Show That Could, but the surprises weren't finished. By the end of June 1994, the three Tony-winning stars had all departed, but their replacements, Howard McGillin as Molina, Brian Mitchell (later Brian Stokes Mitchell) as Valentín, and Vanessa Williams as Spider Woman/Aurora, proved to be so good that many critics reported the show, already an acclaimed hit, was actually better with the new cast.

Apparently Drabinsky agreed, because in the fall of 1994 he asked me to produce a replacement-cast album, and on December 4 we went into the studio. (We returned on December 11 for some more work-one advantage of a replacement-cast album is less-pressing deadlines.)

I deliberately didn't listen to the original-cast album before setting to work on my own recording. I was certainly curious about it I'm a big Chita Rivera fan, I love Kander & Ebb, and plenty of people had told me how great the show was but that wasn't the show I had been hired to record, and I didn't want that album to color my decisions in making my own recording.

It was almost thirty years before I finally listened to the original, out of simple curi-osity. I knew the record had been both produced and engineered by Martin Levan, an Englishman primarily known as an innovative theatrical sound designer. He had a few previous credits as a producer, mostly on Andrew Lloyd Webber shows-notably the Broadway original-cast album of Cats (1982)—but that was his only other Broadway credit. Most of the others were London-cast recordings, and I don't know that I'd ever heard his work before.

Listening to the recording, all those years later, I tried to be as objective as I could, but I have to say I didn't think much of it. It struck me as a great opportunity missed.

The three leads give very strong performances, and the recording is clear and well balanced; but that's the best I can say for it.

The problem is that Levan had simply put the singers in front of a microphone and let them sing. In my opinion he didn't make much effort to tell the story of the show, or to capture the unique atmosphere that defines Kiss of the Spider Woman as a one-of-a-kind musical (as most Kander & Ebb shows are) that lives or dies by its bruising story, its tormented characters, and its darkly romantic tone, none of which comes across in the original-cast album.

The differences are most pronounced when it comes to Chita. As always, she sings beautifully, but her songs are different in kind from the ones sung by Carver and Criv-ello as Molina and Valentín, because in the context of the play they don't actually hap-pen-they're Molina's fantasies. They're snippets from movies he's seen featuring the actress Aurora and at face value don't have anything to do with the story. When Levan recorded her simply standing in front of a microphone, he didn't capture sonically the essence of the character. She is not real. She is a figment of Molina's fantasies.

It's rare for me to get a chance to sit back, listen, and find out what somebody else brought to a project that I came in late for. The only previous time I'd had that expe-rience had been with A Little Night Music, in the end I preferred Goddard's recording, mostly because I liked the American cast better than the British cast-but it was also a beautifully produced recording. As for Spider Woman, in my opinion, I think this revival had the better cast!

As Brian Stokes Mitchell, Brian Mitchell would later become one of Broadway's biggest stars, with three Tony nominations as Best Actor in a Musical and one as Best Actor in a Play between 1999 and 2003, including a win for his performance in Kiss Me, Kate (2000). Brian was not particularly well known in 1995, but he was on his way up, having previously replaced Greg Hines in Jelly's Last Jam. Valentin is another demanding role because he's so angry and bigoted that it can be hard for an audience to take to him. But Brian's performance was absolutely brilliant. He did a wonderful job tracing Valentín's arc from his hostile, tough-as-nails earlier scenes to the more human, more vulnerable man he is by the end of the show.

As for Vanessa, she was making her Broadway debut. She'd majored in musical theater at Syracuse University but had left in 1983 before completing her degree (she ultimately got it in 2008 ). She had gotten nice reviews for her work in two professional productions in 1985 and 1989, but Broadway was definitely a big step up.

The year before joining Kiss of the Spider Woman, she'd had her first No. 1 single with "Save the Best for Last," which she sang live at the 1993 Grammy Awards. (I was there, nominated three times for Crazy for You, Jelly's Last Jam, and The Secret Garden, though I lost to Jay Saks and Guys and Dolls.)

John Kander was there the whole day, smiling all the way through the sessions. He and David Krane, who orchestrated and arranged the dance music, were the only two of the creative team who came back to the studio for the replacement-cast sessions, and I did miss the input of Fred Ebb and Terrence McNally.

The editing and mixing were a lot of fun because the recording is full of sound effects and unusual acoustic textures-prisoners screaming in the distance, sirens going off, dream sequences, etc. We brought Vanessa's vocals in and out as if in Molina's dreams.

One of my fondest memories of this recording is that the sessions were at a studio in New York and were going very, very well-we were actually on schedule! So when the singers and the orchestra musicians went out for dinner, John Kander and I opted not to go with them. We'd been there for nine hours, so we were tired but happy, and we just sat there in the studio where we had paper cups and where we sipped from a bottle of scotch.

It wasn't me who brought the bottle; it was either John or somebody else, but there it was. It was a most enjoyable time."

Updated On: 9/18/25 at 05:28 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 5:32pm

Ke3 said: "You'd think Garth would've been a bit tighter with the purse strings to try and keep the fraud going longer. But I love that recording so thanks Garth!"

The undoing of Drabinsky and Livent was due precisely to the fact that he never did tighten the purse strings on any of their projects.  Was Kiss bleeding money though?  I thought it sold well with Vanessa Williams (I know it did not sell well when Maria Conchita Alonso took over from Williams and quickly closed.)

 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 6:22pm

AEA AGMA SM said: "
I can’t find my copy of the script to check to see what has been in the licensed script, but in the Playbill that’s on Playbill Vault the Morphine Tango Reprise is not listed, so it may indeed have been cut between London and Broadway. And of course since I’ve listened to the original recording so much, I don’t trust my memory of seeing the tour some 30 years ago as to whether it was in then or not"

I just checked my playbill from the tour (which I saw in Vancouver with Chita, John Dossett and Jeff Hyslop--as a Canadian kid growing up with Today's Special I admit it was wild seeing him first as the Phantom in the Canuck tour and then Molina.)  Morphine Tango is only listed once in the same place as it is on the Williams cast album.  I can't imagine TZS, who was known for making his cast albums pretty complete and, would have left it off if it was still in the show.

[n2nbaby]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 6:49pm

I’m almost positive this is Regal’s mystery movie on September 29th. The only thing that has my questioning is that they have it listed as PG-13 and Spider Woman is currently not rated - but with the mystery movie these things have been changed before.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 8:26pm

 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 8:47pm

Thanks for that.  Never You, at least in the live audio of the Purchase production, was sung in the movie within the play by the character Valentin plays in that movie (Kevin Gray in the cast) with Aurora joining in at the end.  I think it's a good, if not exceptional, song, that feels like a natural one to reinstate if they want to include more songs for the movie (in this case movie within the movie.)  Although in the booklet for the composer demo of the song on the John Kander Hidden Treasures set, they imply it was a love song for Molina to sing Valentin...

Was the other song added for the film from the Purchase production, An Everyday Man?

 

 

Updated On: 9/18/25 at 08:47 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 9:03pm

joevitus said: "I don't really like the idea of making Molina trans--it doesn't representeither howPuig or later McNally conceptualized the character. And it feels uncomfortably reductive. Because, yes, there were, are and always will be effeminate gay men who do not view themselves as trans women. Effeminate doesn't equal trans. It makes me wonder if, in the future, looking over the diaries, recorded conversations, etc. of men from our era and earlier eraswho used terms like "she" or "sister" or "Mary" or whatever are going to be interpreted forfuture generations as "actually trans," when in fact it is just the language of some members of the gaycommunity.

BUT we are in a period that is so hateful to trans people that I absolutely LOVEa major movie musical with a trans woman at its center--and one much more likely to gain mainstream interest than, you know, that previous one."

I don't have much to add to what has been said about the question of Molina and gender (and John Adams, you're absolutely right that I misappropriated a quote to you--I apparently still suck at the BWW system of quoting posts.)  But did want to agree with others that I love the discussion this has brought up (I'm sure there'll be more thoughts when more of us have seen the film.)  And Joevitus, your entire post that I quoted above is worthy of emphasizing I think, and two sentiments I share (even while I still am sticking to my perhaps reductive grumblings about a character I always have seen as an important, and still rare, gay male lead character in Broadway musicals now being trans.)

[joevitus]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 9:12pm

EricMontreal22 said: "AEA AGMA SM said: "
I can’t find my copy of the script to check to see what has been in the licensed script, but in the Playbill that’s on Playbill Vault the Morphine Tango Reprise is not listed, so it may indeed have been cut between London and Broadway. And of course since I’ve listened to the original recording so much, I don’t trust my memory of seeing the tour some 30 years ago as to whether it was in then or not"

I just checked my playbill from the tour (which I saw in Vancouver with Chita, John Dossett and Jeff Hyslop--as a Canadian kid growing up with Today's Special I admit it was wild seeing him first as the Phantom in the Canuck tour and then Molina.) Morphine Tango is only listed once in the same place as it is on the Williams cast album. I can't imagine TZS, who was known for making his cast albums pretty complete and, would have left it off if it was still in the show."

Thank you very much for this. I like the reprise as it rounds off essentially a dream sequence, but happy to know when I'm listening to the Williams cast, I am hearing the full score as it was heard in that production. 

[joevitus]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 9:17pm

EricMontreal22 said: "joevitus said: "I don't really like the idea of making Molina trans--it doesn't representeither howPuig or later McNally conceptualized the character. And it feels uncomfortably reductive. Because, yes, there were, are and always will be effeminate gay men who do not view themselves as trans women. Effeminate doesn't equal trans. It makes me wonder if, in the future, looking over the diaries, recorded conversations, etc. of men from our era and earlier eraswho used terms like "she" or "sister" or "Mary" or whatever are going to be interpreted forfuture generations as "actually trans," when in fact it is just the language of some members of the gaycommunity.

BUT we are in a period that is so hateful to trans people that I absolutely LOVEa major movie musical with a trans woman at its center--and one much more likely to gain mainstream interest than, you know, that previous one."

I don't have much to add to what has been said about the question of Molina and gender (and John Adams, you're absolutely right that I misappropriated a quote to you--I apparently still suck at the BWW system of quoting posts.) But did want to agree with others that I love the discussion this has brought up (I'm sure there'll be more thoughts when more of us have seen the film.) And Joevitus, your entire post that I quoted above is worthy of emphasizing I think, and two sentiments I share (even while I still am sticking to my perhaps reductive grumblings about a character I always have seen as an important, and still rare, gay male lead character in Broadway musicals now being trans.)"

Aw, shucks. You make me blush.

[Ke3]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 11:12pm

EricMontreal22 said: "Ke3 said: "You'd think Garth would've been a bit tighter with the purse strings to try and keep the fraud going longer. But I love that recording so thanks Garth!"

The undoing of Drabinsky and Livent was due precisely to the fact that he never did tighten the purse strings on any of their projects. Was Kiss bleeding money though? I thought it sold well with Vanessa Williams (I know it did not sell well when Maria Conchita Alonso took over from Williams and quickly closed.)

"

It sold extremely with Vanessa but from my understanding because of the nature of the Livent fraud, it was losing money. At least on paper.

Speaking of Vanessa in this show it feels like she's well liked but she never again got the kind of reviews she got in this. I love her in everything but the praise for her takeover was really rapturous. Wonder how different things would be if she'd ever gotten to originate something. 

 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/18/25 at 11:31pm

Ah that makes sense.  I remember from the Drabinsky doc that they really were bleeding money basically from the get go (well after initial financial success with the Toronto Phantom and Canadian tour, etc.)  (The main other thing I remember about the doc is how hard Chita went for Drabinsky, still saying she felt he did nothing wrong...  From her POV though I can see where she was coming from.)

That's a good point about Vanessa.  I think she's gotten good notices in London for Prada, but her Broadway roles since Spider Woman seem to get pretty mediocre notices (I guess I'm thinking mostly of Into the Woods--although I can't really blame her for how meh people are, especially retroactively, about the Lapine revival, and Sondheim on Sondheim...)

[BJR]

Posted: 9/19/25 at 3:54am

Ke3 said: "Speaking of Vanessa in this show it feels like she's well liked but she never again got the kind of reviews she got in this. I love her in everything but the praise for her takeover was really rapturous. Wonder how different things would be if she'd ever gotten to originate something.”

i’ve often thought of this. And I think it is mainly because she didn’t originate anything. St. Louis Woman at Encores was well received, and she was Tony nominated for Into the Woods. But yes, that and Sondheim on Sondheim haven’t aged well. 
 

in the liner notes, McNally gushes over her and says how shows should be written for her. What a shame that didn’t happen.

 

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 9/19/25 at 11:01am

I wish every previously released cast album had a digital booklet of those liner notes.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 9/19/25 at 3:46pm

Tonatiuh to Receive MVFF Award at 48th Mill Valley Film Festival

[altonido]

Posted: 9/19/25 at 7:22pm

Haven't seen the "Spider Woman" film yet, but if I understand correctly, the two songs from the 1990 Purchase production that have been restored for the film are "Every Day" and "Never You."  At Purchase, "Every Day" was begun by Molina (John Rubinstein) but then taken over by the film-within-the-musical's romantic leading man,  Armando (Donn Simione), who sang it to Lauren Mitchell's Aurora; the number included an extended tap dance for Simione.   "Never You" was a love ballad sung by Armando to Aurora, with Aurora eventually joining in.

[joevitus]

Posted: 9/19/25 at 11:49pm

altonido said: "Haven't seen the "Spider Woman" film yet, but if I understand correctly, the two songs from the 1990 Purchase production that have been restored for the film are "Every Day" and "Never You." At Purchase, "Every Day" was begun by Molina (John Rubinstein) but then taken over by the film-within-the-musical's romantic leading man,Armando (Donn Simione), who sang it to Lauren Mitchell's Aurora; the number included an extended tap dance for Simione. "Never You" was a love ballad sung by Armando to Aurora, with Aurora eventually joining in."

I wish they'd have put "Don't Touch" back in. "Where You Are" is an infinitely better song for that spot (it's probably the best song in the score--and best expresses the conceit of the show), but it's the sort of number that could have been repurposed elsewhere. My only regrets regarding the numbers cut are the Russian movie sequence (which, after all, is a fantasy sequence and so could have been retained) and "Morphine Tango," which I've always found a haunting, captivating number. I love the whole score, but I don't think most of the book songs effectively fit the characters (especially Valentin) and too often sound like songs I've heard in shows by other composers. Still, superb listening in and of themselves. 

 

Updated On: 9/20/25 at 11:49 PM