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Ouch! Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark 2.0 reviews NOT coming up roses for Spidey
Aloysius J. Gleek:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on February 08, 2011, 02:03:26 pm ---I want to see the lady-spiders trying on shoes and the supervillain fashion show. :)
--- End quote ---
You better go fast, Jeff--the lady-spiders and their shoes are getting the heave-ho!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/theater/changing-julie-taymors-vision-in-spider-man.html?_r=1&ref=theater
‘Spider-Man’: Turn On the Changes
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: March 10, 2011
Many of Julie Taymor’s signature touches in Broadway’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” would be cut or altered in the producers’ new creative plan, which includes scaling back the villainess Arachne, dropping the “Deeply Furious” number of shoe-wearing spider-ladies, and reshaping the Geek Chorus of narrators, according to three people who work on the show and were briefed Thursday on plans.
The producers announced Wednesday that Ms. Taymor was stepping aside from the $65 million production because of schedule conflicts, though she will still be billed as its director and a script writer. Taking over to reshape the show will be the theater and circus director Philip William McKinley (Broadway’s “Boy From Oz”) and the playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
Friends and colleagues of Ms. Taymor have said she was forced out because she would not make extensive changes that the producers wanted.
The producers have now decided that they will shut down the show sometime this spring, but only for a short period, and they want artists with fresh perspectives to oversee the changes.
According to the three people aware of the producers’ plan, who spoke anonymously because it is confidential, the central love story of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson will be enhanced, and Arachne — who now dominates Act II — will have her stage time reduced.
The producers also want to cut “Deeply Furious,” which has been widely denounced by theater critics. The show’s composers, Bono and the Edge of U2, are writing at least two new songs, one of which will be for the start of Act II; the second may replace “Deeply Furious.”
Additional flying sequences are being considered, and the story arc of the villain Green Goblin is also expected to be clarified. What happens to him in Act II is among several confusing plot points.
Lawyers for Ms. Taymor and the production continued negotiations on Thursday about her contract, which gives her broad creative control over the musical. A spokeswoman for Ms. Taymor declined to comment.
Broadway group sales offices were being inundated Thursday with complaints and concerns from organizers who had planned trips to New York to see “Spider-Man” after its previously scheduled March 15 opening. “Buyers want answers now, and most want to protect themselves with other shows and many want refunds,” said Stephanie Lee, president of Group Sales Box Office.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
Uh oh.
Members of the current production, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they had signed nondisclosure agreements at the producers’ request, said that the goal of the new creative team was to strip away some of the musical’s darker elements to make it more family-friendly. While audiences now regularly include children accompanied by grown-ups, the new team wants parents to know that the show will be a pleasurable, thrilling experience for young audiences, rather than the more serious, adult-minded fare that Ms. Taymor had in mind.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/theater/julie-taymors-vision-for-spider-man-takes-its-final-bows.html?adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1302955700-BKCj9Hguvuw/+ASUfRmbXA
One Show Spins Its Last,
As Another Takes Shape
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: April 15, 2011
Backstage at "Spider-Man" recently, the show's lead actor, Reeve Carney, and Julie Taymor, who was
ousted by the producers last month over creative conflicts.
Julie Taymor with Bono.
History is being made on Broadway this weekend: The $70 million museum piece that is Julie Taymor’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” the most expensive musical of all time, is on display in its final performances through Sunday afternoon, then disassembled out of existence.
Gone, when the show resumes performances on May 12 after a three-week overhaul, will be the Geek Chorus of narrators who were stand-ins for the show’s creators: Bono and the Edge of U2, the playwright Glen Berger and Ms. Taymor, whom the producers ousted as director last month over creative conflicts.
Gone will be Ms. Taymor’s vision of the spider villainess Arachne, now a central role inspired by Greek mythology. The part will be reduced to a guardian angel character during the hiatus, according to members of the cast and the production.
The Arachne character, which will have a reduced role in the new
production.
Gone, too, will be some of Ms. Taymor’s head-spinning numbers, like “Deeply Furious,” in which Arachne and her spider ladies-in-waiting become all-powerful by slipping shoes onto their many legs. Gone will be the Act I death of another villain, the Green Goblin, who will become an even bigger character when performances resume, reflecting the wishes of focus groups that “Spider-Man” producers convened this winter. And gone will be the Act II climax, a confrontation between Arachne and Peter Parker.
With Julie Taymor out as director, "Spider-Man:
Turn Off the Dark" will have a bigger role for the
Green Goblin, above, battling with Spider-Man.
For some members of the “Spider-Man” cast and crew, the weeks since Ms. Taymor’s firing on March 9 have been a painful limbo: eight performances a week of a show marked for extinction. Once again, “Spider-Man” is without historical precedent: no other Broadway show has run for months without opening and then shut down temporarily to excise much of the original director’s concept.
“I’m greatly saddened that the world won’t get to see Julie’s vision after the end of this week,” said Gideon Glick, who played one of the geeks, Jimmy-6 (with qualities inspired by Bono), who will leave the production after Sunday. “She aspired to show the world that comic books were part of a larger mythos that’s been around since even before the Greeks. She elevated the story of ‘Spider-Man’ to a cosmic level.”
When the revamped "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" resumes performances on May 12, a major
missing element will be the Geek Chorus of narrators, played here, from left, by Jonathan Schwartz,
Gideon Glick, T. V. Carpio and Mat Devine.
In a statement, Ms. Taymor’s spokesman said: “Julie feels that the early reviews that published before the show was ready to open sadly do not reflect the show that is closing this weekend. Most critics, in fact, will have never seen this latest version before they see one that greatly changes major threads of the story, choreography and songs.”
As some actors have prepared to depart, others have been rehearsing the new script written by Mr. Berger and his new collaborator, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, a playwright and comic-book author. But even some of those who are staying said they were still struggling over the loss of Ms. Taymor. T. V. Carpio, who will remain in the cast as Arachne, described Ms. Taymor in a statement as “at the heart of this project.”
“Julie takes risks and that is what makes her amazing,” Ms. Carpio wrote. Regarding Ms. Taymor’s ideas for “Spider-Man,” she added, “I’m sure you can always find flaws in things, but the fact is she took that risk and she should be commended for it.”
The reconfigured creative team — the theater and circus director Philip William McKinley (Broadway’s “Boy From Oz”), Mr. Aguirre-Sacasa and Mr. Berger — also declined to be interviewed through a spokesman for the production.
More than 245,000 people have seen “Spider-Man” since Nov. 28, when the first of about 140 previews so far took place — the most ever for a Broadway show. Its lead producers, Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris, kept delaying opening night in hopes that Ms. Taymor (and now her successors) could make improvements. Theater critics roundly thrashed the show in reviews in early February; the producers have said they hope the overhaul will yield a better production that will win praise from critics who come to review it just before June 14, the latest opening-night date.
Through the months “Spider-Man” has remained one of the top-grossing shows on Broadway, earning more than $25 million so far, persisting as an object of fascination for fans of Spider-Man, U2, Ms. Taymor and problem-plagued entertainment. Yet the musical’s typical weekly gross of $1.3 million is barely enough to cover the unusually high running costs of this technically ambitious show.
Positive reviews from critics and improved word of mouth among theatergoers will be essential to increasing grosses by a few hundred thousand dollars a week, which will give the show a better chance of someday paying back its investors.
Members of the current production, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they had signed nondisclosure agreements at the producers’ request, said that the goal of the new creative team was to strip away some of the musical’s darker elements to make it more family-friendly. While audiences now regularly include children accompanied by grown-ups, the new team wants parents to know that the show will be a pleasurable, thrilling experience for young audiences, rather than the more serious, adult-minded fare that Ms. Taymor had in mind.
The producers also reportedly believe that a successful Broadway reception for “Spider-Man” is critical to mounting future, profitable versions of the show in cities like Las Vegas and London.
Still, the musical’s weekly grosses indicate that there has been an audience for Ms. Taymor’s original vision, said Danel Ezralow, the “Spider-Man” dance and aerial choreographer and a longtime Taymor collaborator who was replaced after she was. He said in an interview that he was still rooting for the show, and noted — with a touch of bewilderment — that the producers told him they were pleased with his contributions even as they chose a new choreographer, Chase Brock.
“The musical is doing great, and I hope that it does much better — I really wish the best for the show,” Mr. Ezralow said. “I did hear from everybody that they loved my work, the producers included. But typically with a changeover of government, you also get a new secretary of state,” he said, referring to the addition of Mr. Brock after Mr. McKinley was hired to direct.
In recent weeks actors and producers who have worked with Ms. Taymor on other projects have begun mounting a defense of her work on “Spider-Man.” Mr. Glick echoed them in an interview, recalling that he initially scoffed when his mother alerted him to auditions for “Spider-Man.” But when he heard that the director would be Ms. Taymor, whose film work (“Across the Universe,” “Frida”) he admired, Mr. Glick said he decided to try out for the musical.
“I have always been excited by Julie’s visceral style,” said Mr. Glick, who appeared on Broadway in the original cast of the Tony Award-winning musical “Spring Awakening” and Off Broadway in the critically praised play “Speech & Debate.” “Sometimes style can alienate audiences from the material. But Julie is a rare artist whose distinct images are imbued with emotion, evoking awe and tears.”
While seats at the final performances through Sunday had been selling briskly, it was unclear if Ms. Taymor would be sitting in one, friends of hers said this week. She, Mr. Cohl and Mr. Harris still have not signed a final agreement spelling out her creative rights over the show going forward, despite weeks of negotiations. Bad blood remains between Ms. Taymor, as the former director, and the producers and Bono and the Edge, who helped push her out after nine years of working together.
Ms. Taymor has taken the view that this “Spider-Man” is not what some are calling “the director’s cut”: she was not, after all, given the chance to make all the improvements to the show she wanted, her friends say.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote ---Gone, too, will be some of Ms. Taymor’s head-spinning numbers, like “Deeply Furious,” in which Arachne and her spider ladies-in-waiting become all-powerful by slipping shoes onto their many legs.
--- End quote ---
That idea is just deeply bizarre.
And deeply funny (at least in my imagination).
What was Julie Taymor thinking?
And what's going to become of her career after this fiasco?
I wonder what sort of shoes they were? Jimmy Choo's? Manolo Blahnik's? What's-his-name, the guy with the red soles, who was just profiled in The New Yorker?
Cue Carrie Bradshaw! 8)
Front-Ranger:
This reminds me of some of the things that were said about Ang Lee after The Hulk, and look what he did afterwards!
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Tony-Ranger on April 16, 2011, 04:15:05 pm ---This reminds me of some of the things that were said about Ang Lee after The Hulk, and look what he did afterwards!
--- End quote ---
Yes, but the movie industry is a bigger universe than Broadway.
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