Spiderman Preview Thread!- Page 33

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 12/4/10 at 11:26pm

Yeah... The producers didn't like Conan's jokes.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/SPIDERMAN_Team_Not_Laughing_at_Conan_OBrien_20101204

O'Brien received a bouquet from the production which said, "We hope you enjoy the flowers. It was cheaper than a cease-and-desist."

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 12/4/10 at 11:32pm

Jesus. It's a joke, son.

[Sauja]

Posted: 12/4/10 at 11:54pm

Just saw the show tonight. Yowza! The first act is mediocre--the songs are silly and the plot doesn't really go anywhere, but there are some great visuals, and you can hold onto that hope that the pieces will all come together. But that second act! Holy crap! The book, the score, the design, the concept...EVERY piece goes off the rails.

To comment on the safety of the show: it looks much, much safer than any Cirque du Soleil show I've ever seen. Yes, there have been injuries, but watching tonight, I couldn't see where the Arachne character was in any more danger than, say, Jane Krakowski in Nine. I don't have the impression from watching it that it's terribly likely more people will be injured. And for the people freaking out, haven't there been a fair number of injuries at other shows--Wicked comes to mind.

But that's neither here nor there. Julie Taymor is a visionary in the strictest sense of the word, yes. She is possibly one of the best designers around. But I'm not fond of her directorial work other than The Lion King. Juan Darien and The Magic Flute left me cold. And I despised Titus and Across the Universe. She has incredible ideas, but she never seems to harness them terribly well. The Lion King is the exception, and I do wonder if since that was her most commercial project to date at the point, she simply had to cede some control to someone who could edit her.

The failure of Spider-Man isn't primarily her fault, though, in my eyes. I really think the heaviest blame has to lie on Bono and The Edge. The music is a disaster. It simply fails on every level. It isn't exciting rock. It doesn't move the action forward in the slightest. It doesn't create mood. And Arachne's shoe song in the second act is the most horrifyingly bad thing I've seen in any Broadway show since Brooklyn. And when you can actually make out words, well...it makes you wish you couldn't.

I saw some really nifty flying, and I got to look at some pretty things on stage. Other than that, the show really doesn't offer anything exciting, memorable, or even coherent. It's unfollowable for children and unengaging for adults. This will likely stick around for awhile--hell, The Addams Family is still performing well. But it's an enormous disappointment.

[Tag]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 12:49am

I haven't seen anything mentioned about this: Does Spider-Man shoot webs out of his wrists? If so, how is it done?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 12:58am

Lol -- you DO think that'd be menitioned one way or another!

(Maybe THAT'S the rope that hit Arachne in the head!)

[Sauja]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 1:16am

The web shooting only happens once, and it's kind of...it looks like he just tosses some string. It's a dud visually. It and two miniature Spider-Men stand out as the only real visual duds of the show.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 1:36am

Where were your seats, SAUJA?

[bundy5000]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 2:45am

I was also at the performance tonight or rather last night now that its 2 Am. I haven't decided whether I like it or not. I will just list a few things off the top of my head. **Possible Spoiler alert**

I felt like I was dreaming during the show. A lot of the unexpected, visually.

Some of the set looks like it popped out of a Dr. Seuss Book

The music wasn't great but it certainly didn't ruin the night.

I would like to ask Julie her reasoning for how she uses some of the characters. It seemed really odd with the comic book geeks always on the side of the stage.

Some of the costumes had a Tim Burton flair to them.

Vertigo...Really, they had to play the implement the song in the show?

The lighting was magnificent

I agree that children will have a hard time following the show, the whole way through with the way it is now.

Final thoughts: I couldn't get a sense of why this show is on Broadway. I think it has more of a Theme Park Show type attraction to it. With that in mind, Spiderman was something totally different than any show on Broadway, so maybe it is redefining theater. And good luck touring!

[steven22]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 2:48am

How was America as Arachne?

[Scott Briefer]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 10:00am

For those who have seen performances other than the infamous first preview, was the show stopped for technical issues? How long is it currently running?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 10:29am

I heardWeds and thurs had one stop each, but I don't know about Fri/Sat nights.

I heard its still running about 3:10.

[leefowler]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 11:22am

Based on tweets I've read, people are mostly positive at intermission...but after Act 2, they turn really negative.

[perfectliar]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 12:43pm

A family member was there last night; I got a text at 9:27 that she was at intermission and there was one short stop in the first act. She liked the second act better than the first because she thinks they decided to actually tell the story rather than just fly around the theatre. They got out around 11:12.

[justafan2]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 12:48pm

bundy5000---you've helped me make a decision re: seeing this show. I've decided to NOT go because any performance that has the word "vertigo" in it's description is a definite no-go for me! :)

[rentfan2]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 2:15pm

Where is everyone getting the music from the first Preview??

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 3:40pm

By the time they play the last preview, this may be the longest thread in BWW history.

If they were smart, they would never open and preview undefinitely.

[romgitsean]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 4:22pm

"If they were smart, they would never open and preview undefinitely."

I'm at a loss for the link - but I remember backstage footage of Carrie when it opened, when a cast member directly said: "We should've never opened. We should've previewed and previewed and previewed."

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 4:27pm

Yeah, I was about to bring up the same thing.

Carrie pushed back opening too, didn't they? I remember reading somewhere that instead of being at the end of the Tony season, like they wanted, they ended up opening at the beginning of the next. They had hoped to open at the end, get a nomination, get to perform, and bring in business that way.

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 4:31pm

Sadly, I'd rather watch this than the actual show at this point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ek9WHPubwQ

Or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3wmrX_rdFE
Updated On: 12/5/10 at 04:31 PM

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 4:56pm

Found this in searching for articles about the show.

http://www.petitiononline.com/spidey10/petition.html

Petition to close it. Wow.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 5:11pm

...and with a whopping 2 signatures. What an obnoxious waste of bandwidth. What do they expect to accomplish with this petition?

Updated On: 12/5/10 at 05:11 PM

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 5:19pm

I'm sure they'll be hand delivering it to the Foxwoods and forcing Julie to read it. Then they'll make sure she packs her bags and leaves NY forever!

[Sauja]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 5:51pm

Yep, there was one stop last night that was about two or three minutes long. And it ran just over three hours.

America as Arachne? I don't want to say much because I feel like any understudy going on in the first week of previews must be perilously underrehearsed. Let's just say that most of the performers really disappeared into the show because it's never really about the people. America...left the biggest impression.

[Scott Briefer]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 5:56pm

That petition is one of the most mean-spirited things I've ever read. Right now, a large company of artists are frantically - and perhaps sleeplessly - working their asses off to try and realize their collective vision. I am absolutely appalled at the cruelty shown Ms. Taymor. And, why? She's a director, trying to mount production. She is not the first artist to dream big, and I hope to god, not the last.

Spider-man team, you go. Try your hardest to make this show fly.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 12/5/10 at 6:12pm

"Their collective vision"? Obviously you have never worked with Taymor. They are working on Julie's vision.