I must confess that even at my age I'm still a huge Spider-Man fanboy and hadn't discovered this board when I saw 2.0 (never saw 1.0) back in 2013 so never had a chance to discuss it or compare notes. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I think circumstances such as getting a good seat at a discount, the fact that it largely followed a conventional comic book narrative, I simply love the character and had zero expectations going in (considering its relentless pummeling by critics and the equipment and script mishaps that made it a nation-wide joke - even parodied on Sesame Street) heavily influenced my liking it. Even with that, I wasn't willing to pay to go back for seconds.
That said, if I had money to burn and was unfazed by the massive financial losses it had already suffered, I wouldn't invest a nickel bringing this show back in any way, shape or form. I didn't see nearly enough in it to strongly recommend it to non-fanboys and find the fact it ran for three years almost inexplicable. I'll bet the liability insurance bill alone would make even a rich person shudder, and I would grind my teeth in agony at the royalty checks I would have to write Julie Taymor and Bono and the Edge. Even though I liked the show I walked out thinking its score was totally unmemorable. I bought the cast album (at a second hand store for less than 5 bucks), and except for a couple of songs by the Green Goblin, it is a complete bore to listen to without being accompanied by any of the stage action.
The Mary Jane character needed a much stronger role than being a conventional love interest and damsel in distress, and much better songs (I was disappointed she didn't have a good belting song ala of the kind Idina or Sutton get), and the idea of turning the Green Goblin into a walking vegetable who was given a Southern accent (which couldn't help but sound like a bad Elvis impersonation) because the writer wanted to evoke images of the Ku Klux Klan, for Christ's sake, was beyond stupid. Does anyone outside of whatever bubble he was living in automatically think "oh yeah, Southern accent = KKK?"
And if the show needs to be in an arena with spectacle and overhead flying to interest people, then frankly, it has missed the entire point of the Spider-Man character. May it stay dead and buried.
Updated On: 1/22/16 at 04:12 PM
