Spiderman Preview Thread!- Page 54

[brettystar]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 12:53am

Thanks for posting willheim2 - that was a very interesting read.

[perfectliar]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 1:13am

shob - Even though it's not directed at me, I can answer your questions...

1. "Pull the Trigger" has the US Army seeking out Osbourne to create the ultimate killing machines using his genetic engineering techniques. It's basicaly a military number that is kind of cool, in terms of choreography, but really has no business in the show (especially considering how lengthy it is).

2. Norman and his wife are talking about making the creature for the army and using Norman as the test subject. Meanwhile, Peter and MJ discuss their dreams after high school, and Peter takes pictures of MJ with his camera.

3. The experiment of splicing Norman's DNA with many other animals goes awry, and she dies in the process (an explosion).

4. It's a dream. Peter thinks he is marrying MJ, but it is Arachne under the veil. The pews then begin crawling with spiders.

5. Right. He and the other villains, post-"Spider Man Rising," are illusions created by Arachne.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 1:19am

How is the explosion done onstage?

[shob]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 1:20am

Awesome. Thanks, perfectliar.

[rentheadca]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 3:45am

For the explosion, Osborn was in the thing that changes him to the Green Goblin, and as he's spinning around in it the computer is saying there's an error, but he doesn't hear his wife saying that. Then the explosion happens really quickly. It's like a flash of a lot of lights and a really loud noise, and then the stage goes pretty dark.
That's how I remember it. It's really quick so it's kind of hard to tell :/

[Katurian2]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 9:04am

That's a little inappropriate for the usher to be making a remark like that... I understand the need to assure an upset audience member, but come on. No need to bash what is (in my opinion) a very good performance by Reeve. I think him and Matthew James Thomas just have different performance style. MJT is a lot more poppy/musical theatre-ish and Reeve is more rock. I really think it's a matter of personal preference. I really enjoy what Reeve does with the role, and think he gives everything he can to a minimally fleshed out part.

[bradwalt]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 9:24am

I attended the 7:00 PM Sunday 2-Jan performance. My program had an insert notification that Matthew James Thomas was playing the lead. THe board in the lobby did not have his name listed. No announcement was made. I'm pretty sure it was Reeve (?)

I rarely get a program that has inaccurate inserts, but I'm going to be more diligent at checking the lobby from now on.

By the way, the performance went without stops, and got a standing ovation. On the other hand, I looked around at the crowd during a few songs, and saw a lot of bored faces, and a few dozers. I guess standing o's are a conditioned reflex these days.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 10:31am

Saw the show with Matthew James Thomas. With the exception of the narrating teens, we enjoyed the first act. There were no stops, no accidents, just a couple of moments where you could tell some things hadn't been completely worked out in the second act (though it is irrelevant since there will be many changes). The biggest problem we found was that the show seems to be two completely different musicals. Act one works fine, but it has mostly a definitive ending. If they cut Arachne and tied up the romance, it would stand on its own. The second act was so completely absurd and made NO SENSE from beginning to end. Even the use of sets was mostly different. Act two is nothing more than the typical weak film sequel containing the worst production number (that song about shoes) I've seen since the gang rape ballet in Thou Shalt Not. And the ending rendered the entire plot pointless and a huge waste of time. I know they are changing the ending, but I doubt it will be enough. The show could run a while on the first act effects, but the second act is bad enough that it could sink the entire show before it recoups.

And for those who believe the show looks like nothing more than a theme park show, please tell me what theme parks you have visited, because I have never seen sets and stunts that elaborate in any theme park. The Chrysler building set and aerial fight at the end of act one was truly spectacular.

Updated On: 1/3/11 at 10:31 AM

[EyeWin]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 11:52am

close this ****

[steven22]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 11:59am

It was Matthew James Thomas at the 1/2/11 Mat. I was there. And his name was listed as Spidey on the board. I saw it.

[willheim2]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 2:31pm

my friend's take was more positive than mine:

On Spidey,

I loved the scope and ambition of the play. I think it has enormous commercial potential. Kind of a morph between musical theater and the circus.
I appreciated the young geeks who took us through the play. They were well realized and rang true to me..Lot of young, techno savy geeks out there, with amazingly developed opinions about their fantasy lives.
The walking street scenes, the aerial views of the city, and the comic book feel of the city was well realized. The first set of comic book bad guys were wonderful. They could have walked out of a comic book onto the stage.

However, I think Julie flew a bit too close to the sun. I don't think she lost her wings, but she needs to come down to earth. There is just too much of her- particularly in the second half. In documentary work you guard against falling in love with your shot. A lot of beautiful stuff ends up on the floor in order to craft a good finished product. With a good pair of scissors this production could soar. The scene where we meet all the bad guys could not have been more cluttered....between the video clips, the "model runway presentation of the sinister 6" , the brief appearance of some puppets stage right, it was like visual projectile vomiting...

and the plot development was achingly slow, again, too much "Julie" - the cool effects should move and illustrate the action, not delay it. It is theater and someone needs to let the actors act.

And why did we need a new narrator in dreadlocks with a bongo drum in the beginning of the second half....what were they thinkiing?

I am so glad we saw it. If they fix it and it runs forever, it would be interesting to go back and see the revised play...but they need to do a lot of tailoring.


That's my take..

Also, that guy Matthew sang the heck out of the songs and was great....
Updated On: 1/3/11 at 02:31 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/3/11 at 3:47pm

close this ****

Considering the money it's making thus far, I don't see that happening. But its nice to see the Magic Man has returned from Disneyland.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 1/4/11 at 12:36am

Two questions:

1. For those who saw Matthew James Thomas, is he still that platinum blond hair color he was last I saw of him on television?

and

2. On the 60 Minutes special, Bono sings the second half of "No More" with TV Carpio. It was one of my favorite musical moments in the show, but I have been replaying and replaying it to figure out one lyric line. It's right before, "I go to sleep in my clothes//My shoes don't fit..." It's the same progression as "I go to sleep in my clothes" though. Anyone decipher it?

[steven22]

Posted: 1/4/11 at 12:46am

Matthew James Thomas does not have the blonde hair anymore, he is more brown hair colored now.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 1/4/11 at 9:09am

close this ****

So insightful.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 1/4/11 at 11:55am

Gracias- I would have died a little inside if I knew a blond Peter Parker was out there. X)

[TheLadyoftheWood]

Posted: 1/4/11 at 6:08pm

@Katurian2- Since no one has answered your question, Bono says "I count the grass as it grows," right before he says "I go to sleep in my clothes."

[Baileyboo]

Posted: 1/4/11 at 6:37pm

So glad you signed up yesterday to post such enlightening words.
Close this ****. Can I quote you?

Douche.

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 1/4/11 at 6:56pm

Yup...and calling him a douche is soooo much more classy.

Just ignore him...

[prsnr24601]

Posted: 1/5/11 at 1:18am

I have been following this thread for a long time and today I finally decided to see the show. It is sold out but you can get tickets if you have connections or are willing to pay full price for them. I won't tell you what I did, but I will give you my take on the show.

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark is not the worst show of all time, yet may well turn out to be one of the worst things that has ever happened to Broadway. People will come to New York to see a "Broadway" show and those who see Spider-Man may think that this is what Broadway is all about... an over-the-top spectacle, a visually exhausting, mind-bendingly incomprehensible mish-mosh that borrows liberally from a well-known franchise and then takes a sharp detour to become a completely different story that probably can only be clearly understood by its own author.

I know that many people on this board are especially curious about the stunts and safety issues so let me start off by saying that it appeared that the cast and crew have overcome most, if not all of the problems that existed earlier. There were no stops and no noticeable problems with any of the stunts or technical aspects of the show. I was sitting near a platform where Spidey lands during his battle with the Green Goblin and when he made a landing his cable got a little twisted, which I imagine is not unusual. There was effective communication between Spidey and the crew member who was responsible for the actor, and they got it untwisted before the sequence continued. Throughout the show I was wondering if the actors were nervous about flying in light of the prior accidents and from what I saw they appeared to be quite comfortable (even when singing while soaring, dangling, floating, etc.). When they reached the point in the show where Christopher Tierney had been injured I noticed that the actor playing Spider-Man does not leap off the bridge as Tierney did; so it would appear that they have altered that sequence, perhaps permanently, and probably for the best. So NO problems with stunts or technical stuff but I will say this: there are SO MANY technical aspects of the show (apart from the aerial stunts) that the show could very easily be stopped going forward. It seems like the production is depending on everything going right 100% of the time, and although tonight’s performance went off without a hitch I don’t know if that can realistically be achieved.

Now for the show itself.

I cannot tell you what the show is about, or recount the plot any better than other commentators already have described it. The first act makes sense in a very basic way, especially if you have already seen the Spider-Man movies. It’s a tale as old as time, really. Boy likes girl… boy gets bitten by genetically engineered spider and becomes a human spider bouncing off his bedroom walls… boy enters wrestling match to win money to buy a car to impress girl… crazed scientist becomes evil freak after a failed experiment and then kidnaps girl… boy rescues girl… end of Act One. If all they did was end the show there and have the producer come out and say, “Thank you for coming to see Spider-Man,” I think the audience would have been pleased. In fact, I think the audience was probably satisfied at that point. The flying in the first act knocked everyone’s socks off. And let’s face it: that’s what you really came to see, as well as wanting to find out what all the fuss was about with this show and whether anyone was going to be taken to the hospital. Seriously, if they simply elongated the first act and worked on the script, you could have “Spider-Man, The Musical” on Broadway and that honestly would be enough.

But noooooooooo…. And this is where I am going to have to start talking about Julie Taymor, who I don’t know and have no beef with, but she is the director and bookwriter of this show, and needs to be held accountable for its shortcomings.

The biggest problem with this show is the storytelling, which is strange given the fact that they started off with a well-known and bankable story. They could have gone the route of Shrek: The Musical (which was also expensive and heavy on the effects) and put the exact same plot onstage and quoted dialogue verbatim from the movie. Here, Taymor borrows from the movie’s plot and dialogue when it suits her, but most of the time she is marching to the beat of her own drum, assuming that her audience will appreciate the tune and follow along. The trouble is, we can’t follow what we don’t understand.

The second act is nonsense from beginning to end. We are not sure whether the events we are observing in Act 2 are even happening since we are told the villains and their deeds are all “illusions.” Well, if they are merely illusions then there is nothing at stake and nothing for us to care about. Whereas the first act is all about Peter Parker and Spider-Man, Act 2 is about Arachne (who is supposed to be MYTHICAL according to Taymor) physically injecting herself into the story without any clear motivation. OK, I get that she loves Peter and apparently wants to be with him, like, as lovers. But that doesn’t make sense because he is a man and she is a big old spider lady. (How would THAT work?) In a throwaway line she demands that Peter join her on her plane of existence or she will kill Mary Jane. I don’t understand how joining Arachne on her astral plane or whatever Taymor is driving at will change the fact that Arachne is a SPIDER and Peter is a DUDE. Even harder to comprehend is the conclusion. An earlier post mentioned that it seems to mirror the ending of Phantom of the Opera and I felt that way, too. However, since we cared about the characters in Phantom and because they had very clear, consistent and understandable motivations, the ending of Phantom winds up being very touching. Here, Arachne says, “Come with me or I’ll kill MJ.” Peter resists, then agrees. Then suddenly, Arachne changes her mind about the whole thing, thanks Peter for “releasing” her (from the curse? HOW?) and floats up to the heavens. At this point I did not know whether this meant that Arachne was alive or dead, real or a myth, good or evil, and frankly I didn’t care because it was 10:45 and time to go home. I seriously doubt that anyone in the audience -- or in the cast for that matter -- could clear up these confusions for me because almost nothing makes sense. The show ends with one final slap in the face for those who appreciate logic as Mary Jane (who almost died of suffocation in Arachne’s cocoon moments earlier and who, up to this point, has no way of knowing that Peter is Spider-Man) runs up to PETER and says “Go get ‘em tiger”… and then Peter/Spider-Man runs off to his next emergency call, whatever that may be. A Spider-Man banner drops, end of show.

At this point you might say – wait, it’s based on a COMIC BOOK and therefore it doesn’t have to be well-written or logical. But this is live theater and we’re watching human beings, not cartoon characters, so if you’re going to attempt to put Spider-Man onstage you need to tell a story that people can follow. And it HAS to make sense on some level, even if you are delving into mythological fantasies. And human beings need to behave in a way that we can somehow relate to, otherwise we are confused.

A few additional thoughts…

This show has the most amazing visuals I have ever seen onstage. (It’s too bad that the story services the effects instead of the other way around.) The flying was exciting and fun and satisfied the audience’s desire to see Spider-Man in action. I wish there had been more of it. One of the most beautiful visuals occurs in Act 2 when Arachne and Peter are floating together in Peter’s dream. I give credit to Taymor and all of the designers for their outstanding visual work; it truly is beautiful to behold, in and of itself, and I doubt Broadway will ever see anything quite like this again.

The response from the audience seemed rather subdued this evening. The strongest reactions were to the flying sequences, which went over very well. Despite my criticisms it seems that this show WILL have its share of fans, or at least those who appreciate it. Not just children -- the man sitting in front of me (probably in his 50’s) absolutely loved it.

The scene with the three bank robbers (big headed, comic book character-looking types) firing machine guns at Spidey before he takes them out by trapping them in a web was awesome.

The music in the show is not the type of music I personally care for, so it would not be fair for me to comment on whether it is “good.” I think it’s safe to say that if you are into U2 you will like it, or at least be able to appreciate it.

The book is ridiculously amateurish. It is literally something that you or I could write in one sitting to connect the dots between scenes and kill time for set changes and preparations for the next stunt or visual effect. The much-maligned “Geek Chorus” has horrible material to work with and I feel sorry for them. They certainly are putting on a good face and doing their jobs, but I’m sure it’s as clear to them as it is to the rest of us that their lines are uninteresting, unclever, and unworthy of being rendered on a Broadway stage. At the same time, we truly do need these geeks to a) let us know what we are about to see, or b) remind us of what just happened onstage. Sometimes they debate amongst themselves what should happen next or why something just occurred (for example, they have a lengthy philosophical discussion as to both how and why Peter Parker was bitten by the spider, which is something that no sane person who has ever gotten laid should spend even a minute thinking about, let alone debating with others). I honestly don’t see how this book can be fixed unless a professional script doctor is given the ability to work some magic. As it stands now, the book of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark serves one purpose only, and that is to kill time between songs and set changes. It does not do so in a manner that is comprehensible to anyone other than Julie Taymor, and for that reason above all else, the show ultimately will fail.

The Green Goblin reminded me of “Stripe” from The Gremlins with the voice of John Wilkes Booth from my cast recording of Assassins. He has no clear motivation for being angry at the world, hell-bent upon mayhem and destruction. Nor is he threatening as a villain, because we never see any of the mayhem and destruction. He pretty much just cackles a lot and he’s green, and we all know from Wicked that if you’re green, you are bad. Spider-Man defeats him pretty easily and he is almost invisible in Act 2. Again – no stakes = bad storytelling. He should have been the main villain in this show and then his character would have a justification for existing. His conversations with Spider-Man make no sense. Apparently the Goblin knows that Spider-Man is “Peter Parker.” HOW? We don’t know how he knows, because the musical doesn’t tell us. And get this: the Goblin also taunts him about his feelings for Mary Jane. This is even more ridiculous because no character in the show has ANY reason to know at this point that Peter loves MJ – probably not even MJ. I guess Taymor didn’t think it was necessary to explain how the Goblin came across all this information, but when we are not given a good reason for the Goblin to be mad at Spider-Man in the first place, the further absence of logic doesn’t really make a difference.

Mary Jane’s character makes little sense to me. We all know from the movies that Peter constantly flakes out on her when they’re supposed to get together yet she forgives him. Here, Mary Jane’s affection for Peter goes beyond what we as an audience can comprehend, especially since at one point he asks her to marry him and then suddenly changes his mind about ten minutes later. And TELLS her. MJ’s response? NOT the typical response of a female in the real world. I also don’t understand how she went from being in the school play to having her name over the title of a Broadway show. I applaud Jennifer Damiano for a wonderful performance and for doing the best she can with an extremely poorly written character.

Peter Parker/Spider-Man is not the star of this show; the effects are. Reeve Carney did a fine job but to be honest, I didn’t really care about his character as Peter, possibly because all we really care about is the flying (which is done by others) and even more possibly because his character is not written well. I appreciate the physicality that is required of his role in songs like “Turn Off The Dark” and “Bouncing Off The Walls” and he handled that extremely well but it was hard for me to care about his character’s inner conflict or whether he would find happiness with MJ due to poor scriptwriting by Taymor. His singing was fine, but again, it didn’t matter to me one way or the other because I’m not into rock music.

As others have mentioned, Uncle Ben’s death had little or no meaning because we didn’t care about his relationship with or impact upon Peter before he died. The manner of his death was also a problem for me. In the movie, he is killed by a criminal in a carjacking. Here, he steps in front of a stolen car like an idiot and is run over. At least that’s what it looked like.

Another unnecessary casualty is Mrs. Norman Osbourne, who dies in unexplained fashion when her husband tests his experiment on himself and transforms into the Green Goblin. It looked as if she died due to an equipment malfunction, and the Goblin finds her dead body when he steps out of the machine. Another meaningless death, but she’s probably better off that way. After all, who wants to be married to an evil green dude with a Southern accent whose only hobbies are playing the piano and killing people?

That’s it, I can’t complain or explain any more. I am glad I saw the show so I could see what all the fuss was about, but that’s really it. I am sure that many others will have the same curiosity, so it’s a safe bet that this show will sell a lot of tickets in spite of its flaws.












Updated On: 1/5/11 at 01:18 AM

[Katurian2]

Posted: 1/5/11 at 1:31am

@TheLadyoftheWood- Thanks! haha- maybe I should've stuck with misunderstanding it. It doesn't really go with the next two lines!


@prsner- Nice review and wrap up. Glad you saw the same problem with Uncle Ben. I didn't realize that the show never did explain how the Goblin knew Peter was Spider-man.... He doesn't take Peter's mask off before he calls him Peter? I know in the Ultimate comic books, Norman knows it's Peter at first because of security footage of the bite and recognition of the 'symptoms.' But Norman and Peter never really talk in the show before Gobby surfaces (unfortunately), so that's not the case here...

Did the net in the final sequence come up for your performance then?

I think you really identify what people on this board seem to be after when they hope this show fails. I guess they are afraid that it will define Broadway as something more Cirque de Soliel than the art Broadway really is. (Even though Cirque is a legitimate art as well, it's a very different one!)

Did you notice any changes book or score-wise than what people have posted on this thread? Are Pull the Trigger and the 'shoe song' still there?

And thank you for identifying that Reeve has a very physical part! There were remarks earlier that even though he talked about training for months, he has so many doubles. But what he does in "Turn Off the Dark," and in particular "Bouncing Off the Walls" is really highly physical and technical. Those were some of my favorite Spidey action moments though, since you really knew it was Reeve up there transforming and doing all those cool things. :)

[prsnr24601]

Posted: 1/5/11 at 1:44am

@Katurian2: Yes, the net did come up in the final scene. There didn't seem to be any technical issues with it at all.

"Pull The Trigger" and "Deeply Furious" (aka "The Shoe Song") are both still there.

If I were to guess I would say that the production's focus has probably been on solidifying the organized chaos that is going on backstage and elsewhere behind-the-scenes with regard to the technical and safety issues. This effort seems to have paid off.

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 1/5/11 at 1:49am

"I won't tell you what I did,"

Oh honey, who hasn't?

[brettystar]

Posted: 1/5/11 at 4:07am

pesnr24601 - thank you so much for that account, I believe it to be one of the best that has been posted in this thread. It was a balanced view which highlighted some good among the bad and mediocre.

[EvanK]

Posted: 1/5/11 at 5:37am

I just felt like this had to be shared.. green goblin stuck over audience, can see chrysler building set.. amazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOBPdycGIEg