U2′s Bono and The Edge star alongside the cast of the play in this new music video for “Rise Above 1″ a big number from Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which is still playing on Broadway. Naturally I had to post it because to me, the idea of U2 writing the music for a play based on Spider-Man is a better satire of theater than even Waiting for Guffman could’ve been, and somehow it’s all real. Yet again, parody can’t touch reality for absurdity.
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 )
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.
Relax, relax, Scarfield is fine. The actor in question was working on Julie Taymor’s $65 million Spider-Man play. A 65-million-dollar play, mother of God. It’s like a steam engine made of unobtainium.
The latest and most painful disaster involves actor Kevin Aubin, who broke both his wrists while demonstrating a botched flying stunt for a small audience last week. Aubin is okay, if in casts. He wrote on Facebook, “well i dont know what im allowed to say. but something went wrong and i fell on my hands from a high distance. It happens, no one to blame. I’m alive and ok.” On the brighter side, the show sounds pretty amazing: Aubin hurt himself while being catapulted, as if by a slingshot, across the stage. According to someone who has seen it, “They are not just flying people around — they’re catapulting them! It’s like they’re being shot out of rubber bands … There are going to be Spider-Men flying all over the theater — right over your head — during the show.” [Vulture]
He broke the wrists in “a fall?” Uh-huh, riiight. Sure, buddy, whatever you say. Look, as soon as I heard U2 was writing songs for a musical about Spider-Man, I knew dismissive-wank-related accidents would be inevitable. Don’t piss on my shoes and tell me it’s flooding.
If you ever wondered what a U2 song about Spider-Man would sound like, wonder no longer, because Reeve Carney, star of the Spider-Man musical with music from U2 and the Edge (screw those other guys, they should be thankful they’re not homeless), went on Good Morning America this morning to sing “Boy Who Falls from the Sky.” Oh, don’t worry, the lyrics are super deep, you guys. This makes “Yellow” look like “Your Body is a Wonderland.”
You can change your mind
but you cannot change your heart.
It’s a compass and a map, and a key to the chart.
You can fly too high, and get too close to the sun
see how the boy falls from the sky
IN THE NAAAAAAAAAME OF WEBS! FLYING HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH ON MY SPIDER WEBS……
At the very least, the drummer has a sweet combover. Meanwhile, director Julie Taymor sat down for a chat and showed off the designs for some of the villains. Here’s Green Goblin:
Looks a little light in the goblin shoes, amirite? I mean, I think I know what he‘s gobblin, and it ain’t green, gnome sayin? (*toilet flush*) (*slide whistle*) (*bike horn*) (*squirts German Shepard with seltzer*). Anyway, I don’t really understand theater. Is this good? I know plays are like movies for poor people, and Broadway is for people who want to spend a lot of money to do something obsolete, so I guess this is… fitting? I don’t know. I’ve tried to weigh the merits of this, but it’s kind of like reviewing the steam engine.
[via ToplessRobot]
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