Spiderman Preview Thread!- Page 50

[steven22]

Posted: 12/27/10 at 12:18pm

Who is playing Arachne now? Mendoza or TV Carpio?

[Bardolph]

Posted: 12/27/10 at 2:04pm

I think the point that glindjr. Is making ( and it's a valid one ) is that Bono writes the kind of songs that sound good only when they're sung by Bono. Certainly, on the 60 minutes special, the songs only really came alive when he sung them.

I agree with this. While Bono should never be on Broadway and while I thought Carney did a pretty good job on most of the songs, U2's music has a roof-raising spirit to it that requires a voice big enough to deliver it.

You can hear both voices juxtaposed in the 60 minutes piece here. The reveal for me is at 13:13 where the vocals go back and forth between Bono and Carney.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7097039n&tag=cbsnewsMainColumnArea.12

Updated On: 12/27/10 at 02:04 PM

[jdtp12]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 11:15pm

I seem to remember someone asking about Arachne's costume earlier in the thread, but we never got a picture(that I'm aware of). Here is the one released w/ NYTime's announcement of Mendoza leaving the show.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 12/29/10 at 11:21pm

^ That's a cool costume. She's not like that the whole show though is she?

[TimesSquared]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 1:20pm

Regarding the "He should sound like Bono" comments:

I think I get what they're saying. I didn't get the music for Billy Elliot until I heard Elton John sing "Electricity", which I sort of liked. Then I realized: "Oh, it's an Elton John song". In his voice, and accompanying himself on piano, it sounded like an old Elton John pop ballad.
That didn't make me like it any better in the show (I don't like the Billy Elliot musical at all) but I like old Elton John songs from the 70s and 80s.

In the same way, Bono's score sounds like U2 to me only when he's singing it. I like some old U2, but like Elton John's songs, they don't work as theater music. (JMO folks.) Ideal theater music, for me, reveals character, advances the story, or both. It needs a certain structure to do that. The ambient drone of Bono's music lacks that kind of careful crafting.

The Spider-Man score is really awful. In the rare moment I could decipher a lyric, it was atrocious. The fact that the 3-syllable word "bullying" is assigned one beat makes the song "Bullying by Numbers" incomprehensible. Then again, what does "bullying by numbers" mean? It means nothing. And that "Shoes" number? Audience members were laughing out loud, and not in a good way.

The Geek Chorus is tremendously annoying and should be cut. They are a bone tossed to the Comicon geeks in the audience, but since they make Comic geeks look ridiculous, I find it hard to believe it's doing what it's meant to do.

Many posters have been praising Mendoza's performance to the heavens. To me, she hung in a basket with legs and sang (well, but with odd Bollywood-type trills intended to make her more mystical, and no clear point of view) awful songs. And by the way, Julie, if I had wanted to see "The Legend of Arachne: The Musical", I would have bought a ticket to that. But maybe that focus is better since Reeve Carney is clearly not equipped to carry a Broadway musical. He looks completely lost up there.

The other huge dud in this dud is the book. Humor is not Julie Taymor's or Glen Berger's strong suit to put it lightly. Nor is clarity. Nor is point of view. Nor is any semblance of dramatic structure. It's an embarrassing mess. The "comedic" scenes in the newspaper office are painfully unfunny. Dramatic book scenes seemed completely undirected. The actors stood and spoke lines. It seems Taymor doesn't know how to direct actors not wearing giant headpieces and stilts or hanging from cables.

My expectations weren't high for this show, but I didn't expect to be bored to tears. By the time they were flying overhead I thought "Clearly they spent 90% of rehearsal time on this, and 10% developing the story and music". And the sad part is, the flying was not very exciting. Every actor is wearing multiple cables (except, apparently, Christopher Tierny) and is hanging beneath a large, complex and obtrusive rig. It's about as exciting as Burt dancing around the proscenium in Mary Poppins. (Which is to say unexciting, unconvincing, and unimaginative in terms of stage craft.)

It's depressing to think that this is the only Broadway show many tourists will ever see. And that this mess may actually sell well.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 4:01pm

vlegra,

No one cares about your crappy web site.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 4:06pm

So who has been going on for Arachne?

[sergio_27]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 4:22pm

A Mexican radio host who is on New York for the holidays saw the show last night and commented today that T.V. Carpio played the role.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 7:02pm

REVIEW TIME!

This is for Tuesday night.

Briefly: T.V. Carpio was on as Arachne. The web still did NOT come up and the scene was done without it after a pause of about 2 minutes. Only other tech glitch I noticed was after Spidey flies for the first time into the audience, he didn't quite make it to the stage and ended up sort of getting guided up there by the front row. Luckily he wasn't going too fast, so no one was kicked!

REVIEW:

In all the noise of press and word of mouth for this show, I've forgotten if Julie Taymor said she wanted the show to feel like a circus, or if that's what people have thrown out of their own. But that's the most apt description of the show I've heard thus far. It was a spectacular mess, but somehow my companion and I both came out smiling after a very fun show.

I've been reading the reviews from the 1st page of this thread, and I really don't think that anything book or music related has been significantly changed yet. They do seem to largely have the technical part down however, except for The Net, as reported above. I really don't understand what The Net is, but the scene looked just fine without it.

It's strange, but Spider-man seemed underused in Spider-man: The Musical. I'm not sure how it happened, but it did. Reeve Carney blew away all my expectations, and was EXCELLENT as Peter Parker, but I felt we never really got to know him. I'm glad I came in with such a foreknowledge and love for the Spidey-verse, because without it, I would have felt absolutely no connection at all to that character on stage. I'm going to largely source this to what I think is one of the biggest faults in the show...

THE UNCLE BEN PROBLEM. The guy had like two stinkin' lines! Uncle Ben is Peter's number one motivation to become Spider-man. Peter is part guilt-tripped and part heroically motivated to take up the title of Spider-man because of Uncle Ben's death. But all we see Ben do in the show is nag Peter for one song. That's it. His loss is inconsequential, and so Peter's decision to become Spider-man is therefore inconsequential as well. Ben is only in the comics/movies for a brief time, but it needs to be clear what a huge impact his goodness has on Peter. Peter wouldn't be the person he is if it weren't for Uncle Ben, and subsequently, he wouldn't be Spider-man either. When Peter gets these powers, we need to see WHY he chooses to sacrifice everything he loves to become a force of GOOD and not EVIL, and that's not entirely clear here. The show has many many problems, but this is the ROOT of its biggest ones. It looks right now like Peter becomes a hero because Arachne wanted someone to shag and he was tired of being bullied at school. Two completely selfish reasons. It's not compelling, not heroic and not fun to watch.

MUSIC: A lot has already been said about specific songs, but I will add that the 'Shoe Song' is a disaster and completely obliterates one of the best characters in the show--- Arachne. Up until that number, she is this beautiful, mystical force, and then it's completely ruined in about 2 minutes of song. Other weak songs were "D.I.Y," which was also a travesty because Norman never really gets a 'song' that defines his character and that Patrick Page, probably the strongest actor in the show, can latch on to. The only other completely awful song was "Pull the Trigger." Also uncomfortable because it seemed like a recycled idea from Across the Universe by Julie Taymor.

That being said, there were also some good music moments in the show. The second half of "No More," which was in part performed in 60 Minutes in the part, "I go to sleep in my clothes..." is beautiful. This is after Peter and MJ have stepped out of their houses and the nagging (which is ANNOYING beyond belief and impossible to understand) stops and they are just singing. I guess this would be the 'I Want' song of the show. I loved it. Also strong were the two Indian influenced numbers by Arachne. And color me odd, but I really LIKED the 'spider dream sex' scene in "Turn Off the Dark." Yeah. I thought it was kind of pretty. I also enjoyed "The Boy Falls From the Sky" and "If the World Should End." All the Peter/MJ moments were some of my favorite parts of the show. Their relationship is so important to Spider-man, I really wanted to see it fleshed out even more. Jennifer Damiano was fantastic, but as has been said, underused criminally. T.V. Carpio also did a fantastic job, and I could for sure see her taking over as Arachne. It seems like a completely thankless role, since she basically is restrained in that spider outfit the entire show, but she really does do a good job with it.

SETS/FLYING/EFFECTS:
The already mentioned Chrysler building effect was probably the coolest thing onstage all night. I've never seen something like that done before, and it was clever and well used and worked completely. But in the words of a little boy exiting the theatre behind me, "It needed more action!" There is basically no flying in the second act. Why create such a great effect and then never use it past "I'll Take Manhattan?" The villain fashion show isn't as weird as it sounds, but it's not awesome either. Swiss Miss looks pretty epic though. It was just sad that the most we saw of the baddies after that was on the video screens which, oh yeah were SO OVERUSED. There was an entire song where we were just staring at the screens! I can see their place in the plot, but they are relied upon too much.

The flying was very cool- and really felt '3-D' as people have been describing. I was in the mid orchestra, and loved sitting there and seeing the fights overhead. The coolest part of the flying effects though is probably the falling though! Spidey dropping right precision down into the aisles is really neat, and given the atmosphere of danger and technical hesitancy that's hovering over the entire production, really heart racing. Gasps all over during those parts. The weaving at the beginning of the show is probably the most fulfilled and beautiful effect of the production. It's too bad the rest of the production never really comes back to the genius of that moment.
Otherwise, my own favorite effects were pretty simple: I really enjoyed the perspectives that were played with. The apartment buildings in the background of so many scenes really seemed to tower and loom high like they actually do in NYC. And my favorite '3-D' moment was one of the easiest to execute- Peter and MJ sitting on the fire escape over the audience and having one of the few extended dialogue scenes in the show.

THE GEEK CHORUS:
Doesn't need to go. It doesn't. It's a really cute idea. Unfortunately, it was very poorly executed. They really hit at the heart of another of the show's major problems: IT ISN'T FUNNY. The movies were funny, the comics are funny. Why isn't this show? Spidey's one liners are legend, and there wasn't one of them in the whole musical! The Geek Chorus could be FANTASTIC if they would just get someone to write some freakin' jokes for them. And if there are jokes already in their lines, they need to go because they didn't work, and no one laughed.

IN CONCLUSION... There are some really brilliant ideas at work in the show here. But much like Peter lacks motivation in it to become Spider-man, we also lack the sense of a greater purpose. Julie seems very interested in dreams and illusion playing into the show, and that's good, because the dream scene and the fantasy-like weaving scene were two of the best in the show. But the concept of dreaming seems to get lost in the action. The Geeks dream about their heroes and their adventures. Norman has a dream to further evolve humanity. It's not really clear what Peter or MJ's dreams are, and that's a problem. If we could find that out and more clearly see Peter's dreams realized or destroyed, I think we could involve ourselves in the show much more fully.

No standing ovation, but I (a semi-picky and pretty frequent theatre-goer) was pleased. I bought my tickets, I don't regret it. It was certainly different from anything out there right now, and I can appreciate that. Most of the crowd seemed to be tourists, but they are so loud that maybe it was just an illusion (heheh, get it?). There has been a lot said about the lyrics or words being hard to hear, but neither I or my companion had any trouble understanding them. I thought the acoustics were fantastic for such a huge theatre and a rock-centric score. They were much better mixed than "Spring Awakening," another rock show. Hopefully now that the tech seems to be clearing, they can work on the book with the Uncle Ben and the Geek Chorus problems. And add some freakin' jokes, too! And keep Reeve Carney on the stage more. He has a great voice (that for some reason doesn't translate to TV, because I was not a fan of the GMA show performances) and with his new 'dorky' haircut, is also pretty adorable. If the show undergoes the major changes I'm hoping it will in the next few weeks, I'll gladly shell out to see it again later in the year. Hopefully it'll still be around, because I really think that this is a show that just needs to be given a few more chances to realize what it wants to become.

Updated On: 12/30/10 at 07:02 PM

[kidbroadway2]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 9:05pm

Saw the same show you did and I agree, although I might take it even further and be more positive. For all its faults, the show left me incredibly entertained. Its pure entertainment value is higher than anything I've seen in a while.

Let's face it the music is bad, but at least it doesn't put me to sleep like Women on the Verge did. Did i remember any of the songs? No, but they'll work on it. Cannot believe Bono wrote this though with it being so unmemorable.

Did not like the Greek Chorus at all and the ending is nothing. Cast is all solid, nothing outstanding but very solid. Reeve was great, so were the others. Loved loved loved the choreography.

Hate to admit it to all you haters, but honestly this show is going to be fine. I was a huge hater of Spidey before seeing it, but as of last Tuesday, I hope the show does well. Taymour has done a good job with this.


On a side note, it seemed like 80% of the people around me were hoping it was gonna be a terrible show/something bad was gonna happen. Updated On: 12/30/10 at 09:05 PM

[Katurian2]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 9:30pm

Yeah, I think everyone was expecting Spider-man to swing out one last time or something in the finale. There was a stagehand doing something visible in the air house left, so maybe there was some technical thing where that didn't happen.

idk- I really liked a few of the songs. Rise Above was another one that stuck out to me. I know what Bono was doing, but where was Edge? There were like two, maybe three central guitar riffs throughout the show. I'm usually a big fan of his working the effects and making some interesting sounds, but his contribution seemed completely absent.

And for sure there was a semi-hope something would go wrong. I heard the same joke from about 4 different people as they sat down, "I hope no one falls on us!"

Updated On: 12/30/10 at 09:30 PM

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 9:43pm

Thank you so much for your detailed review and insight on the show. I'm glad you enjoyed it! Some of the special effects and visuals sound absolutely incredible.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 9:58pm

Thank you for the thank you!

It's really too bad though that a pic of the Chrysler building scene has yet to be released (that I've seen). Although maybe part of its epic quality was in part due to its complete unexpectedness. I'd read about it here, but had no idea it would be quite so enormous! The cars zooming by on the 'street' below as we 'looked down' the side of the building were a great touch.

If anyone wants more specifics or details on the more comic book nerd-y aspects, just ask. I've read almost all the Ultimate Spider-man issues there are!

[Marlothom]

Posted: 12/30/10 at 10:16pm

Saw this last night - sorry to be overly negative but I was very disappointed; I did not find it entertaining at all - and frankly, brought back memories of seeing Dance of the Vampires.

A few of my problems: what time period does this show take place? The teen age kid are in modern (ultra modern) clothing and then the staff of the Bugle are dressed as though they were rejects of the Thoroughly Modern Millie. If they have cell phones why are they typing and wearing those clothes?

The song were just not memorable; I agree with the "Bono should sing these" comments above; the problem I think is that the leads try to sound like U2 - here we see a good singer trying to sound like Bono and failing. By contrast, when Mary J. Blige did "ONE" it was new, exciting and awesome. I wish someone, OTHER THAN U2 would give these melodies a Broadway touch - James Cameron Mitchell perhaps.

The focus is missing; there is too much going on for there to be 3 plots; I hope during the re-writes, they get rid of the Greek Chorus and refocus the Arachne plot. Why all the "illusions" in Act 2? It seems like they built the costumes first, then wrote a plot around it.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 1:10am

Well it looks like Bono and the Edge are finally going to be able to be involved with the project. Hopefully now some much needed changes to the book and score can now happen.

http://broadwayworld.com/article/Bono_and_The_Edge_Will_Now_Attend_All_SPIDERMAN_Previews_20101230

Updated On: 12/31/10 at 01:10 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 1:16am

Oh for god's sake. They had a previously booked tour. No doubt booked for long after this show was supposed to be up and running.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 1:18am

That is true considering this was supposed to be open about a year ago.

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 1:41am

I wonder if the Arachne character is going to be cut down a lot in the upcoming re-writes - that would give further reason for Mendoza's departure from the show.

[PopAria]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 2:35am

I've been listening to the songs all week and really like "Rise Above" and "Behold and Wonder". "If the world should end" is really pretty too.

[melodyrose]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 7:27am

PopAria,
How could you listen to the music?
Is everything on the web or on youtube?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 7:50am

Egad! No matter how much I read about this show (and these detailed reviews are ridiculously devourable, so thank you, Katurian Katurian Katurian!) -- whether positive or negative -- I can't get up enough interest to actually considering going to see it. Even the most positive reports make it sound dramatically inert. If Julie's going for a circus-y, Vegas-spectacular-style show, then c'est la vie and I hope she makes a million, but it sounds fundamentally untheatrical (in the Sophocles sense, not the Elton John sense).

[Katurian2]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 9:46am

Thanks! :) I enjoy writing them, and frankly it's all I've been talking about for a few days now. It's a great conversation to be had!

haha- Well there was a man I overheard in the audience who said something to the effect of, "I learned when I went to Vegas not to ask about what's going on, but just appreciate how it looks." I'm misquoting, but that was the jist of it.

Well, it's not at the point yet where I would go around suggesting it to friends visiting NYC or anything. But if there are some significant rewrites, it has a chance of getting there.

I'll echo the thought that Julie, Bono & Edge need to step away from the show for a moment for some perspective or outside intervention. Right now, it sort of feels like we're watching a director's cut of the show. It's self-indulgent, but if someone can get in there with some scissors, or rather... an axe, there's something really interesting in there.

I hope Arachne doesn't get cut down in the rewrites. She really is a very interesting addition to the show, and I enjoyed all but one of her songs. Other than the shoe song, her stuff is not what needs to go. First to go should be Deeply Furious, then Pull the Trigger. In place of those, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see a song or a conversation just between Peter and Uncle Ben. I get that in the show, Ben's 'message' to Peter isn't the more famous, "With great power comes great responsibility," but instead, "Rise above." But that line gets completely buried in unintelligible yelling. Yes, Peter has to be angry at Ben before he dies, but we also have to see why he loves Ben as well. Why can't Ben be the one who introduces the song "Rise Above?"

I'm just throwing thoughts out there right now, but that's really one of the fun aspects of the show at this point is to have a discussion on the ways it can be fixed, since it's so apparent it needs to be.

Updated On: 12/31/10 at 09:46 AM

[shrekster224]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 10:22am

I checked the website last night because someone mentioned that TV was listed as Arachne and Alice Lee as Miss Arrow. Just checked again, Friday morning, and TV is listed as Miss Arrow again and Alice Lee is not on the website. Hmm..

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 1:11pm

So does anybody know if there have been ANY major changes in the last few weeks since previews began?

[rentheadca]

Posted: 12/31/10 at 1:24pm

I was at the first preview and saw the show again Wednesday, and I don't remember any major changes. They tried doing The Net, and after it didn't work they paused for a few minutes.
There were definitely a few lines added before Rise Above, and I thought they were a great addition. I listen to that song daily, and I haven't heard those lines before.
I don't know what preview you were at, but it felt much shorter than the first. That changed my view on it a little, even though I already loved it.