Spiderman Preview Thread!- Page 45

[newintown]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 1:44pm

5 exceptional songs are 5 more than I would expect from the team. As entertaining as a U2 song is, I've yet to hear one that is complex in a theatrical way.

I mean, in the theatre, how many times could you really repeat "In the name of love, what more in the name of love?"

[nyel24]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 2:03pm

for those who went yesterday would you happen to remember how long the show was. a friend went last week and they said it was around 2hrs and 45 mins. also heard they are shooting for the showtime to be around 2hrs and 30 mins.

Thanks,

[sundaymorning6am]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 2:10pm

well thank-f***ing-god. they're at least taking their issues seriously:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/spider-man-opening-delayed-again/?src=tptw

Cy Feuer took the problems with, I think it was, "Silk Stockings" seriously and worked on fixing them until it was ready to open on Broadway. Let's hope Taymor does the same.

[bravenewboy]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 3:03pm

The show started at 8 and it was over at 10:50. Intermission was close to 20 minutes and there was about a three minute delay getting the web up.

[henryt]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 3:40pm

I don't think the net is a new idea. Wasn't it mentioned in one of the articles during rehearsals? And we saw a photo of it in the Annie Leibovitz shoot. I think they were just never able to get it to work, so they cut it until now.

UPDATE:

I found the photo and quotes.

From New York Magazine:

"Uplit like a Renaissance virgin by the glow of her iPad, the director Julie Taymor watches with mounting excitement as a gigantic black net unspools from a kind of coffin beneath the stage. The net is supposed to whoosh up, but like everything else to do with Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the job takes longer than expected. Indeed, in its first outing, the effect is less special than glacial, but Taymor’s half-smile doesn’t fade, even as ten stagehands scramble to keep the mesh from snagging as it rises. Anything that works beautifully, she knows, once didn’t. Especially anything big."

"These movements, if they turn out to be feasible and safe, and if they adequately replicate the vision Taymor had of them so long ago, will be part of the climax of the $400 billion new musical: a scene in which Peter Parker, trapped in his enemy’s web, must learn to embrace his power or die."

"Whatever the cost, and the value of that cost, it soon becomes clear that the web isn’t working: It’s not just slow; it’s ungainly. The climber looks trapped all right, but not in a good way. His harness keeps catching on the fabric, his sneakers slip through the webbing. When the shredding noises start, and two-inch metal grommets start zinging into the orchestra, most people might decide it’s time to give up. But not Taymor. Seated amid a sea of computers that makes the theater resemble NASA mission control, the tiny figure in her giant contraption is not the least bit worried. She turns on her “God mike” and, in the artificially lowered voice she has learned to use in order to sound calm and authoritative, suggests that a narrower mesh might solve the problem, or tighter rigging, or both. If these measures fail, she adds with the microphone off, she’ll come up with something else, just as she did when the huge steel “flying ring” that had been built and hoisted into the rococo dome of the theater turned out to be a dud. (That one lasted two days.) “Let’s wait and see,” she concludes, as designers make notes for ordering a new net and Sparky barks again."

Annie Liebovitz Photo Updated On: 12/18/10 at 03:40 PM

[sundaymorning6am]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 4:15pm

The net was new.

[HopeChanged]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 7:55pm

It's interesting to me that -- despite your very legitimate-sounding complaints, such as a crappy book and a lousy score -- so many of you seem determined to see it at least once if not more. Why is that, I wonder? The curiosity factor? The buzz? Perhaps there really is no such thing as bad publicity.

Updated On: 12/16/10 at 07:55 PM

[dragonlp86]

Posted: 12/16/10 at 7:58pm

HopeChanged: I tend to think it's a bit of morbid curiosity. Plus, a desire to be able to brag that they saw the theatrical disaster that was Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark at least once before it closed.

[Love4Theatre]

Posted: 12/17/10 at 12:33pm

According to the article below, it seems only part of the ending was installed this week, the rest of the ending will be installed next week."It won't all be in until next Wednesday, December 23rd." Isn't next Wednesday December 22nd?
Taymor Happy about delayed opening

[drama mama]

Posted: 12/17/10 at 12:43pm

Going to see Spiderman tonight and I don't know whether to be scared or excited. I've enjoyed reading the posts to get some kind of feel for the show and now the news of the delayed opening (oy) makes me worried about seeing it!

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 12/17/10 at 12:56pm

Well, I finally saw it last night. I was a fervent supporter of the show from the beginning and, despite the negative word of mouth, I remained excited regardless. I stand corrected.

I would not wish this kind of painful theatrical experience (if you can call it that) on anyone. From top to bottom, this absolute wreck is laughably bad. No, not even laughably, because at least then I would get some kind of joy. In its current state, SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK is like watching a really old, sick dog limp around with no relief. The fact that this rather large group of actors is subjected to singing those lifeless, tuneless songs and speaking those amateurish lines is really sad, to me. As my boyfriend and I were exiting the theatre, not a single opinion on the show that we heard was positive. There were quite a few kids sitting around us and almost all of them fell asleep. The few that stayed awake were extremely restless. I even heard an "I want to go home."

The flying sequences aren't even exhilarating like they should be. The wires are incredibly distracting and every single sequence goes on for far too long. I mean, how many times do you need to show us Spider-Man flying onto the edges of the flying circle and the balcony? Really? It just looks messy.

I have never wished ill on a show, but if this piece of sh*t closed, I wouldn't exactly be upset.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/17/10 at 1:06pm

Could we... remove that giant photo? It's stretching out the page. Make it a link.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 12/17/10 at 4:39pm

Now I'm almost wishing I saw it when I was in NY last week.

That's "almost", tho.

Lord above, this just seems more and more hopeless. To work on something for nine years and still not have an ending? Isnt that just a bit... uhm... sad?

[denali.fire]

Posted: 12/17/10 at 8:42pm

When this show closes the Foxwoods ought to house "A Comedy of Errors" Methinks Shakespeare enjoy the irony of it!

[SNAFU]

Posted: 12/17/10 at 9:28pm

Wow Colorthehours, I actually feel sorry for you. You were such a staunch supporter of the show before you saw it.

[gcontini2]

Posted: 12/18/10 at 2:03am

Painful. Tedious. Trainwreck...
based on the first-getta-gimmick-then-add-any-book-and-libretto method.
All efforts and $$ seemed to have been spent:
70% Flying/ropes/pulleys,etc;
16% rubber cut-out scenery;
10% plastic costumes and spider shoes,
2% subwoofers and mikes to blast the audience awake;
1% pretentious additional scenes of Arachne myth
(my, how deep that Julie is...NOT),
oh, and 1% for last-minute book, lyrics, and one guitar riff to serve for every bland middle-school-cafteria-production song.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 12/18/10 at 9:15am

The horrifying thing is, as others have commented in other threads, there is a real possiblity this will be a hit with the tourist trade... at least enough to get them to pay for tickets and stay until intermission, when no refunds are possible. If the critics hate it (and it's sounding more and more like they will), who cares? The money still rolls in, because that's what sells, baby! It's all about U2! And flying! And cool visuals!... in other words, the perfect thatrical counterpart to what big-budget movies have reduced themselves to. Welcome, all, to the era of the Big Budget, Mindless Broadway Show. Not that SPIDERMAN ushered it in; we've seen it wandering around for years. But this just makes it official. Party down!

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/18/10 at 9:18am

Don't be daft, big budget shallow musicals have been around for decades.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 12/18/10 at 9:22am

Not to this monumental extreme, thanks very much for playing.

[Pianist3912]

Posted: 12/18/10 at 10:28am

Zing!

[Kad]

Posted: 12/18/10 at 10:30am

There was a time when a show like this could get away with mediocre or even bad reviews. Not anymore. People are going to be more cautious when spending money on tickets. If word of mouth is bad (and it ain't good), and the reviews will be bad, people will start avoiding it. I wonder if there is any credence to the rumor that their advances aren't looking so hot because people are "waiting to see".

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 12/18/10 at 3:54pm

A great article talking about the show from the perspective of the seven(!) stage managers working on it.

I would especially like to point out the discussion of the safety issues on the show, considering how many people were demanding that it be shut down because of all the actors getting hurt.

"A crucial part of the stage managers' job is safety, and White says that on "Spider-Man" the injury rate is actually far less than on "Starlight Express," which he worked on, or on "Cats" or "Fosse" before they opened."

[justafan2]

Posted: 12/18/10 at 4:28pm

I keep checking this thread to see if any of the reviews are becoming more positive. I guess I live in Fantasyland. (it's a lovely town)

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/18/10 at 4:33pm

AEA, what article are you referring to?

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 12/18/10 at 4:38pm

Can someone delete that pix? It's making the page a bitch to read lol