#1
Posted: 1/10/11 at 10:59am
So I went to see "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" yesterday (Sunday, January 9, 2011). Here are my thoughts.
WARNING: There are spoilers ahead. If you don't want to know anything about this show, then don't read further.
First of all, the show was completely sold out. I know this because I observed more than one person asking for tickets to that performance, and they were told that there were none left.
One of the producers got on the stage first. He welcomed everyone. His primary message seemed to be an emphasis that this was a preview performance. As part of that, he stated that due to the complexity of the show and the renovations that had to be made to the theater itself, it was impossible to have this show do out-of-town try-outs, as is normally the case, so it came direct to Broadway. He then made it a point to say that all the aerial stunts had been OK'd by the NY State office on safety (well, duh! otherwise they wouldn't be allowed) and read a statement that, he said, the safety office required be read. Frankly, it didn't sound like something from a government office, but---whatever! Then the show began.
The music: Passable. I thought that there were a couple good songs, and the rest were OK. Not nearly as dreadful as some folks have said online. I wasn't clear on why two guitar players did their thing visibly to the left of the stage. Was this to make the production not just theatre but more a total performance experience? I found it distracting, frankly.
The aerial stunts: generally impressive. I was in seat B104 (the 5th row), so I had a great view of things happening on-stage and immediately in front of the stage. The tapestry sequence seemed straight out of Cirque du Soleil, and I thought that was very well done. When characters flew into the audience, I had to turn around to follow the action. If I see the show another time, I will opt for a different view. When SM makes his first appearance in costume, and flies toward the audience, landing at the edge of the stage in his spidey pose, boy did the people in Row AA jump! I expected more flying around the audience's head than there actually was, though. And it had been said that the actors would be flying around at 30mph. Frankly, it didn't look anywhere near 30mph to me. Was the 30mph just hyperbole or did safety issues result in things being slowed down? Or did they really get up to 30mph, even if only briefly? I don't know. But, as I said, the aerial stuff was kind of cool.
The aerial stunts, Part II: Did these add to the story? Yes and no. Mostly no. But they do contribute to the mood and atmosphere of the Spider-Man mythology and, in that sense, indirectly affect how the story is perceived. With all the troubles this show has had, I was skeptical about the stunt stuff, too, and the need for it all. I watched the piece on "60 Minutes". Julie Taymor made a statement that IF you are going to do a musical on Spider-Man, then you HAVE to do the aerial stuff---that audiences are too sosphicated now and would demand that. When she said that, I recall saying to myself, "she's right". Now, you could make the argument that maybe you shouldn't be doing a musical about Spider-Man in the first place, but that gets us down a different path ...
Stops: Yes, there was one. When the show got to the point where Chris Tierney had fallen, everything seemed to have gone OK. (OK, SM descended on the stage at one point a bit off-balance, but other than that ...) Then came the next scene. A giant net (web) was rising from the pit. It seemed to get tangled and there were two stagehands (dressed in black but still slightly visible) who appeared to be tried to untangle it. Then came the announcement that the show was being stopped. The stop was brief, I'd say roughly two minutes. When the show resumed, we saw Arachne rising up and Mary Jane was shown entrapped in a web trap. What happened to the net? It appeared as though they skipped a scene and went right to the next. Later, upon exiting at the end of the show, I conversed with another audience member who described what was supposed to have happened, and mentioned that the net had stopped previous performances. So gone was the big showdown of Spider-Man and Arachne's minions going at it on this net. The shift from MJ falling to this scene definitely felt disconnected.
The sets: I understand the comic-book look of the sets and props. Many had the feel of a pop-up book, and as sets and parts of sets turned, it had the feel of comic book pages being turned. But that did take a bit of getting used to. The Greek Chorus was in the real word, telling the story of characters in comic books, so in that context it made sense. The scale of some of the sets was impressive. I especially like the Chrysler building, as down from looking down, with the back wall of the stage turning into the street, with cars going left and right on it.
OK, now I have to back up a few steps. I confess that I am a comic book fan. I have been for years. I never really stopped being one. As for Spider-Man specifically, I started to read those comics somewhere around 1968. I stopped buying all comics on a regular basis sometime in 1997---pretty much cold turkey. And that was primarily because I had just taken a new job, I was incredibly busy at it, and I had gotten to the point of being six months behind in reading all that I was buying, and of never being able to catch up. A few years after this, writer J. Michael Straczynski took over the "Amazing Spider-Man". As a fan of his work, I picked up reading ASM again. He wrote it for about four years and when he left the book, I stopped buying it again. The point of all this is that I know the Spider-Man character well, having read the books for over 40 years (with one break) so I am extremely familiar with the character, the supporting characters, the villians and the mythology.
With that in mind, it was widely reported that Julie Taymor had really immersed herself into the Spider-Man mythology, including reading zillions of SM comics. Act I is essentially Spider-Man's origin story. Some of the deviations from SM's correct origin are puzzling. Spider-Man opted not to stop a robber, who then went on to kill Uncle Ben. In the play, Uncle Ben is instead hit by a joyrider who had stolen Flash Thompson's car, which he chose not to bother with. I'm not sure why doing that was deemed a better idea. I also got the impression that Julie Taymor soaked up so much SM history that she wanted to include everything that she could. Doing so probably would have made this play 10 hours long! But instead we have bits and pieces dropped in here and there, including by the Greek Chorus, who toss out a lot of information to the audience. One I found particularly interested was the discussion on whether the radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker chose him, or whether that event was random. In J. Michael Straczynski's run on "The Amazing Spider-Man", in a very lengthy story arc, he re-visited Spider-Man's origin, looking at it from a different angle, and the whole question of destiny versus Peter Parker being chosen was very much a part of that, with the answer falling on the side of the latter. (On this matter, see also Arachne, below.) I did chuckle when it was mentioned that the Osborn's scientists were kidnapped, and gave their names as Lee, Ditko, Straczynski and others, the names of various writers and artists associated with SM (with Stan Lee and Steve Ditko being the creators); I thought that was a cute touch.
Speaking of differences, in the comics, it was Gwen Stacey, Peter Parker's first true love, who was kidnapped by the Green Goblin, and tossed off the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. Not Mary Jane. Spider-Man webbed her just before she hit the water, but the force of the stop caused her neck to snap, killing her. Talk about guilt! The first movie substituted Mary Jane for what happened to Gwen, without her dying, of course. This play follows suit. This is all as an "FYI".
Lots of super-villains are tossed in, some being dispatched briefly. There didn't really seem to be much point to a lot of that, and some of it came off comical to me. Could this have all be omitted and the main story line stuck to, namely concerning Spider-Man and Green Goblin? I was thinking about that, and also realizing that doing so would essentially make the play a musical version of the first movie. So I have mixed opinions about the answer to that question. And Swiss Miss? I have no recollection of that villain! It sounds nothing to me like something that would actually be in the SM comic books. I also don't recall Swarm, but that seemed like something that would be. And Kraven the Hunter: aw, what a great villain. The massive story arc from the comics in which SM was captured and buried alive was wonderful. But I digress.
Act I: essentially Spider-Man's origin.
Act II: A bit messy. I had read that people were confused by it. I followed it, but it was a bit of a struggle. Act II was pretty choppy. It does need some work. (An aside: As NYC gets attacked, one CGI scene showed a building with a "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" poster at its top. I found that a bit weird.)
Arachne: a villainess that was created for this musical. Not a bad idea, but the execution was a bit all over the place. First she helps Peter Parker, then turns on him when he quits being the city's savior, then works against him to get him to resume being SM, then it turns out that she has her own secret motives. How exactly SM was supposed to release her from the eternal afterlife or somesuch is still not clear to me! It was all a bit muddled. I'm sure the missed scene didn't help in that regard either.
Overall: Let's just say that this will not win any Pulitzer Prizes. On the other hand, I have been to a LOT of musicals that have been worse than this one. In terms of overall entertainment, I would stick it squarely in the middle. The producers seem to be trying to create an event (all those aerial stunts) versus just a standard musical. Time will tell if this has long legs.
WARNING: There are spoilers ahead. If you don't want to know anything about this show, then don't read further.
First of all, the show was completely sold out. I know this because I observed more than one person asking for tickets to that performance, and they were told that there were none left.
One of the producers got on the stage first. He welcomed everyone. His primary message seemed to be an emphasis that this was a preview performance. As part of that, he stated that due to the complexity of the show and the renovations that had to be made to the theater itself, it was impossible to have this show do out-of-town try-outs, as is normally the case, so it came direct to Broadway. He then made it a point to say that all the aerial stunts had been OK'd by the NY State office on safety (well, duh! otherwise they wouldn't be allowed) and read a statement that, he said, the safety office required be read. Frankly, it didn't sound like something from a government office, but---whatever! Then the show began.
The music: Passable. I thought that there were a couple good songs, and the rest were OK. Not nearly as dreadful as some folks have said online. I wasn't clear on why two guitar players did their thing visibly to the left of the stage. Was this to make the production not just theatre but more a total performance experience? I found it distracting, frankly.
The aerial stunts: generally impressive. I was in seat B104 (the 5th row), so I had a great view of things happening on-stage and immediately in front of the stage. The tapestry sequence seemed straight out of Cirque du Soleil, and I thought that was very well done. When characters flew into the audience, I had to turn around to follow the action. If I see the show another time, I will opt for a different view. When SM makes his first appearance in costume, and flies toward the audience, landing at the edge of the stage in his spidey pose, boy did the people in Row AA jump! I expected more flying around the audience's head than there actually was, though. And it had been said that the actors would be flying around at 30mph. Frankly, it didn't look anywhere near 30mph to me. Was the 30mph just hyperbole or did safety issues result in things being slowed down? Or did they really get up to 30mph, even if only briefly? I don't know. But, as I said, the aerial stuff was kind of cool.
The aerial stunts, Part II: Did these add to the story? Yes and no. Mostly no. But they do contribute to the mood and atmosphere of the Spider-Man mythology and, in that sense, indirectly affect how the story is perceived. With all the troubles this show has had, I was skeptical about the stunt stuff, too, and the need for it all. I watched the piece on "60 Minutes". Julie Taymor made a statement that IF you are going to do a musical on Spider-Man, then you HAVE to do the aerial stuff---that audiences are too sosphicated now and would demand that. When she said that, I recall saying to myself, "she's right". Now, you could make the argument that maybe you shouldn't be doing a musical about Spider-Man in the first place, but that gets us down a different path ...
Stops: Yes, there was one. When the show got to the point where Chris Tierney had fallen, everything seemed to have gone OK. (OK, SM descended on the stage at one point a bit off-balance, but other than that ...) Then came the next scene. A giant net (web) was rising from the pit. It seemed to get tangled and there were two stagehands (dressed in black but still slightly visible) who appeared to be tried to untangle it. Then came the announcement that the show was being stopped. The stop was brief, I'd say roughly two minutes. When the show resumed, we saw Arachne rising up and Mary Jane was shown entrapped in a web trap. What happened to the net? It appeared as though they skipped a scene and went right to the next. Later, upon exiting at the end of the show, I conversed with another audience member who described what was supposed to have happened, and mentioned that the net had stopped previous performances. So gone was the big showdown of Spider-Man and Arachne's minions going at it on this net. The shift from MJ falling to this scene definitely felt disconnected.
The sets: I understand the comic-book look of the sets and props. Many had the feel of a pop-up book, and as sets and parts of sets turned, it had the feel of comic book pages being turned. But that did take a bit of getting used to. The Greek Chorus was in the real word, telling the story of characters in comic books, so in that context it made sense. The scale of some of the sets was impressive. I especially like the Chrysler building, as down from looking down, with the back wall of the stage turning into the street, with cars going left and right on it.
OK, now I have to back up a few steps. I confess that I am a comic book fan. I have been for years. I never really stopped being one. As for Spider-Man specifically, I started to read those comics somewhere around 1968. I stopped buying all comics on a regular basis sometime in 1997---pretty much cold turkey. And that was primarily because I had just taken a new job, I was incredibly busy at it, and I had gotten to the point of being six months behind in reading all that I was buying, and of never being able to catch up. A few years after this, writer J. Michael Straczynski took over the "Amazing Spider-Man". As a fan of his work, I picked up reading ASM again. He wrote it for about four years and when he left the book, I stopped buying it again. The point of all this is that I know the Spider-Man character well, having read the books for over 40 years (with one break) so I am extremely familiar with the character, the supporting characters, the villians and the mythology.
With that in mind, it was widely reported that Julie Taymor had really immersed herself into the Spider-Man mythology, including reading zillions of SM comics. Act I is essentially Spider-Man's origin story. Some of the deviations from SM's correct origin are puzzling. Spider-Man opted not to stop a robber, who then went on to kill Uncle Ben. In the play, Uncle Ben is instead hit by a joyrider who had stolen Flash Thompson's car, which he chose not to bother with. I'm not sure why doing that was deemed a better idea. I also got the impression that Julie Taymor soaked up so much SM history that she wanted to include everything that she could. Doing so probably would have made this play 10 hours long! But instead we have bits and pieces dropped in here and there, including by the Greek Chorus, who toss out a lot of information to the audience. One I found particularly interested was the discussion on whether the radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker chose him, or whether that event was random. In J. Michael Straczynski's run on "The Amazing Spider-Man", in a very lengthy story arc, he re-visited Spider-Man's origin, looking at it from a different angle, and the whole question of destiny versus Peter Parker being chosen was very much a part of that, with the answer falling on the side of the latter. (On this matter, see also Arachne, below.) I did chuckle when it was mentioned that the Osborn's scientists were kidnapped, and gave their names as Lee, Ditko, Straczynski and others, the names of various writers and artists associated with SM (with Stan Lee and Steve Ditko being the creators); I thought that was a cute touch.
Speaking of differences, in the comics, it was Gwen Stacey, Peter Parker's first true love, who was kidnapped by the Green Goblin, and tossed off the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. Not Mary Jane. Spider-Man webbed her just before she hit the water, but the force of the stop caused her neck to snap, killing her. Talk about guilt! The first movie substituted Mary Jane for what happened to Gwen, without her dying, of course. This play follows suit. This is all as an "FYI".
Lots of super-villains are tossed in, some being dispatched briefly. There didn't really seem to be much point to a lot of that, and some of it came off comical to me. Could this have all be omitted and the main story line stuck to, namely concerning Spider-Man and Green Goblin? I was thinking about that, and also realizing that doing so would essentially make the play a musical version of the first movie. So I have mixed opinions about the answer to that question. And Swiss Miss? I have no recollection of that villain! It sounds nothing to me like something that would actually be in the SM comic books. I also don't recall Swarm, but that seemed like something that would be. And Kraven the Hunter: aw, what a great villain. The massive story arc from the comics in which SM was captured and buried alive was wonderful. But I digress.
Act I: essentially Spider-Man's origin.
Act II: A bit messy. I had read that people were confused by it. I followed it, but it was a bit of a struggle. Act II was pretty choppy. It does need some work. (An aside: As NYC gets attacked, one CGI scene showed a building with a "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" poster at its top. I found that a bit weird.)
Arachne: a villainess that was created for this musical. Not a bad idea, but the execution was a bit all over the place. First she helps Peter Parker, then turns on him when he quits being the city's savior, then works against him to get him to resume being SM, then it turns out that she has her own secret motives. How exactly SM was supposed to release her from the eternal afterlife or somesuch is still not clear to me! It was all a bit muddled. I'm sure the missed scene didn't help in that regard either.
Overall: Let's just say that this will not win any Pulitzer Prizes. On the other hand, I have been to a LOT of musicals that have been worse than this one. In terms of overall entertainment, I would stick it squarely in the middle. The producers seem to be trying to create an event (all those aerial stunts) versus just a standard musical. Time will tell if this has long legs.
