"The Bible"????

[jovie27]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 6:05pm

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/SPIDER-MANs-Philip-William-McKinley-Michael-Cohl-to-Take-On-THE-BIBLE-20110816

The national buzz surrounding SPIDER-MAN, TURN OFF THE DARK may have died down, but that doesn't mean that the audience is any less wild about the show - or the stops, according to director Philip William McKinley.

"Maybe it’s the reality TV factor, but when we stop, the audience goes nuts," he tells Deadline.com. "They love it because it is reality. If the show isn't perfect, what's wrong that that? The same thing could happen with The Bible."

Yes - The Bible. McKinley and producer Michael Cohl have set their sights on a new project now that SPIDER-MAN is running smoothly: a musical that uses aerialists and jugglers to take its audience through biblical times.

THE BIBLE: THE BEGINNING has the aid of composers Michael Levine, Matt Rawlings and Ryan Bevridge, along with lyricist Maribeth Derry and a book by Shaun McKenna. It's not headed for Broadway, but rather on an arena tour following an initial semi-permanent launch in an as of yet undetermined arena.

The idea, says McKinley, stemmed from a conversation with Judy Kaye, who among a myriad of Broadway roles won the 1988 Tony Award for playing Carlotta in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. "I told her I’d done The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur, and she said, well, there’s nothing left then but The Bible," McKinley said. "The more I thought about it, I realized that we could take these stories that have big morality themes and put them in a style of contemporary performance."

Audiences should expect the same level of aerial stunts as SPIDER-MAN, TURN OFF THE DARK, but McKinley will help design them - something he had to restructure when he took the helm for SPIDER-MAN.

"Because I’d been around the circus for 20 years, I knew exactly how and why those accidents were happening. If there are five steps involved in an aerial segment, you must never go out of order," he said. Drawing on his experiences with the circus, McKinley redesigned many of the stunts. "In the circus, I would create a model of the show, and every time we had a wire attached to a person, each department head watched what I was planning and told me if it was possible. Once, I had a flying act with 32 tie-down lines and it took 8-minutes to get it ready. You can’t rush that, so I found an 8-minute production number to fill the time. The first thing we did when we restructured Spider-Man was sit down with every person in every department. On every flight, we said, what this does to your world? Is it possible?"

That's not to say that the risk is eliminated entirely; the Department of Labor still visits the show nightly, according to McKinley. But, he stresses, that comes with the territory: "These kind of shows will always carry risk. It's not Peter Pan; we’ve got guys going 40-45 mph, circling the theater in 5 seconds in stunt and thrill flying sequences. If one of your main guys goes out over the audience after eating a steak dinner and a milkshake, that extra weight on him is going to throw off the flying. You have to be aware of everything."

With SPIDER-MAN's relative success - selling just behind consistent top sellers WICKED and THE LION KING on a weekly basis - McKinley looks to eventually push for the show's future beyond Broadway. In the mean time, however, he's happy with where the show is. "We are in a golden age of theater in New York and I wish more journalists and critics would realize it," he says. "Spider-Man doesn't have to be The Normal Heart or The Book of Mormon, there's room for all of it. And spectaculars like Spider-Man are necessary if we are to expand this art form. My favorite moment with Spider-Man was being in the lobby and watching two 8-year olds pretending to web each other. One stopped and said, ‘Isn't this the best Broadway show ever?' The other kid agreed and said, ‘I can't wait to see the next one.' There's your future audience."

Read more: https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/SPIDER-MANs-Philip-William-McKinley-Michael-Cohl-to-Take-On-THE-BIBLE-20110816#ixzz1VESCMJCR

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 6:08pm

Ugh.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 6:14pm

Which Bible is it based on? Hopefully not the King James version.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 6:21pm

And posters think Sondheim is too touchy about Porgy & Bess!

Wait till the hinterlands get ahold of The Bible.

(In fact, the problem will probably be the opposite of the P&B fuss. In order to fill arenas, The Bible will be reverent to the point of tedium.)

[LegallyBroadway2]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 7:40pm

really? I have a high respect for McKinley, very very high- but this idea just seems, as Mildred put it, UGH.

I hope this falls through. Arena sized production? For a boring piece of literature? I would rather see an expensive high flying arena production of every Dickens book in one evening before The Bible.

Really?

[peerrjb]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 7:42pm

As long as it's not anything like that awful 1966 John Huston film: "The Bible -- In the Beginning". Lawdy Lawdy.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 7:43pm

^^^^ At least the Huston film gave us a naked Adam.

The Bible isn't boring in its own right. It's one of the great works of world literature (whatever one thinks of it's theological value).

But it's often used in a boring way. Doing otherwise risks enraging the faithful (and killing your arena tour, IMO).
Updated On: 8/16/11 at 07:43 PM

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 7:47pm

"I have a high respect for McKinley, very very high"

One would have to be very, very high to have respect for McKinley. Ugh.

[LegallyBroadway2]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 8:07pm

I'm very very high I guess.

My respect comes only to the work he did saving Spider-Man from flying into a free fall death.

The Bible, as one, is boring.
Updated On: 8/16/11 at 08:07 PM

[Idiot]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 8:12pm

Quick -- what's the difference between this proposed production and a Perry / Bachman rally?

Not much.

[staunchcharacter]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 9:15pm

...it sounds better to me than spiderman.

[Nettik]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 9:36pm

Isn't this basically an acrobatic version of CHILDREN OF EDEN?

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 11:12pm

An "arena spectacular"?

And on the fifth day, God made M-M-MONSTER TRUCKS!!!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 11:26pm

Does anyone else think Judy Kaye was being sarcastic?

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 11:29pm

I'm a little confused about the reaction, musicals, operas and oratories based on this book are hardly revolutionary:

Weill The Eternal Road
Schwartz Godspell, Children of Eden and Prince of Egypt
Rice and Menken King David
Webber and Rice Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the A.T.C.
Rodgers Two by Two
Swados Haggadah
Schoenberg Moses and Aaron
Delibe Samson and Delilah
Bucchino Joseph: King of Dreams
Patrick and Derry The 10 Commandments: The Musical
Verdi Nabucco
Golijov La Pasion Segun San Marcos

So now we might have one with flying.

[LegallyBroadway2]

Posted: 8/17/11 at 12:47am

all the shows listed above are a bore as much as the original text in my personal opinion. To fill an arena, this bible show would have to approach Hamlet 2 type modernism.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/17/11 at 8:05am

And on the fifth day, God made M-M-MONSTER TRUCKS!!!

LOL hyperbole!

And a few more that you didn't mention henrik:

Swados - Esther
Yeston - 1,2,3,4,5 (renamed In The Beginning)
Rodgers/Charnin - Two By Two

Updated On: 8/17/11 at 08:05 AM

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/17/11 at 8:20am

I think the only director who could do justice to this piece is Roger DeBris.

[FrauleinKost]

Posted: 8/17/11 at 9:17am

Please no, please keep the freepers away from Broadway. Please.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 8/17/11 at 10:05am

Not that it really matters but I did mention Two by Two.

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 8/17/11 at 3:53pm

Is this gonna be a prequel to the Book of Mormon?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/17/11 at 4:19pm

Well, nothing says "Bible" like a big circus. But I'm sure they'll have no problem selling tickets to the...arena-oriented. It might be kind of fun to watch Moses part the Red Sea while standing on a horse galloping in a circle.

Updated On: 8/17/11 at 04:19 PM

[Moneyspider]

Posted: 8/17/11 at 6:41pm

Can't imagine it's any worse than the Holy Land theme park, read the first review http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-holy-land-experience-orlando#hrid:xyuspEwUb-Fi-8m4khQ4Iw

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/17/11 at 6:49pm

all the shows listed above are a bore as much as the original text in my personal opinion.

You lost your talking privileges. Go sit in the corner and don't forget your dunce cap.