Philip William McKinley on Spider-Man Music

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 6:06pm

"I think what's different about this particular musical event on Broadway is that it does break the templet of a musical theater piece. In that we often believe that in musical theater the song should further the story line. And that is not necessarily the case in this. We are taking pop music, and the nature of pop music is to elevate an emotional feeling. So our task then was to make sure that's what happened was that you saw the evolution of the story line within the scene, and then when the song is sung. It elevates the emotional feeling that the character is feeling at the time as opposed to it going from A to Z."

That just sounds like an excuse for writers of this show to not have to music that advances the plot. Is it an impossible task to write pop songs that also move the plot forward. Are we stuck with the pop songs that will always stop plot dead in its tracks and just talk about the emotions that just happened in the previous scene. I know that there are songs in every musical that does that, but in Spider-Man it felt like every song was that. Do you think it is possible that we can meld pop and musical theater in a more cohesive way?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 6:10pm

and poop is finely processed edible materials by the bodies intricate chemical digestive system to remove the nutrients and expel the waste in the neatest package and shape available.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 7:14pm

"In that we often believe that in musical theater the song should further the story line. And that is not necessarily the case in this"

And that's part of the reason the music in Spiderman is so unmemorable.

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 9:22am

I finally saw it last night. I had heard about the music and thought it couldn't be as bad as a lot of people were saying. I found the music to be boring with the exception of about 3 songs. I can't believe Bono & The Edge wrote this stuff. While sitting there I kept thinking I wish they had gone back to the days of Boy and The Joshua Tree when their music still had a message but was catchy and fun. Boy Falls From the Sky got the most applause last night. The rest of the songs got a kind of tepid response. I also thought the Carney may have been chosen partially because of his rock voice that could bring that U2 sound and that his voice is wasted here. I was quite impressed with T. V. Caprio and what she does with her voice to make her songs interesting.