Spidey 2.0 Quick Fixes

Saw the June 4th Saturday matinee.

I did not see 1.0 as I wanted the show closed due to injuries. Since the show did close and there were various changes made I decided to see it. Was hoping to see and hear Reeve Carney, however Matthew Thomas was subbing today, a bit rough at the edges in the role.

I don't have much time tonight to discuss the show itself in detail or what I liked in it. It opens soon so I am going to cut to the chase. There were flying boo-boos, including missing a landing (and the scramble and crawl onto the landing at the second try), two Spideys appearing at once in the flying sequences, these things are technical and I'm sure they are being worked on.

A few suggestions to improve the show before the critics, who have not been happy campers, come to visit (again). Two comments on music and two on the, shall we say, fixes to the emotional rhythm and momentum of the show.

1. Get rid of the thumping bass disco beat in all the songs that have it. Just leave it out, take it out, remove that track if it's recorded. It is ruining anything musical about the show. The music is not really suitable for theatre and is certainly not "legit" but if you are going to have people singing you want to hear whatever lyrics they are singing and you can't hear them with that horrid bass thump throughout them. You don't need it in any of the songs, they will be improved without it, I PROMISE. They will still be able to dance without it as you will observe in all the other musicals generally succeeding in the genre.

2. You have a place in the show's second half where Peter and MJ drop down from the ceiling on a piece of tower that is like a swing ("If the World Should End"??--there is one other duet they have). Then they sing a love song. It's in the wrong place. The Goblin has just got us excited that we are about to have some wild chase and fight scenes and I'm ready for that and the THE MOMENTUM IS BROKEN and I'm like--what?? They are going to have a boring love scene and a sticky love song when I was being led up to see action? Arrrrggghhhh! Start the Goblin on his plan to stick the lab workers into the machine to mutate them and then cut away and do the sticky love scene in the drop-down "swing" and then come back when the lab workers are now mutants and THEN the Goblin can do his "tonight we are going to attack the city" or whatever speech and now we know Peter and MJ have made the wrong decision for that night but we can head right into the mayhem to keep the momentum going.

3. Put "The Boy Falls From the Sky" someplace else because it is again breaking up the momentum again and I am not enjoying it, just wanting it to be over so we can get back to the action. (I learn nothing from it and it does not advance the story and is boring where it is now, by the way.) You could open Act II with it and then go to the Goblin, switch to the lovers on the tower/swing, then back to Goblin. If you put Peter's solo first in Act II then I would have the patience to listen to it and it wouldn't break up the action.

4. You've got a song toward the end with a lyric I could hear (and there weren't many of those) which says - I KID YOU NOT - "I search through trash for a melody." I don't know if someone thought that was funny but it is not funny and I can see critics grabbing that lyric line and running with it in a way the show would rather they wouldn't, so GET RID OF THAT LYRIC, substitute something, anything.

After all the money that's been put into this show, these are not big changes but they would be smoothing to what is jarring and irritating and needn't be.

Yeah, Blaxx, I agree. There was even what looked like a hard landing of Spidey on all fours on the stage. I'm sure he's supposed to land in that position, just not that hard or awkward.

I'm sure everyone associated with the show is only painfully too aware of these failures in flying stunt precision, they are obvious and there is nothing I can suggest as a fix for them, this is for the circus pros. Maybe do them more slow-motion as a lot of stuff is done slow-motion in the show now--I don't know if it was in version 1.0.

After all, the trapeze artists in the circus take their time to precision time their swings (which are not fast) before stunts so why would actors/dancers be expected to go faster?

The two Spidey thing happened when he was just supposed to be one zipping around from everywhere. There's a part later where they do have multiple Spideys but this wasn't it.

I had a decent orchestra seat and should have been able to hear the lyrics. Lots of the time I couldn't, especially in group dance songs, but others, too.

I'm glad I got to see Patrick Page onstage finally as he is very good. I sat through a miserable "Grinch" musical one Christmas season having gone only to see his performance and he was out that show.

To this list I would add cutting the self-referential humor about 1.0 -- this is what you're trying to get the critics to forget. Bono admitted they goofed on national television, something the theater community never would have expected. He ate his humble pie, whoop-dee-friggin'-do, let's not look like masochists.

---

From what I understand...Reeve never performs at matinee shows which is probably why you didn't see him.

As for the failed landing, could you elaborate more as to what exactly happened? From the way you are describing it I am imaging Spiderman missing the landing pad on the flying circle or balcony and then slipping and grabbing hold of the edge hanging and then climbing back on...lol

change I thought should happen:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1032593&id=4157882&boardid=1

"As for the failed landing, could you elaborate more as to what exactly happened? From the way you are describing it I am imaging Spiderman missing the landing pad on the flying circle or balcony and then slipping and grabbing hold of the edge hanging and then climbing back on...lol"

I could not see the balcony/mezz landings above me as I was in the orchestra.

The landing platform was stage left (audience right), about 15 to 20 feet or so high off the stage, in the side wing exit closest to the audience. He went swinging there but didn't make the landing, swung a bit backward and when he swung toward the platform again he seemed too low and just grabbed on with his arms and pulled himself up and got his knee on it and scrambled up on it instead of landing on his feet as was done other times.

The other time Spidey is heading from the balcony/mezz swinging toward the stage and being lowered and comes in right over the head of the audience and he lands on all fours on the stage in a Spidey squat close to the audience but the landing seemed a bit too hard and flat and like the actor had to work too hard to make it stick and not get dragged back offstage by his cord--not sure exactly what the problem was, but from my viewpoint the problem was not the actor, it was the set-up of the stunt which seemed awkward and maybe unsafe.

At times the Spideys seemed to fly too close to the audience, including when they touched down in the aisles.

What are the lines about "1.0?"

There is either a song or a dialogue sequence where the Green Goblin directly references a "$65 million disaster" that is supposed to draw laughs from the audience. I thought they were over-compensating for past sins. It's not the only item, just one that sticks out in my head.

LegallyBroadway2, I really enjoyed your tweak to the final battle, which in addition to those listed here would only help. The part that saddens me is that posters here, with these small tweaks, would theoretically be making changes that already should have been smart choices for the rewrite, proving that even with a new creative team, there's no fixing stupid.

---

Updated On: 6/6/11 at 04:34 AM