As far as the rest of the audience went the night I saw it, the audience was REALLY gung-ho before the show started. Every time there was anything going on that might resemble the start of the show, there were cheers. Then when the guy came out on stage to explain that it was a preview and what that means, etc., there were huge cheers. And the audience reacted well to his little speech, which he sort of read off of a piece of well worn paper. Not sure who he was, but he was dull dull dull. But that didn't deter anyone - the cheers and the energy were huge. The minute the show started, there were huge cheers again, and pretty huge applause for the first number.
But it sort of continued to die down as the show went on. Someone else used the word "tepid", I think, on this board, and that's about right. You could feel that at times the audience as a whole was confused, or perhaps embarrassed and were applauding out of courtesy. With all of the complaints that can be made about this show, the CAST cannot be criticized for lack effort and lack of obvious caring about their work on the stage. Everyone works their tails off. And so I think a lot of the applause was to reward the hard work of the cast.
But you could feel a huge change as the show went on towards intermission and then towards the end in terms of the audience. It just died down a lot, and became polite applause. I even noticed that some people around didn't applaud at ALL during some numbers. That's not right. At LEAST give the actors some love - they're working their tails off for you. Even if you didn't like the scene or the song, the actors deserve some applause. But I think overall, it was the feeling of the people around me, at least, that some of the numbers weren't applause worthy.
"The boy who fell from the sky" probably got the most applause that night. Hey, it's a cool number. And adding the "Tom Cruise" running effect into the show (I have a theory that Tom Cruise must have it in every contract that there HAS to be a scene where his character, misunderstood and frustrated, has to run from something, with a big fat close up on his Tom Cruise "running face")... adding that running bit into the show was a cool move. We've all felt that way at times of extreme emotion, and it added to the passion of it. I still stand by what I said originally about the number - that it was pretty impossible to actually hear and understand any of the lyrics of that number. But it's a cool U2 song, and if you like U2's music (as I do), you'll like the song. So, there was a pretty huge round of applause after it. And I honestly think it was the applause of people wrapped up in watching an actor work his A** off and sing at the top of his lungs with passion... coupled with the running effect. I don't necessarily think if you really polled the audience members individually afterwards and had them really contemplate if the song itself hit at a deep emotional gut level like some of the best showstoppers ("Rose's Turn" "Send in the Clowns" "I Am What I Am"), where the song changes everything for the lead character, that everyone would agree this song hit exactly where it COULD have, and probably should have. But it did give the audience, who had somewhat dimmed in enthusiasm in the past hour and a half, a chance to full out applaud again.
In terms of the finale, well, I think a lot of people were again left confused. Someone else wrote about feeling that there was no explanation as to why Peter's kiss freed Arachne, and I think they were spot on with that. And even if you don't have a theatrically savvy audience that would be able to voice that kind of an opinion without having it handed to them, I still think there will be confusion overall with an unexplained plot point like that, which will affect the emotional impact of the end of the show. So it wasn't a rousing huge BURST of applause for the finale. More like a "I guess this is it, I should applaud now" thing.
Then when they started the curtain calls and all the guys lined up as Spider-man took their bows and unmasked, the audience quite very sincerely elevated their applause to huge. And the guys DESERVED it. Regardless of what Miss Taymor has chosen to put on that stage in terms of content - those guys deserved everything they got in terms of applause. And the audience followed suit and gave it to them. Then it died slightly while some of the smaller roles took their bows - the reporters, etc., which were pretty unessential. The MJ applause didn't quite amount to the type of applause an actress of her talent should get, but I blame that again on the role, and not on the talent. TV/Arachne got more of a swell of applause - which was well deserved. I still say that any actress that can deliver an inane line about 55 pairs of shoes and the astral plane believably without choking on their own vomit, deserves an award of SOME kind!! (sorry, I've tried not to put tacky comments in my review - but I couldn't help it this once! haha).
And then when Reeve came out of the ceiling upside down, there was another HUGE swell of applause. Admittedly, it was a cool effect, and I think it milked the applause a bit more than it might have if he had just walked on for his curtain call. I do feel that the applause for him had a different element than what I experienced the night before when Jacob Clemente came out for his solo bow/curtain call for Billy Elliot. In that applause, you could feel a palpable burst of love and admiration for an actor who bared his soul and shared every ounce of talent he had with an audience. The swell of applause for Reeve just felt different. And it's hard to put into words exactly how. But more like the applause you hear when seeing Cirque du Soleil, and a favorite act comes out for their curtain call. Less emotional than that for a Billy Elliot or a Mamma Rose, or a role of that ilk.
Again, I think this more the fault of the writing, than of Reeve himself. I would have really liked to have seen what he would have done with the role if a lot more conflict and perhaps some real feelings (dark feelings) for Arachne had developed and clouded the love he felt for MJ. Something a bit more than "I'm a geek who became a superhero, who would prefer to be anywhere else but here in this theater of my superhero life". And perhaps some of that is the fault of the casting. Reeve is a little stud-boy. No way around that. No amount of geeky glasses and plaid pants and being pushed around will take away the fact that Reeve is a little rock star. He has that "it" factor. Whereas Tobey M, is every bit the geek. That's why the movie worked SO well - Tobey just ISN'T a superhero, which is what made him SUCH a compelling superhero when he was transformed.
But it's the same issue as frizzing Anne Hathaway's hair and putting ugly glasses and ugly clothes on her in the Princess Diaries. She's STILL Anne Hathaway underneath and her transformation is more enjoyable than surprising. You enjoy it, in SPITE of not being surprised by it.
And it's probably same with having Reeve in this role. As the guys pushed him around and beat on him, I kept thinking "if he wanted to, he could probably be a scrappy little fighter and kick the s**t out of one or two of the smaller bullies".
Anyway, the question was about audience applause. I think the applause for the actor playing Peter might have been more emotional if we, as an audience, had taken an emotional journey with a character we really related to, and cared about. And I think his applause was more for an actor who worked his tail off and put a LOT of energy into the show that night... and sang the heck out of his big 2nd act number while running on a treadmill. And for that, Reeve deserved his swell of applause. And frankly, I don't think it'll ever be the kind of emotional applause that you get when Billy Elliot takes his solo bow, unless the script problems are resolved, and we get the chance to really grow to care about Peter and fall in love with him. And that's not the fault of the actor. That's the fault of the book, and the director.
Updated On: 2/7/11 at 11:01 AM
