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#26

Songs of Spiderman Book

Posted: 7/21/14 at 11:10pm

I know I'm super late to the party, but I just finished this book today and found it a fascinating read. What really struck me was how both Taymor and Berger seemed to deliberately ignore concerns about the potential story problems before the show went into rehearsals. That to me is just mind boggling.

I really wish I had seen version 1.0.

"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

#27

Songs of Spiderman Book

Posted: 7/22/14 at 6:52am

Version 1 was fun. But a total storytelling nightmare. Version 2.0 was a better story and made more sense. But that leg number in version 1 was just total camp.

#28

Songs of Spiderman Book

Posted: 7/22/14 at 2:29pm

While the book was a great way to see inside one of the most talked about Broadway shows in history, my issure that the book seems to be Berger's way of cashing in on something that he just happened to be apart of, and making it some sort of a vanity piece. Saying he always knew the show was a disaster, makes me say, then leave. I understand a pay cheque is a pay cheque, but still. I also couldn't watch him on Theatre Talk dicussing the book, acting like he knew everything was wrong from day one, and kept trying to get people to listen, and now this is his way of saying, "I told you so".

#29

Songs of Spiderman Book

Posted: 7/22/14 at 3:39pm

I'm not sure anyone who writes a book on a behind the scenes of a Broadway show is cashing in, as the interested audience would probably be very small...

Unless someone was silly enough to give him a huge advance. He certainly won't cash in based on sales.

Updated On: 7/22/14 at 03:39 PM

#30

Songs of Spiderman Book

Posted: 7/22/14 at 6:04pm

I loved this book and thought it would make a great movie (more $ for writer) but then I realized Marvel would never let them use the Trademarks/Copyrights, so that's that.

"Observe how bravely I conceal this dreadful dreadful shame I feel."

#31

Songs of Spiderman Book

Posted: 7/23/14 at 6:28pm

I loved this book (and I read it in it one day!). I would heartily recommend it to anyone who has any intention of joining the company of a Broadway show, be it performance, production, publicity. It reads like a murder mystery!

#32

Songs of Spiderman Book

Posted: 7/24/14 at 1:46pm

I read this this past winter and, while I found it fascinating, I had a really hard time getting past the feeling the Berger is an unreliable narrator. I don’t necessarily doubt anything he says, but I do wonder how much of the exact quotes he actually remembers spot-on. I also found that (at least how he portrays himself in the book), I dislike him as person. By the end of the book, I just got the feeling the he was a yes-man (who also doesn’t understand exactly what he put his wife and children through) and, although he will recognize that he didn’t handle some things correctly, you can tell he still defends his choices.

Truthfully, from this account, I thought Julie was the one person involved who actually handled things the best. Obviously, they are all at fault in their own ways (and she clearly has a temper), but I finished the book feeling badly for her.

#33

Songs of Spiderman Book

Posted: 7/24/14 at 2:19pm

After reading the book I definitly feel like there was plenty of fault to go around. It sounds like there was definitely more than one 'yes-man' on the team although as Taymor's co-writer, Berger perhaps is most at fault for being a yes-man. Berger pretty much states that during the previews, no one wanted to really tell Taymor the honest truth about what needed to be done - maybe they were in fear of her wrathful temper, who knows?

I felt badly for Taymor in some respects: clearly developing and revising a brand new show under the kind of intense media and public scrutiny that Spider-Man had would take its toll on anyone. But it also sounds like she refused to entertain any of Berger's suggestions for revising the show, and was stubbornly against
making any major changes. That being said, I can understand how she would feel hurt, betrayed and blindsided after Berger, the producers, and the composers went behind her back and developed a plan to overhaul the show.

One little tidbit I found very interesting was the fact that Michael Cohl tried to block her from coming to opening night.

Overall after finishing the book, it really just sounds like an incredibly harrowing experience for everyone involved.

"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

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