Author Topic: Ouch! Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark 2.0 reviews NOT coming up roses for Spidey  (Read 80039 times)

Offline Meryl

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You're going back to Alaska, directing another play! Whoo-hoo, how hot is that. 8)
Congratulations, Meryl! You're the best, I would hire you, too. :-*

Excellent, Chrissi!  I've always wanted to work in Germany.  Got any connections in Bayreuth?  ;D

Not hot at all. More likely very, very cold.   8)

You can say that twice and mean it!  ;)

Ich bin ein Brokie...

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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After Arachnid Play Matinee Cancelled, Evening's Performance is Cancelled Also
« Reply #31 on: December 22, 2010, 11:21:29 pm »



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/theater/23spider.html?hp


‘Spider-Man’ Shows Canceled
to Test a Safety Plan

By PATRICK HEALY
Published: December 22, 2010



Customers lined up in the box office on Wednesday after the 8 p.m. performance of "Spider-Man:
Turn Off the Dark" was canceled.




A scene from the musical.


The Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” canceled its two Wednesday performances to test a new safety plan for the show’s 38 aerial and stage maneuvers, which involve actors hoisted or tethered in harnesses, including the maneuver that failed at Monday night’s performance when a stunt actor fell more than 20 feet and broke his ribs.

By canceling the performances at a cost of roughly $400,000 in ticket sales, and by adopting safety measures recommended by state and federal officials, the producers of “Spider-Man” sought to project a sense of urgency and understanding that action was needed to make the show safer. While the producers said that Thursday night’s performance would go on, they also committed, according to state safety officials, not to hold performances until the new measures were in place. The state officials said the plan could be tested successfully by Thursday night.

Under the plan, one offstage crew member will attach the harness and related cables, wires or tethers to the actors, and a second stagehand will verify that the attachments are made. That second stagehand will then verbally notify a stage manager that they are safely connected. The actor will also verify that the attachment is made. Previously, there was no second stagehand to verify or communicate with the stage manager, and the actor was not required to check his harness.

The producers and creators moved on other fronts Tuesday and Wednesday to gain a stronger footing for the show. While publicity about Monday’s accident and a backstage one on Nov. 28 has stirred interest in the show, the buzz has also left some actors and stagehands feeling demoralized, as well as protective of fellow company members.

The producers and creators held a private meeting with the entire company for more than two hours on Tuesday, two people who attended said. Some cast and crew members vented frustrations to the director, Julie Taymor, and the lead producer, Michael Cohl, about their decision-making — including whether the show had had enough time this fall to rehearse before performances began. The show had more than two months of technical rehearsals inside the Foxwoods Theater, far more than most musicals. Yet “Spider-Man,” with its two dozen aerial sequences and dozens of pieces of enormous moving scenery, is the most technically complex show ever on Broadway as well as the most expensive by far, at $65 million, more than twice the cost of the previous record-holder, “Shrek the Musical.”

A few company members also questioned Ms. Taymor — and in some cases challenged her — about whether the show was as safe as it could be and whether crew members had had enough time to absorb technical changes, and actors enough time to run through them. Two actors were injured this fall doing aerial stunts before preview performances began; during the first preview, one of the lead actresses suffered a concussion while in the wings just offstage, and, on Monday, the stunt actor, Christopher Tierney, fell from a platform when the tether attached to his harness was not properly affixed.

By all accounts, Ms. Taymor responded calmly to the questions and emphasized that safety was her foremost concern. Her representative did not respond to a request to interview Ms. Taymor on Wednesday.

Mr. Cohl first canceled Wednesday’s matinee (one of the most lucrative of the year, given the Christmas week tourist market) to spend time on the safety measures and to prepare other actors to step in for Mr. Tierney, who performed some of the most complex stunts in the show. As rehearsals continued Wednesday, Mr. Cohl, joined by Ms. Taymor, met with the safety inspectors to walk through the new redundancies, and — according to state officials — the two concurred that performances should not be held until those plans were fully tested. (Mr. Tierney remained in serious condition at Bellevue Hospital Center on Wednesday.)

Maureen Cox, director of safety and health for the New York State Department of Labor, which oversees the state inspectors, said on Wednesday that the producers assured her team that “Spider-Man” would be performed only with the safety measures in place, and that the show’s actors would be empowered to stop performances if they did not feel safely strapped in. Ms. Cox added that no cast or crew members had approached the state inspectors this week to express concerns about safety.

The show’s spokesman, Rick Miramontez, said all involved believed that the safety measures would be in place and tested by Thursday night’s show. He added that the producers did not believe more crew members needed to be hired to carry out the plan, but they would be if necessary. The show already has one of the largest work forces on Broadway.

Assemblyman Rory I. Lancman, a Democrat of Queens and the chairman of the New York State Assembly’s subcommittee on workplace safety, sent a letter to Mr. Cohl on Wednesday expressing concern about the current state of the production. Mr. Lancman said he would hold a news conference on safety issues and “Spider-Man” on Thursday outside the theater.
« Last Edit: December 23, 2010, 10:12:24 pm by Aloysius J. Gleek »
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Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/70311/


Nascar for Gleeks
Whatever finally becomes of the show itself, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
has succeeded at creating a new kind of New York entertainment.


By Adam Sternbergh
Published Dec 23, 2010




L ike Spider-Man swinging from building to building across the New York skyline, his namesake musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,  has lurched from headline to ominous headline. Broken bones. An SNL  parody. Preview performances marred by glitches and catcalls. In the fourth and most serious accident, a cast member was injured after a twenty-foot-plus plummet. Spider-Man has gone from a $65 million punch-line-in-waiting to a kind of malevolent machine that runs on cash and spews out tabloid fodder. It’s now less a Broadway show than an amusement-park thrill ride: See the clattering catastrophe! You never know what will go wrong next!

All of which is no doubt terrifying to its producers, who have pushed back its official opening (yet again) to February 7 and spent the days before Christmas batting down a rumor that the show had gone on indefinite hiatus. Yet there’s a perverse upside to these continuing calamities. Spider-Man has become a hot ticket for rubberneckers. Tamron Hall, guest-hosting on Today,  blurted, “I’d love to see the show,” after a segment on last week’s incident, and she’s not alone. “I hope no one else gets hurt,” a theatergoer told the Post,  “but it is part of the allure of going.” Told prior to the performance that it might be halted by technical problems, audiences have cheered, then applauded stoppages (when they didn’t involve falling bodies). It’s sort of what they came to see, after all.

Along the way, the whole Spider-Man saga has evolved into something new and fascinating: a hyperentertaining reality show about a Broadway fiasco, playing to a wide and rapt audience and unfolding, 24/7, in real time. Until recently, this brand of metaspectacle would not have been possible or even conceivable. But reality TV has given us a template for this experience, and technology has given us the means to collectively construct it. The former, as a genre, is expertly built around carefully orchestrated disasters, whether composed of desert-island deprivation or contrived dustups between combustible housemates. As for technology, who wasn’t drawn in by the tweet from the show’s star, Natalie Mendoza (who has herself sustained a concussion), after the most recent accident? “Please pray with me for my friend Chris … A light in my heart went dim tonight.” This was followed up by angry online protests from various Broadway actors, including one from Adam Pascal on Facebook that denounced the show as a “steaming pile of actor crippling shit.”

Meanwhile, we speculate feverishly as to the saga’s eventual climax. Can director Julie Taymor and her team make the safety fixes regulators are ordering without dulling an already muddy plot? Will, heaven forbid, some darker tragedy strike? Or will it somehow finally premiere to raves and record attendance, a redemptive tale, à la Avatar,  of hubristic persistence and artistic bravado?

Barring a miracle, the show seems unlikely to recoup its costs (its technical requirements and safety considerations will make touring the show a whole other headache). The way things have been going, by the time you read this, it may have been announced that it will never officially open. But even so, its creators can take some solace in the fact that they have already mounted the most fantastic show of the season. Whether or not you actually get the chance to see Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,  it’s still been more gripping than any Broadway production in years.
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Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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'Spider-Man' Accident Last Monday Captured on Video (YouTube)
« Reply #33 on: December 24, 2010, 09:36:46 am »


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHFc_sO4VyA&feature[/youtube]



AssociatedPress | December 21, 2010
Two theatergoers from Houston, who saw the accident happen Monday night during a performance of the Broadway musical, talk about the experience.
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Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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PopEater: Amazing! 'Spider-Man' Swings Back into Action with Accident-Free Show
« Reply #34 on: December 24, 2010, 09:49:37 am »


http://www.popeater.com/2010/12/24/spider-man-resumes-performances/



Amazing! 'Spider-Man'
Swings Back into Action
with Accident-Free Show

By Elizabeth Townsend 
Posted Dec 24th 2010 07:30AM



Reeve Carney at right after the performance.

Broadway's much-troubled 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark' musical resumed performances on Thursday night with new safety protocols in place following Monday night's accident when a stunt performer plunged 30 feet when a cable snapped during an aerial stunt -- the musical's fourth accident since October.

The good news? No accidents or major delays in the show. The cast and crew was ecstatic.

"It's a safer show now, show star Reeve Carney said as he signed autographs after the performance. "It was always safe, but now it's safer. It was beautiful to see everyone come together tonight." Producer Michael Cohl was a bit more blunt in his assessment for the AP. "If you weren't nervous tonight, you'd have to be an idiot," he said.

The 'Spider-Man' company met earlier in the week with federal and state investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the New York State Labor Department and Actors' Equity to discuss "additional safety protocols," 'Spider-Man' spokesperson Rick Miramontez said Tuesday in a statement. "It was agreed that these measures would be enacted immediately."

Those new measures, focusing on a three-step process to ensure proper harnessing before each stunt, were announced Wednesday by Maureen Cox of the New York Dept. of Labor. Before continuing with the show on Thursday night, the producers had to confirm with the Department of Labor that all of the safety measures were in place.

How does it work during the show? The operator or stagehand will fix the latch to the harness of the performer. Then, another stagehand nearby will verify that it's attached properly. That second person will then be in contact with the stage manager to verify the measures have been completed.

The show canceled its matinee performance on Wednesday in order to rehearse the new protocols. Around 5 PM a sign was posted outside Foxwoods Theatre announcing that the evening performance would also be postponed.

The show's director and co-writer, Julie Taymor, says that Christopher Tierney, the actor recovering from his injuries after his scary fall this week, gets the credit with inspiring the cast to rise above recent troubles.

"We all got together before the show tonight and talked about Chris," Taymor told the AP after the show. "Chris gave us the spirit tonight."

Despite the controversy swirling around the show, ticket sales are "hotter than ever," according to the AP.

"People are coming because they love Spider-Man, U2 or because of morbid curiosity," one theater insider tells PopEater.  (U2's Bono and The Edge wrote the show's music and lyrics.)
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Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/spider-man-actor-was-fortunate-to-survive-father-says/




'Spider-Man’ Actor Was Fortunate to Survive,
Father Says

By PATRICK HEALY
December 26, 2010, 1:50 pm



Christopher Tierney, right,
and his father, Timothy Tierney,
at the Foxwoods Theater,
before his fall.



The injuries suffered by Christopher Tierney in “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” could have been far worse if he had not tucked his body and rolled sideways midair as he fell more than 20 feet at Monday’s performance, doctors have told his family. “My understanding is that Chris is fortunate to be alive,” Mr. Tierney’s father, Timothy Tierney, said in a telephone interview on Sunday.

In the fullest accounting yet of the accident and injuries, Mr. Tierney’s father said that his son, a 31-year-old actor and veteran dancer, was falling headfirst but managed to land on his right side in the basement below the stage at the Foxwoods Theater. That is where he plummeted midperformance when a safety tether to his harness malfunctioned during an acrobatic maneuver. He sustained a hairline fracture in his skull, a broken scapula, a broken bone close to his elbow, four broken ribs, a bruised lung and three fractured vertebrae, his father said. Mr. Tierney is one of several performers who play Spider-Man during stunt sequences.

After back surgery on Wednesday, Mr. Tierney took his first steps on Friday with the aid of a brace and a walker. He remains in the intensive care unit at Bellevue Hospital Center, his father said; family members had hoped to move him back to their home in New Hampshire for rehabilitation, but he is to remain in New York City. Doctors will decide on Monday whether to begin rehab therapy this week.

Timothy Tierney said doctors were “cautiously optimistic” that his son would eventually resume his performing career. “If they’d had to fuse Chris’s vertebrae during surgery, that would have just been very awkward for dancing, because his mobility would have been restricted,” he said. “Fortunately, they did not have to fuse. The doctors have some pins in his body and rods in his body for now to hold everything together, but a great deal of this is about self-healing, and time.

“We just feel very blessed that Chris is alive and well, and thank goodness that he knew enough to roll onto his right side and land that way rather than land on his head or back,” Mr. Tierney continued. “Some people fall from a lesser height than Chris and suffer more damage, even fatal damage.”

“Spider-Man” — the most expensive (at $65 million) and the most technically complex show ever on Broadway, with 38 flying and acrobatic sequences that require safety harnesses and wires — canceled two performances on Wednesday after Mr. Tierney’s accident, the fourth injury to a “Spider-Man” actor during rehearsals or performances since September. At the direction of state and federal workplace safety inspectors, the producers put in a place a new safety plan that involves more backstage crew members rigging up the actors for stunt maneuvers. “Spider-Man” performances resumed on Thursday night.

Timothy Tierney said his son did not assign any blame for his fall and was not considering a lawsuit. “Chris told me that the word ‘accident’ was invented for a reason, and this was an accident, pure and simple,” Mr. Tierney said. “He’s just chomping at the bit to return to dancing, to go back to ‘Spider-Man.’ He loves this production so much. I haven’t had a chance to see it, but we have tickets for opening night. It looks like Chris will be in the audience with us that night, and we’ll be glad to have him there.”
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Offline serious crayons

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This is becoming like the plot of a horror movie. Black Swan, which I saw last night, is mild in comparison.


Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Concussed Lead Spider-Man Actress Natalie Mendoza (Arachne) Departs the Show
« Reply #37 on: December 28, 2010, 12:16:17 pm »



This is becoming like the plot of a horror movie. Black Swan, which I saw last night, is mild in comparison.



You could be right, Katherine. Yikes.




http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/a-lead-actress-departs-spider-man-turn-off-the-dark/#more-154507





A Lead Actress Departs
‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’

By PATRICK HEALY
December 28, 2010, 8:52 am



Natalie Mendoza with her “Spider-Man”
co-star Reeve Carney.


One of the lead actresses in Broadway’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” Natalie Mendoza, who suffered a concussion during the musical’s first preview performance last month, is leaving the production, according to two people who work on the show and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ms. Mendoza’s representatives and the producers of “Spider-Man” have been hammering out an exit agreement for days now, and an official statement is expected as early as Tuesday, the two people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the producers have forbid public comments given that lawyers and others are still fine-tuning the language to explain Ms. Mendoza’s departure, an artistic loss and embarrassing blow to the production.

Ms. Mendoza’s spokesman, Shea Martin, on Monday declined a request to interview the actress, and also declined to comment on her departure. Ms. Mendoza did not reply to messages sent to her on Monday morning. Her last performance was on Monday, Dec. 20; the production has said that she has been on vocal rest since then, under doctors’ orders. But she was also shaken by a bad accident that occurred mid-performance on Dec. 20 involving her castmate and friend, Christopher Tierney, according to a fellow actor in the musical.

Ms. Mendoza played Arachne, a spider villainess who has a major role in Peter Parker’s becoming Spider-Man and who becomes obsessed with the super-hero. Arachne is a signature creation of the show’s director, Julie Taymor, who said in an interview last month that she conceived of the character several years ago after having a dream about the transformation of a normal teen-age boy into a powerful super-human. Much of the Act II story revolves around Arachne, and Ms. Taymor had collaborated closely with Ms. Mendoza on developing a distinctive look and manner for the character. Arachne delivers the musical’s title number and sings on five other songs, including an Act I turning point, “Rise Above,” and the finale, “Love Me or Kill Me.”

The show marked the Broadway debut for Ms. Mendoza, a 30-year-old film and theater actress and musician who is perhaps known for playing the lead character Juno in the 2005 horror movie “The Descent.” Ms. Mendoza’s understudy, America Olivo, is expected to take the role of Arachne; another actress, T.V. Carpio, performed the part on Thursday night and may well become an alternate.

On Sunday, Ms. Mendoza wrote on her Facebook page that she was grateful to be down to two nausea tablets and four painkillers per day to cope with her concussion. “Thank goodness I had such a brilliant neurologist who made sure I recovered properly,” she wrote. “Nice to be almost back to normal…. almost anyway haha! Thanking God for peace, real friends, love and health and healing.”

Last Tuesday, in the aftermath of the injuries sustained by Mr. Tierney, who fell more than 20 feet after his safety harness became untethered, Ms. Mendoza wrote on Twitter: “Please pray with me for my friend Chris, my superhero who quietly inspires me everyday with his spirit. A light in my heart went dim tonight.” She did not appear in the next performance after the accident, on Thursday night, nor in any of the Christmas weekend shows.

In another recent post on Twitter Ms. Mendoza wrote: “Can feel a trip to India coming on & visiting my magic little orphanage Ramana’s Garden in Rishikesh. Raising funds as we speak. Be the change.” She has not written anything about her departure from “Spider-Man.”

A spokesman for the production, Rick Miramontez, said on Monday night that he could not confirm that Ms. Mendoza was leaving. Michael Cohl, the lead producer of the show, declined an interview request on Monday.

Ms. Mendoza sustained the concussion during the show on Nov. 28 when she was struck in the head by a rope holding a piece of equipment while standing offstage. She was seen by two doctors; one of them, a specialist hired by the production, advised her to take time off to recover, the actress’s spokesman said early this month. But Ms. Mendoza insisted that she be allowed to go on at the next performance, three days later, and the producers and director, who knew about the concussion, allowed her to. Mr. Cohl spoke with the specialist before the performance, and a spokesman for the production said that the specialist said it would not be a major problem for Ms. Mendoza to perform as long as she took it easy.

The role of Arachne involves several flying sequences as well, including one in which Ms. Mendoza is spun upside-down, though they are conducted at a slower speed than those involving the character of Spider-Man himself. By the end of the performance on the night she returned, Ms. Mendoza had a headache and nausea; she then took two weeks off to recover.

Ms. Mendoza is one of four actors who have been hurt working on “Spider-Man” since September; before performances began, one dancer broke his wrists after landing incorrectly during a flying stunt, while another actor injured his feet doing the same stunt. And Mr. Tierney remains at Bellevue Hospital Center recovering from his injuries, which included a hairline fracture in his skull, a broken scapula, a broken bone close to his elbow, four broken ribs, a bruised lung and three fractured vertebrae.

“Spider-Man” recently delayed its opening night by four weeks, until Monday, Feb. 7, to provide more time for its creators — Ms. Taymor and U2’s Bono and the Edge — to make changes in the $65 million show before theater critics review it.

Mr. Cohl cited Ms. Mendoza’s two-week absence from the show, as she recovered from the concussion, as among the factors that contributed to the delay of opening night.
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Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
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Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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“Spiderward”
by Barry Blitt



« Last Edit: January 11, 2011, 02:00:03 pm by Aloysius J. Gleek »
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Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/u2-album-producer-to-work-on-spider-man-music/?ref=theater






U2 Album Producer
To Work On ‘Spider-Man’ Music

By SCOTT HELLER
January 13, 2011, 7:05 pm



Steve Lillywhite, the Grammy-winning record producer who counts U2 as among his most frequent clients, has come aboard “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” the $65-million Broadway musical featuring music by Bono and the Edge, the band’s chief songwriters.

Mr. Lillywhite, who has been at the Foxwoods Theater this week working with the actors on the show’s music, will also produce the original cast album. After an unusually lengthy preview period marked by several delays, the show is due to open February 7.

A spokesman for the show confirmed Mr. Lillywhite’s work with the cast, which was first reported by Deadline.com. Among the U2 albums produced by Mr. Lillywhite are “October,” “War,” and “How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.” He also produced songs on the band’s most recent album, “No Line on the Horizon,” in 2009.

While technical staging issues have preoccupied the “Spider-Man” creative team during previews, and the show’s book has come in for criticism on blogs and in chat rooms, the musical’s score — Bono and Edge’s first venture on Broadway — has not emerged unscathed. Some patrons have remarked about a muddy sound mix as well.
"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"