Julie Taymore, "You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a very successful show." — Page 2

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#26

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/24/11 at 6:05pm

I think that actually sums it up perfectly, Diva.

Of course a show can have no book, be all spectacle and be a monster hit.

But since when has the creative team of Spidey ever said their show was just a spectacle? They've been selling the show since day one as a legitimate book musical with amazing visuals and stunts.

Now it's just a book-less spectacle?

I wonder what creative excuse they will come up with to justify the banal score. That a musical can have only sonic wallpaper and still be a great show?

....but the world goes 'round

#27

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/24/11 at 6:13pm

JRy, I worked for Cirque. They do have accidents but not quite as bad as the last one in Spider-Man. (Broken wrists, legs, etc. And that's not great that they even do that!) They develop shows for a few years but they don't rehearse them for 2 years. Also with Cirque, a lot of their performaers can only stay in the states for a certain amount of time so they rotate the casts. Especially the Asian kids. Some of the kids only get to do one or two cities before they have to go back home. After about 6 months they can return. Their replacement casts rehearse for a few months or more and then they join the tour. I think they can stay in the states for 6 months. SOme can stay longer.

Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

#28

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/24/11 at 6:43pm

I do remember Taymor and Bono being criticized here from the beginning of the development stages for not calling it a musical (didn't Bono say he hated musicals or something like that?). I don't remember them expressly trying to sell a legit book musical, but rather pointedly trying to express the show as something different and unique. I honestly don't think this is some sort of new spin. It's the same spiel, but layered with new attitude.

The only injury I remember making headlines for Cirque was one of the pole walkers fell to his death on stage during a performance of Mystere. I think that was 8-9 years ago, though. Nobody demanded the show close or anything. That only happens when your name is Julie Taymor.

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#29

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/24/11 at 7:53pm

This is just stupid.

I'm waiting for her to come out with a statement next saying 'yes everything sucks, but the flying is cool! Shell out your $140 for that!' It seems like each week that passes, she comes out with a more ridiculous statement trying to, as TheatreDiva perfectly put it, cover her ass. This show is a disaster. I, for one, cannot wait to read Brantley's obituary for it. Too bad we have to wait two more months.....

#30

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/24/11 at 8:00pm

Taymor used to be talking all about the story she was telling...about how Peter Parker was the "everyman" and all that. She seemed to think it had a book then. And it does, after all, say in very big letters outside the Foxwoods that she (along with Berger) wrote a book, but now she's trying to back out because what she has written is terrible. This just gets stranger and stranger by the day...

"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."-Stephen Sondheim

#31

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/24/11 at 8:06pm

She is right, I'm afraid. So many shows have gone on to be commercial successes that have AWFUL books. So long as people are willing to pay good money and sit through these shows, we'll keep getting them. I'm afraid that, at some point, people will stop trying to be innovative and original and creative and just opt for flash.

#32

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/24/11 at 8:07pm

While she is probably at least partially correct, it's not something you should be advertising that your show is. She wrote this story, so she should be defending its merits, or rewriting it.

"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."-Stephen Sondheim

#33

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/24/11 at 9:54pm

When does she have time to say anything?

#34

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/24/11 at 10:27pm

I'm afraid that, at some point, people will stop trying to be innovative and original and creative and just opt for flash.

People have been saying that for 100 years. They said it about rock and roll, they said it about hippies, they said it about revues, they said it about family shows, they said it about revivals, they said it about the megamusicals of the 80s, they said it about Disney and they said it about jukebox musicals. Yet somehow, original works still get produced. And like the spectacles, some win and some lose. Spider-Man is not going to change that.

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#35

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/25/11 at 2:13pm

To all the naysayers (including me), at least she's not comparing it to Shakespear anymore!!! Give credit where credit is due.

TD

Show's I've Seen: 2011: American Idiot, Lombardi, Screwtape Letters, Adams Family, Imaginocean, Phantom - 2010: Spiderman, A Little Night Music, Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, La Cage aux Faux, Next to Normal (twice), Fanny (City Center), Next Fall, - 2009: Finian's Rainbow, Let Me Down Easy, Toxic Avenger, Hair, Mary Stuart, 9 to 5, Avenue Q (a few times), Young Frankenstein, Cry Baby, Applause (City Center), Xanadu, Legally Blond, Glorious Ones, Gutenberg: The Musical, Spring Awakening, Company, Dessa Rose, Jersey Boys, The Color Purple, Taboo, Altar Boys, Lestat, The Weddings Singer, Hairspray, Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Wicked, Brooklyn, Urinetown, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Grey Gardens, Drowsy Chaperon, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Les Miserable, Aida, Great American Trailer Park Musical, Into The Woods, Naked Boys Singing, Cabaret, Last Five Years, Jekyll & Hyde, Corpus Christi, Side Show, Rent (a few times), Footloose, and Ragtime (First Broadway Show I saw).

#36

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/25/11 at 3:28pm

Credit for what? Constantly changing her story?
She's burying herself.

"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>> “I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>> -whatever2

#37

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/25/11 at 3:40pm

Rodgers and Hart wrote the score to Jumbo, which was performed in the Hippodrome ("Did I hear right? Did you say the Hippodrome" "Yes, you heard right. Yes, I said the Hipp--!")

It starred a goddamn elephant, fer chrissakes--and no one criticized THEM for writing a spectacle.

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Watch the rehearsal footage here, in the "cavernous" Hippodrome:

http://www.bluegobo.com/index.php?var=10064

As Bill says to Eve in All About Eve:

"The Theatuh, the Theatuh-- what book of rules says the Theater exists only within some ugly buildings crowded into one square mile of New York City? Or London, Paris or Vienna?

"Listen, junior. And learn. Want to know what the Theater is? A flea circus. Also opera. Also rodeos, carnivals, ballets, Indian tribal dances, Punch and Judy, a one-man band - all Theater. Wherever there's magic and make-believe and an audience - there's Theater. Donald Duck, Ibsen, and The Lone Ranger, Sarah Bernhardt, Poodles Hanneford, Lunt and Fontanne, Betty Grable, Rex and Wild, and Eleanora Duse. You don't understand them all, you don't like them all, why should you? The Theater's for everybody - you included, but not exclusively - so don't approve or disapprove. It may not be your Theater, but it's Theater of somebody, somewhere."

#38

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/25/11 at 3:42pm

Production photo of Jumbo's Act 1 finale dominated by the 40- to 50-foot-high star-spangled papier-mâché jack-in-the-box that, according to Time, pops out of something no bigger than a suitcase.

#39

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/25/11 at 4:23pm

Careful, PJ...you're spoiling all the fun.

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#40

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/25/11 at 5:04pm

I agree that this was a stupid thing for her to say, but I also think it is likely taken out of context. Who knows how long this interview was, and what was being said directly before and after this quote? No one. I realize though that this is Broadway World, so continue to crucify away.

#41

Julie Taymore, 'You can do spectacle on Broadway with no book and have a ve

Posted: 1/25/11 at 9:05pm

"Production photo of Jumbo's Act 1 finale dominated by the 40- to 50-foot-high star-spangled papier-mâché jack-in-the-box that, according to Time, pops out of something no bigger than a suitcase."

omg

-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/

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