Stage actor Harry Lennix has taken to Huffington Post to write a lengthy screed/defense of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark director Julie Taymor, who was fired from the production a week before the scheduled opening. He decries her “unmerited and unprecedented persecution,” as if she was Jesus, or Hitler, and not a chick who directs musicals.

In my opinion, the producers of Spider-Man have found a convenient whipping girl to bear the brunt of any woes related to the production. They seem to have absolved themselves from accountability for the show’s production while reaping the benefit of the publicity surrounding the absurd decision to jettison the creative visionary behind it. In their minds, the fault couldn’t possibly lie with an untested Broadway producer, or the two all but absent rock star composers whose notoriety is derived from a completely different medium.

The “convenient whipping girl” part might be true, but I might also argue that the root of the problem was the original idea for a $60 million musical about Spider-Man with music by U2. And calling her “the creative visionary behind it” isn’t a great way to absolve her from that. Also, are you really going to criticize someone “whose notoriety is derived from a completely different medium” in a piece about A SPIDER-MAN MUSICAL?

Would a male director receive the lashing Julie has received? If it were a male director with the reputation and accomplishments of Julie Taymor I cannot believe in good conscience that this would happen in this way. Julie’s career is an unqualified success. She is a singular pioneer who deserves to be given as much freedom and support to create as any man with her accomplishments would be given. I marvel at this double standard. We are witnessing a situation where a woman is unceremoniously and illogically dismissed, treated with senseless hostility from her male employers, and nobody speaks in advocacy of her — not even women’s groups. It boggles the mind. [HuffPo]

If there’s one rhetorical strategy that needs to be put to bed, it’s this type of asinine hypothetical.  Here’s how it works: you take someone who’s receiving unquestionably-justified criticism, be it Julie Taymor, Chris Brown, Charlie Sheen, etc., and instead of defending their actions, which you know would be preposterous, you simply turn it around and ask “BUT WOULD WE HOLD A WHITE/BLACK/FEMALE/GAY/STRAIGHT/MAN/WOMAN TO THIS SAME STANDARD?!” and fold your arms as if you’ve just made some profound statement.  The answer, by the way, is almost always “yes.”  There’s no conspiracy.  Yes, Bono deserves to be ripped on for this just as hard (if he hasn’t, it’s only because people get bored with ripping on Bono), and when he does, you won’t see me defending him just because we’re both handsome rock stars.

Director Julie Taymor has left her $65 million Spider-Man musical just a week before the official opening night, so that’s going well.  No word yet on whether she quit or was fired, but she was definitely fired. Sources say that the producers are now considering pushing the official opening back until June, though they’ve already had a record 100, unofficial “preview” shows (which I guess is just code for “don’t complain if it still sucks”).  The delay will no doubt add to the show’s runaway budget, but should be hailed as a relief to the area’s understaffed emergency room doctors, who’ve been swamped with victims of “the spandex plague.”

“Actors are only allowed to rehearse a certain amount of time while performing on Broadway, so if they want to make some serious changes, they’re going to need to shut the show down for a good amount of time,” said NY1’s “On Stage” producer Frank DiLella. “That brings up the issue of money. The show is grossing $1.2 million a week.”
The show costs about $1 million a week to produce.
Sources say with Taymor out, the producers are considering pushing opening night of “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark” back from next Tuesday to sometime in June.

This means the show would not be eligible for any Tony Awards this year.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

“It’s a shame. All that money wasted,” said one New Yorker. “And for U2, with the music.”

“I think the amount of money that’s been spent on this musical is obscene,” said another. “The whole thing is ridiculous. With the number of injuries, it’s just nonsense. Money should be spent feeding the homeless, taking care of the city. It’s a reflection of our culture and it’s an outrage.” [NY1]

Wait, I’m not sure how to feel about this yet, are there any more slack-jawed yokels nearby who you could ask for an opinion?  Maybe a cabbie, or a hot dog vendor?  Oh, local news, don’t ever change. “Eh, oh, I feel bad for da homeless, but especially for dat friggin’ Bono.  Shame on you, Julie Taymor.”

Boy, who would’ve thought a Broadway musical about Spider-Man with music by U2 would turn out to be such a bad idea, huh?

(An artist's rendition of the incident)

We’ve been Peter Panning people across the theater stage for like 200 years now, haven’t we?  I’m pretty sure they had that at the play where Abe Lincoln died.  How do you spend $65 million on a play about Spider-Man and still get that part so wrong?

An actor performing an aerial stunt fell about 30 feet, fire officials said.

Firefighters were called to the Foxwoods Theatre at about 10:45 p.m. Monday after the 31-year-old actor fell near the end of the latest preview performance. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital with minor injuries, police said. Police did not release the actor’s name, but a performer in the show identified him as Christopher Tierney.  A nurse said Tierney was in stable condition, but would not provide details.

Tierney is the show’s main aerialist and performs stunts for the roles of Spider-Man, and the villains Meeks and Kraven.

The cable to Tierney’s harness snapped during a scene in which Spider-Man rescues his love interest, Mary Jane, the performer said. It was unclear if Tierney was properly harnessed when the cable snapped. The performer said the show’s actors are responsible for hooking themselves up to harnesses used for aerial stunts.

Oh sure, the actors hooking up their own harnesses, that’s a good plan.  If a teamster’s truck breaks down on a Zac Efron movie, guess who they don’t call to fix it: Zac Efron.

(there’s more, including video):

Read the rest of this entry »

You might be surprised to hear this, but the $65 million Broadway musical about Spider-man with music by U2 is in the news again, and again sounding not altogether un-disastrous. Just when the actress who played Arachne had finally recovered from her concussion (she got clocked by a rope two weeks ago), the show has been delayed again.

Lead producers have decided again to delay its opening night, now scheduled for Jan. 11, until sometime in February. With preview performances now under way the delay is intended to provide more time for the creators to stage a new final number, make further rewrites to the dialogue and consider adding and cutting scenes and perhaps inserting new music from the composers, U2’s Bono and the Edge.

So basically, rewriting the whole damn thing.  Hmm… (*rubs chin thoughtfully*) …Perhaps you could make it… not a play?

Reflecting the view of some audience members who have criticized the show on blogs, Twitter and Facebook, Ms. Taymor and the producers have concluded that Act II has storytelling problems that need to be fixed. While Act I is a familiar rendition of Peter Parker turning into Spider-Man, Act II is largely the invention of Ms. Taymor and Bono, and includes some major reversals that can be hard to understand in the fast-moving show.

Said one commenter to the show’s Facebook page: FAKE. GAY.  MOAR B00BZ PLZ OR GTFO, KTHXBAI 3===> ~~~ ( o Y o )

Read the rest of this entry »

Most logical people would probably say to themselves, “a $65-million Broadway musical about Spider-man with songs by U2?  That’s a brilliant idea!”.  And yet, surprisingly, things haven’t been going so smoothly for Julie Taymor’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.  The first of the preview shows, originally scheduled for January 2010, then pushed to February, finally happened last night, and just one weekend before December.  Thankfully, everything went off without a hitch.  Haha, just kidding.

- After a two-week delay in performances already this month, which sucked up about $4 million, the producers decided that on Sunday night the show would go on.

- After beginning at 6:54 p.m. — 24 minutes late, mostly because of 1,900 people taking their seats — the show unfolded for 30 minutes with few of the special effects that have been the talk of Broadway this fall.

- At 7:23 p.m., an aerial scene began in Peter Parker’s bedroom to the delight of some audience members — yet it was halted two minutes later with the first of four pauses in Act I, apparently to free the lead actor, Reeve Carney (who plays Peter Parker and is one of those playing Spider-Man), from an aerial harness.

- The fourth and final pause at the end of Act I was the worst glitch of the night by far. Spider-Man had just flown and landed onstage with the musical’s heroine, Mary Jane Watson (played by Jennifer Damiano), in his arms. He was then supposed to zoom off toward the balcony seating area, a few hundred feet away. Instead, a harness and cables lifted Spider-Man several yards up and over the audience, then stopped. A production stage manager, C. Randall White, called for a halt to the show over the sound system, apparently in hopes of fixing and re-doing the stunt.
Crew members, standing on the stage, spent 45 seconds trying to grab Spider-Man by the foot, as the audience laughed and oohed. When they finally caught him, Mr. White announced intermission, and the house lights came on.

$65 million and they can’t get someone to fly around the stage attached to a harness?  (The production budget for Kick-Ass, by comparison, was $30 million).  How much does the circus cost?  I bet it’s a lot less than $65 million, and that sh*t has live elephants.

Read the rest of this entry »