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Playbill.com: Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, the multi-million dollar musical adaptation of the Marvel comic book series that features a score by Bono and The Edge, will end its Broadway run in January 2014.
Sorry to offend anyone who may have loved this show, but I am happy to hear it is finally closing. To produce a show that is this big is an amazing challenge, but to see that they are $60,000,000 in debt seems like someone would say, "I think it's time to give up..." and I am glad they did. I think it would have been much more detrimental for these producers to have attempted to continue this show on Broadway and to have suffered more extreme losses. I have heard that this show will remount in Las Vegas after it closes on Broadway. I believe that this is a much stronger choice of location, where as Las Vegas seems to be much flashier of a location. I wish the show all of the possible success in Las Vegas if this is to happen!
I worked on this show the summer that I interned with PRG: Scenic Technologies just outside NYC and again the following winter when I returned as an overhire carp. It was an incredible production and and technically spectacular regardless of the issues and unfortunate accidents that occurred. I'm very interested to see what the reportedly "leaner" version of Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark will include. What I read in another article suggested that the producers also plan to tour the shows in arena venues and eventually Germany and parts of Europe, but I can only imagine how they'll change the show to make that possible.
I had read an article once that said the show had to run and sell out for every performance for at least ten years to break even. So my guess is that the show was not able to do that since it is closing, 75 million dollars and four years later. I am 100% sure that this show will make a good amount of money in Vegas and like Joe said, I am interested to hear about the changes that will happen to the production. I would imagine that it is an interesting challenge to move such a show, knowing all the mistakes that were made in New York.
Oh, Spider Man. I'm a bit disappointed that we won't be hearing of your mishaps any longer. One of my friends from high school attending the first preview of the show a few years ago. He told me the show was stopped numerous times. At least they've now gotten to a point where they don't have to call a hold every twenty minutes. I think Vegas will be a much better choice of location, as if the money is there they can modify the theater to their hearts content, most likely with a hefty investment from the hosting casino.
I hope no one is surprised by this...I certainly am not. The show exceeded its entire budget in lawsuits alone, and then all the injuries....no surprise. Also artistically, from what I hear, it wasn't too stunning either, so it's not like anyone is going to particularly miss it. Without this show, I think everyone involved will be safer both physically and financially...the show has become a bit of a running joke.
Thank goodness. No offence to anyone who like this musical, but I am happy to hear that it is closing. I mean for years we've been hearing how much money has been put into this production and how many bumps they have hit along the way. I think that it is good that someone finally decided to call it quits. I know that it is going to Vegas, but I wonder how it will even fare there. I mean, the only reason I would consider seeing it was to see how bad it was or if the ticket was free. I wonder if this production will ever make back it's investment.
I love big fancy high tech musicals, but i think this show demonstrates two things. First, Audiences love tech. They love coming to see high tech spectacles and I think thats why this show was able to stay alive as long as it was. However,it also shows that high tech is not enough to sustain a musical in the long run. It has to also have a good story, music, and design. And in my opinion spiderman had none of these three. I am very interested to see how they transform this show into a las vegas show, and any possibilities for a touring production, which i find kind of unlikely because they had to do so much structural alterations to the theatre itself.
I love big fancy high tech musicals, but i think this show demonstrates two things. First, Audiences love tech. They love coming to see high tech spectacles and I think thats why this show was able to stay alive as long as it was. However,it also shows that high tech is not enough to sustain a musical in the long run. It has to also have a good story, music, and design. And in my opinion spiderman had none of these three. I am very interested to see how they transform this show into a las vegas show, and any possibilities for a touring production, which i find kind of unlikely because they had to do so much structural alterations to the theatre itself.
Thank god this show is finally getting off broadway. The concept of capitalizing on a pop culture icon after three movies had already saturated the market was inherently flawed. These producers really thought that the spectacle of the high technology would be their pay day but it ended up causing nothing but problems. Every element of the show was over budget and did not perform as advertised. This show should be used as a course of study in what not to do as a producer. Nothing was done right and there were too many individual egos in the production staff and the whole production suffered.
Ugh. It's about time. This show has popped up on this blog far too many times because of injuries or near-injuries. I saw this show, and I admit, I thought it was great. I mean... The music was horrendous. like, beyond lame, but as far a design goes, I thought it very effectively created a stylized comic book world. The set and costumes were dynamic and larger than life, and I'm always a sucker for some death defying acrobatics. HOWEVER, if those acrobatics are not being safely handled and there are MULTIPLE injuries in the show, something has to go. In this case, it's the show itself. Vegas, good luck. You don't know what you're in for...
As with most of the theatre world, I have always kept an ear to the ground on this production, as perhaps one of the greatest atrocities of the modern age. If Lion King was Julie Taymor’s premiere success, Spider-Man was her premiere failure. Several years ago, I had the fortunate opportunity to hear lectures given at the Live Design Institute Broadway week given by several of the designers. In short, it was a management nightmare. They became damned from the beginning, inspired to create something brilliant. Unfortunately, their attempted formula for doing so was to put a whole bunch of brilliant people in a room together with oodles and oodles of money, and what else could possibly happen but brilliance? What ended up happening is content creation and execution occurring simultaneously on a production that was literally thousands of dollars a day to keep running. As the black-hole of money and frustration continued, eventually there was a push to open to begin to recoup. From the very beginning, the story is weak, which ultimately makes it little more than a tech-savy spectacle. All things considered, it makes sense from a production standpoint (all the creative work is done, why not remount it in Vegas). However, as a tech-spectacle, it will be easily overshadowed in Vegas. I find that sometimes you just need to know when to cut your losses and call it a day.
Its really disappointing to hear that spiderman is closing, seeing as it is such a technical marvel. Like many others have said I'm sure this is for the best seeing as they are in so much debt. It will certainly be interesting to see if it does well if it really does move to Vegas. I understand that Vegas is all about flashy entertainment with little content, but I wouldn't be surprised if Spiderman does not do well there either. I think Spiderman caters to a younger audience given its content, and considering Vegas is mostly adults drinking, I wonder how many people would actually take the time to see it.
I guess I'll have to see it when it moves to somewhere else. Now they need to create a recovery plan of how they will regain some money. I guess they could achieve that in Vegas, but I'm not even sure if Vegas alone is the answer. Can they only go to Vegas and do shows and dig themselves out of their large debt? Will they even be able to tour? Will they be willing to adapt the show for a tour?
I heard that it was closing a few weeks ago, and I think that I might be seeing it over winter break. I'm not sure if I had any interest in seeing it before I found out that it was closing, but now that it's closing I think I want to. A friend who saw it once described it to me as a show that is great for a deaf person because it is fantastic to watch, but it's not great to listen to. If I can see it though, I would be really excited to see the technical direction, which I hear is fantastic for the show. It's sad that it's closing, and I'm sure that they lost a ton of money on it. Oh well. That's Broadway. I am a Seagull. That's that.
Oh no.. quite the national tragedy. At least we won't have to hear about the latest Spiderman mishaps anymore I suppose. I'm sure that Spiderman was a fine production and obviously has unparalleled production value, but it just seems like such a troubled show. I for one will not be sad to see its "historic" Broadway run end.
Well I guess it's about time... I feel like you only hear bad things about that musical. I personally didn't see it, but I saw a bit online, and I wasn't really impressed with the musical aspect of it. However, this does sound like a good show for Vegas, being more flashy and "fun". I really hope they don't do more musicals like Spider Man. It's bad enough that the movie industries is all about franchises nowadays, does Broadway have to fall into that trap too?chayc
16 comments:
Sorry to offend anyone who may have loved this show, but I am happy to hear it is finally closing. To produce a show that is this big is an amazing challenge, but to see that they are $60,000,000 in debt seems like someone would say, "I think it's time to give up..." and I am glad they did. I think it would have been much more detrimental for these producers to have attempted to continue this show on Broadway and to have suffered more extreme losses. I have heard that this show will remount in Las Vegas after it closes on Broadway. I believe that this is a much stronger choice of location, where as Las Vegas seems to be much flashier of a location. I wish the show all of the possible success in Las Vegas if this is to happen!
I worked on this show the summer that I interned with PRG: Scenic Technologies just outside NYC and again the following winter when I returned as an overhire carp. It was an incredible production and and technically spectacular regardless of the issues and unfortunate accidents that occurred. I'm very interested to see what the reportedly "leaner" version of Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark will include. What I read in another article suggested that the producers also plan to tour the shows in arena venues and eventually Germany and parts of Europe, but I can only imagine how they'll change the show to make that possible.
I had read an article once that said the show had to run and sell out for every performance for at least ten years to break even. So my guess is that the show was not able to do that since it is closing, 75 million dollars and four years later. I am 100% sure that this show will make a good amount of money in Vegas and like Joe said, I am interested to hear about the changes that will happen to the production. I would imagine that it is an interesting challenge to move such a show, knowing all the mistakes that were made in New York.
Oh, Spider Man. I'm a bit disappointed that we won't be hearing of your mishaps any longer. One of my friends from high school attending the first preview of the show a few years ago. He told me the show was stopped numerous times. At least they've now gotten to a point where they don't have to call a hold every twenty minutes. I think Vegas will be a much better choice of location, as if the money is there they can modify the theater to their hearts content, most likely with a hefty investment from the hosting casino.
I hope no one is surprised by this...I certainly am not. The show exceeded its entire budget in lawsuits alone, and then all the injuries....no surprise. Also artistically, from what I hear, it wasn't too stunning either, so it's not like anyone is going to particularly miss it. Without this show, I think everyone involved will be safer both physically and financially...the show has become a bit of a running joke.
Thank goodness. No offence to anyone who like this musical, but I am happy to hear that it is closing. I mean for years we've been hearing how much money has been put into this production and how many bumps they have hit along the way. I think that it is good that someone finally decided to call it quits. I know that it is going to Vegas, but I wonder how it will even fare there. I mean, the only reason I would consider seeing it was to see how bad it was or if the ticket was free. I wonder if this production will ever make back it's investment.
I love big fancy high tech musicals, but i think this show demonstrates two things. First, Audiences love tech. They love coming to see high tech spectacles and I think thats why this show was able to stay alive as long as it was. However,it also shows that high tech is not enough to sustain a musical in the long run. It has to also have a good story, music, and design. And in my opinion spiderman had none of these three. I am very interested to see how they transform this show into a las vegas show, and any possibilities for a touring production, which i find kind of unlikely because they had to do so much structural alterations to the theatre itself.
I love big fancy high tech musicals, but i think this show demonstrates two things. First, Audiences love tech. They love coming to see high tech spectacles and I think thats why this show was able to stay alive as long as it was. However,it also shows that high tech is not enough to sustain a musical in the long run. It has to also have a good story, music, and design. And in my opinion spiderman had none of these three. I am very interested to see how they transform this show into a las vegas show, and any possibilities for a touring production, which i find kind of unlikely because they had to do so much structural alterations to the theatre itself.
Thank god this show is finally getting off broadway. The concept of capitalizing on a pop culture icon after three movies had already saturated the market was inherently flawed. These producers really thought that the spectacle of the high technology would be their pay day but it ended up causing nothing but problems. Every element of the show was over budget and did not perform as advertised. This show should be used as a course of study in what not to do as a producer. Nothing was done right and there were too many individual egos in the production staff and the whole production suffered.
Ugh. It's about time. This show has popped up on this blog far too many times because of injuries or near-injuries. I saw this show, and I admit, I thought it was great. I mean... The music was horrendous. like, beyond lame, but as far a design goes, I thought it very effectively created a stylized comic book world. The set and costumes were dynamic and larger than life, and I'm always a sucker for some death defying acrobatics. HOWEVER, if those acrobatics are not being safely handled and there are MULTIPLE injuries in the show, something has to go. In this case, it's the show itself. Vegas, good luck. You don't know what you're in for...
As with most of the theatre world, I have always kept an ear to the ground on this production, as perhaps one of the greatest atrocities of the modern age. If Lion King was Julie Taymor’s premiere success, Spider-Man was her premiere failure. Several years ago, I had the fortunate opportunity to hear lectures given at the Live Design Institute Broadway week given by several of the designers. In short, it was a management nightmare. They became damned from the beginning, inspired to create something brilliant. Unfortunately, their attempted formula for doing so was to put a whole bunch of brilliant people in a room together with oodles and oodles of money, and what else could possibly happen but brilliance? What ended up happening is content creation and execution occurring simultaneously on a production that was literally thousands of dollars a day to keep running. As the black-hole of money and frustration continued, eventually there was a push to open to begin to recoup. From the very beginning, the story is weak, which ultimately makes it little more than a tech-savy spectacle. All things considered, it makes sense from a production standpoint (all the creative work is done, why not remount it in Vegas). However, as a tech-spectacle, it will be easily overshadowed in Vegas. I find that sometimes you just need to know when to cut your losses and call it a day.
Its really disappointing to hear that spiderman is closing, seeing as it is such a technical marvel. Like many others have said I'm sure this is for the best seeing as they are in so much debt. It will certainly be interesting to see if it does well if it really does move to Vegas. I understand that Vegas is all about flashy entertainment with little content, but I wouldn't be surprised if Spiderman does not do well there either. I think Spiderman caters to a younger audience given its content, and considering Vegas is mostly adults drinking, I wonder how many people would actually take the time to see it.
I guess I'll have to see it when it moves to somewhere else. Now they need to create a recovery plan of how they will regain some money. I guess they could achieve that in Vegas, but I'm not even sure if Vegas alone is the answer. Can they only go to Vegas and do shows and dig themselves out of their large debt? Will they even be able to tour? Will they be willing to adapt the show for a tour?
I heard that it was closing a few weeks ago, and I think that I might be seeing it over winter break. I'm not sure if I had any interest in seeing it before I found out that it was closing, but now that it's closing I think I want to. A friend who saw it once described it to me as a show that is great for a deaf person because it is fantastic to watch, but it's not great to listen to. If I can see it though, I would be really excited to see the technical direction, which I hear is fantastic for the show. It's sad that it's closing, and I'm sure that they lost a ton of money on it. Oh well. That's Broadway. I am a Seagull. That's that.
Oh no.. quite the national tragedy. At least we won't have to hear about the latest Spiderman mishaps anymore I suppose. I'm sure that Spiderman was a fine production and obviously has unparalleled production value, but it just seems like such a troubled show. I for one will not be sad to see its "historic" Broadway run end.
Well I guess it's about time...
I feel like you only hear bad things about that musical.
I personally didn't see it, but I saw a bit online, and I wasn't really impressed with the musical aspect of it.
However, this does sound like a good show for Vegas, being more flashy and "fun".
I really hope they don't do more musicals like Spider Man. It's bad enough that the movie industries is all about franchises nowadays, does Broadway have to fall into that trap too?chayc
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