People were equally skeptical and contemptuous of Taymor's The Lion King when that project was first announced. That show's (unpublicized) budget was also astronomical, even at 1998 prices. I'm not crazy about her films, but Taymor's work still carries the day over at Lion King through the longueurs of the lesser moments of that show's book and score. Here, though he gets the composer wrong, even Riedel encouragingly says the score for Spider-Man is good. I think turning the Hilton over for what must be a major physical extravaganza is also a good idea, since nothing else seems to land across the footlights in that theatre.
So while I understand the trepidation over the potential ticket prices on this one, I again say that if someone wants to spend $40 million on a Broadway musical and give Julie Taymor free reign to let her imagination and her designers run wild, then I'm curious to see the results.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
Updated On: 10/9/08 at 06:23 AM