SPIDER-MAN Update: Reeve Carney to Play Peter Parker; 'Show Will Open in 2010'- Page 2

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 12:22am

Twenty dollars says this opens and is a big honkin hit. There I said it.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 1:33am

Michael Bennett, the fact that you only bet twenty dollars is revealing.
This could go either way, but the longer it takes the more $ they spend.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 2:30am

I can't wait.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 2:37am

Mr Roxy wrote: When the producers lose their shirts they can look back to this day when they could have pulled the plug & stopped the bloodletting. This will be a bloodbath for all concerned.

The critics will have a field day with this.

Right. And if (a big if) it gets horrendous reviews and tickets are available at a discount and audiences stay away in droves, you will grab a pair of tickets and announce:

"Mrs R and I had a great time. The critics had it in for this from day one. It was not that bad."

BECAUSE THAT IS YOUR ROUTINE, ROXY.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 8:54am

From yesterdays (Nov 6th) Los Angeles Times.

****
ON BROADWAY, 'SPIDER-MAN'S' GREATEST ENEMY IS BUDGET
Sources close to the production say the musical's producers need to raise
as much as $24 million to cover a $52-million budget.

By John Horn, Los Angeles Times
November 6, 2009

As this Spider-Man tale opens, the audience sees New York City "on fire and
in ruins" as "a section of the Brooklyn Bridge ascends with Mary Jane bound
and dangling helplessly from the bridge." Soon thereafter, a new villainess
called Arachne flies into the picture spinning her own deadly trap, and as
Spider-Man battles all kinds of criminals he's swinging right over the
audience.

It sounds like the 3-D opening for the next "Spider-Man" sequel, and even
though this superhero story is filled with Hollywood-style special effects,
it is instead a glimpse from a confidential script of a planned "Spider-Man"
musical -- the priciest undertaking, and among the most troubled
productions, in Broadway history.

Theater producers are always looking for the next movie-inspired musical
blockbuster, and the pedigree of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" couldn't be
more stellar: Sony's three Peter Parker movies have grossed nearly $2.5
billion worldwide, musical songwriters Bono and the Edge have shipped more than
50 million U2 records domestically, and director Julie Taymor's "The Lion
King" has earned $3.6 billion globally.

But rather than develop into a surefire hit, "Spider-Man" the musical
instead has turned into a tangled web of production delays, unpaid bills and
costly theater renovations that even Peter Parker's alter ego would struggle to
escape, according to interviews with half a dozen people close to the show
who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
discuss the show and its finances. Given its immodest ambition to "reinvent
Broadway," the musical's budget has soared to $52 million, counting theater
renovations, according to one person familiar with its finances -- more than
double the cost of 2006's "Lord of the Rings" musical, one of the most expensive
musicals ever.

Like any compelling superhero story, "Spider-Man's" real-life final act is
a cliffhanger.

Despite all the talent in its corner, it's still far from certain when --
or even if -- the elaborate musical will open after six years of development,
as it has struggled to find a backer to close the budget shortfall. If the
show doesn't premiere by the end of April, it not only will miss Tony Award
eligibility but also face the expiration of the musical's license from
Marvel Entertainment, whose comic-book division created the enduring superhero in
1962. Bono and Edge seem bewildered by the show's odyssey. "But who cares?"
Bono said. "The visuals and the music are amazing, and that's what will
matter."

While many factors have contributed to the show's holdup, the musical has
been derailed by some of the most complicated staging in Broadway history, as
the show's creators try to replicate the superhero's skyscraper-swinging
movie maneuvers inside a theater.

Three people close to the production say the musical needs to raise as much
as $24 million to cover its proposed budget of about $52 million -- $42
million for the show, $6 million for theater renovations and $4 million for
theater restorations. At the same time, "Spider-Man's" fixed weekly running
costs total around $1 million -- hundreds of thousands dollars more than what
some elaborate shows such as "Mary Poppins" or "West Side Story" cost to
stage every week. Part of "Spider-Man's" expense stems from its aerial and
scenic effects: More than 40 stage hands are needed to operate the musical's
backstage rigging, said a person who's seen the show's budget.

Those expenses mean "Spider-Man" would have to sell out every show for as
many as four years (a feat only a handful of Broadway shows ever manage)
simply to break even, according to several people familiar with the production
and its finances.

The show has its devoted believers, led by Chicago lawyer David Garfinkle,
who has been involved in the project from the start. It's easy to understand
the enthusiasm: A reading of the musical's script -- along with listening
to an hour of unreleased music by Bono and the Edge and reviewing a DVD sent
to potential investors of Taymor's staging tests -- reveals why so many
people have worked so long to see this show through.

Tough web to weave

>From the very first page of the "Spider-Man" script, it's evident this is
hardly the kind of musical you could stage in just any theater -- it makes
"The Phantom of the Opera's" crashing chandelier look like a simple summer
stock trick.

Throughout the script -- credited to Taymor and playwright Glen Berger,
stamped "Confidential" on its cover and dated from this summer -- stage
directions call for action sequences that at first glance seem almost impossible to
stage, let alone transfer to another theater for possible touring
productions.

The opening bridge scene is followed closely by the arrival of a giant web
woven by Arachne, a temptress who is the musical's central invention. "A
giant loom is revealed -- seven actors swing on vertical silks to form a
tapestry," the stage directions read. At another point, Spider-Man is so busy
battling bank robbers and muggers that he multiplies into five different
crime-fighting superheroes. One of the duplicate spiders swings over the audience,
landing on the balcony.

For all of the theatrical pyrotechnics, the musical's core story is
comparatively old-fashioned, following the basic plot of the first "Spider-Man"
movie while adding some new characters and back stories.

The central romance between high school students Peter Parker and neighbor
Mary Jane Watson remains intact. Parker is still bullied by his classmates
and moonlights as a photographer for a New York newspaper; moreover, he's
torn over his unexpected transformation into a web-slinger. As in the movie,
the play's central villain, Green Goblin, is the genetically mutated form of
scientist Norman Osborn. The biggest departure from the movie is the
musical's femme fatale, Arachne.

A figure cut from Greek mythology and sometimes accompanied by her own
Furies, she stalks and tempts Spider-Man throughout the story as any god does a
mortal. "We're linked by instinct, but you think a spider can wait? She
exterminates deficient mates!" she tells Spider-Man at one point.

The music marks a departure for U2 as well. Famous for their soaring,
sometimes political rock anthems, such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride (in
the Name of Love)," Bono and Edge have crafted "Spider-Man" songs that are
driven more by choral harmonies than lashing guitars. Because U2 does not play
in the show (the performers are accompanied instead by a band and an
orchestra), the songs are written for different voices (including women) with
non-U2 arrangements.

Bono described his and Edge's compositions as varying from "giant, big pop
songs to noisy rock 'n' roll to ethereal shivers" and said it was "the
easiest job we've ever done when it comes to the pure joy.

"For me it's this wonderful thing of escaping from the first-person
songwriting, to disappear into these outside characters, it's just been a thrill of
a ride," Bono said. "You spend so much time digging up diamonds in your own
music; it's a treat to dig in somebody's else's dirt. To work on these
songs was like a playpen."

Edge said he and his longtime partner were surprised that the rigidity of
the musical format was actually liberating. "The process," he said, "got more
fun, exponentially, as it went on."

A heroic struggle

The musical's path to the stage has been filled with personal tragedy, and
misfortune visited "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" in a most inauspicious
way -- at a 2005 signing ceremony with the Edge cementing the "Spider-Man"
deal.

Tony Adams, a longtime colleague of movie producer Blake Edwards and a
partner in theater producer Hello Entertainment, died at age 52 of a stroke as "S
pider-Man" contracts were being signed.

Hello and Garfinkle attempted to fill Adams' shoes, and three people who
have invested or explored investing in the show said Garfinkle needed to (but
ultimately didn't) bring in someone deeply experienced with day-to-day
production to replace Adams and help Taymor create a show that was financially
viable. Garfinkle declined to be interviewed.

Taymor, who also declined to be interviewed, always had grand ambitions for
the show. At the outset, according to one person close to the show, she
wondered if the musical even could be contained in a traditional theater. Just
as Cirque du Soleil erected custom houses for its productions in Las Vegas
(with a $50-million renovation to Los Angeles' Kodak Theatre in the works),
Taymor considered staging "Spider-Man" in a specifically designed new
building.

Instead, the producers picked Broadway's cavernous Hilton Theatre, which
had housed "Young Frankenstein" until it closed on Jan. 4 of this year. The
production started extensive renovations on the theater as soon as "Young
Frankenstein" packed up, but when it later faced a money crunch, the renovations
slowed down. A number of people weren't paid in a timely fashion, according
to a person close to the show.

Some of the lead parts have been cast. Evan Rachel Wood, who was in
Taymor's "Across the Universe," is set to play Mary Jane, with Alan Cumming as
Osborn/Green Goblin and newcomer Reeve Carney, who is in Taymor's 2010 movie,
"The Tempest," as Parker/Spider-Man. But the musical may lose them to other
movies, television shows and theater productions if "Spider-Man" doesn't open
soon.

"Mentally, you go from thinking, 'I'm going to be doing this for a year' to
'Oh, maybe that's not going to happen after all,' " Cumming said.

The slick promotional DVD sent to woo investors showcases some of Taymor's
staging, aerial and web-shooting tests along with the musical's scenic (by
"The Little Mermaid's" George Tsypin) and costume design ("Bram Stoker's
Dracula" Oscar-winning costume designer Eiko Ishioka). If the creative team can
create a format to "support the flying and fighting and stickability of
Spider-Man," the DVD promises future investors, the show will "redefine
Broadway."

That's assuming the musical can find its missing millions; there's one plan
afoot to raise as much as $10 million by selling the income from 100 seats
added to the Hilton auditorium, according to a person apprised of the idea.

No matter how appealing the "Spider-Man" musical might look on paper, it's
unclear who its target ticket-buyers might be -- teenage boys and girls, the
box-office drivers for the superhero movies, are hardly Broadway's
lifeblood. Though the hits from movie-adapted musicals can be home runs, the margin
for error is thin: For every "Hairspray" triumph, there's a "Shrek: The
Musical" washout.

One interested party believes the money will fall into place before the end
of the year: Edge, for all the setbacks, remains secure.

Said the guitarist: "It will happen."
***

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 9:02am

"This is going to be a disaster & basically shows what is terribly wrong with Broadway."

You have no right saying this will be a disaster. You haven't seen the show, no one has. For all you know this could be the best thing to come to Broadway in years. I hate when people judge a show before they have seen it. Every heard of "Don't judge a book by it's cover"? So before calling it a disaster, why don't you see it and form a fair opinion that really matters.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 10:06am

Message boards were mocking The Lion King too when it was announced and before it was seen. Whatever the flaws in the writing of that show, it is what it is because of Julie Taymor.

The money to produce Spider-Man is not coming out of my pocket, so as far as I'm concerned, if it's a crazy economic model with little chance of recouping, what do I care? Some deep-pocketed people are allowing Taymor to go crazy and dream big. I want to see the result.

The amount of jeering and hand-wringing over this show on the boards is really inexplicable to me. Unless this outcome of the show affects your life in a personal way, why not sit back and see what happens and hope for the best?

[withoutlovewithoutU]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 10:09am

Good for them. I still have no interest in spending my money on this, but we'll see....

[broadwaypink]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 10:53am

I love how some people are bashing this show when they havnt even seen it yet...hha i hope its gonna be amazing

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 10:55am

Amen Smaxie! --

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 1:12pm

Couldn't agree more with Smaxie. I am dying to see what a $52 million musical designed and directed by Julie Taymor looks like. I can't wait to see it and I certainly hope it opens and that it is successful.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 3:57pm

Some deep-pocketed people are allowing Taymor to go crazy and dream big. I want to see the result.

Me too.

The amount of jeering and hand-wringing over this show on the boards is really inexplicable to me.

Me three!

I remember laughing when I heard Disney was going to bring The Lion King to Broadway. Just a huge eyeroll from me and a "there goes some more good theater real estate to a theme park show." THEN Julie Taymor's name was attached and I tought, "Well... hmmmmmm... NOT what I expected."

I think watching people repeat the received wisdom about the "troubles" of this production as if they are their own personal insights has been the funniest thing about this to me.

[musicalbluemirror]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 6:01pm

during the tonys this year during a commercial break they had whole video about the creation and effects (im guessing maybe it was from that dvd sent to investors?) and from what i saw it looked great!
they showed set scetches and the flying mechanisms
i cant wait to see it that is IF it ends up happening

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 6:42pm

Spider-man is going to be a tough one to pull off, peoples expectations are going to be so high, punters will expect to be dazzled for 2h 40min, very tough, in with that a great story and music.

A lot of talk going on at the moment suggests that Spider-man is going to open in June, therefore missing the Tony's, which maybe a good thing, Spider-man is expected to win a cabinet full of Tony's, if the producers opt for the April opening just to meet the Tony deadline and walk away with not much, then this can have a big detrimental affect on the show.

[blaxx]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 7:00pm

Spider-man is expected to win a cabinet full of Tony's

It is?

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 11/8/09 at 12:56am

I'm SOOOOOO excited! This could be epic!

[PastorErnst]

Posted: 11/8/09 at 4:25pm

In his video on YouTube, Reeve seems genuinely excited to be a part of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. It's also pretty great that the rest of Carney will be playing in the Spider-Man orchestra.

Flop or not, I'm REALLY excited for this one.
YouTube: Reeve Carney is Spiderman!

Posted: 11/8/09 at 5:11pm

IF the show is successful, perhaps Reeve can buy shirts that aren't missing so many buttons.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 11/8/09 at 5:23pm

"Oh, I shouldn't call it a musical..."

hmmm.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 11/8/09 at 5:26pm

Fires, dangling from bridges, seven actors swinging forming a web... I hope they have good liability insurance. This show sounds dan-ger-ous!

[dreamerjj]

Posted: 11/8/09 at 7:59pm

About Reeve's video, it looks like he's reading it!!

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 11/8/09 at 8:18pm

I find Reeve awkwardly beautiful.

[binau]

Posted: 11/8/09 at 8:26pm

""Oh, I shouldn't call it a musical..."

hmmm.
"

If for no other reason THIS is why I hope it fails. I think it was "Edge" or whatever, what a pretentious wanker, who said Spiperman is more like an 'opera', obviously implying it is too good to be called a 'musical'.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 11/8/09 at 8:27pm

Julie Taymor called it a Rock & Roll circus.

[binau]

Posted: 11/8/09 at 8:36pm

I can't WAIT to see SPIDERMAN: TURN OFF THE DARK, the circus rock-'n'-roll drama opera musical.

Updated On: 11/8/09 at 08:36 PM