Sunday, January 16, 2011
Troubled Spider-Man musical has new ally: Glenn Beck
The Globe and Mail: "The Spider-Man musical on Broadway has a big-name cheerleader with a big megaphone – Glenn Beck. The conservative commentator has seen the $65 million Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark twice, and he's giving it glowing reviews both on the air and on his Twitter account. “This is better than Wicked!” he raved Wednesday on The Glenn Beck Program, which has an estimated 6 million listeners.
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8 comments:
Its nice to see that someone likes spider-man the musical. even more interseting to me was the fact that a statement was released reasuring the public that Glen Beck was not an investor. His zealous endorcement of the project, coming in a time when no one feels confident about the show, was so unexpected that the public could do nothing but assume that he would in some way benefit financially from the ticket sales for this performance. His opinion came as a shock, and possibly an example of how people will come to feel about Spider-man.
Nic
From everything I've heard about spiderman, it looks like Glenn Beck will be their one and only good review, with the exception of their brainwashed, endangered actors. Yes, Glenn Beck may be giving Spiderman a great review, but lets see it get a good review from someone who actually reviews theater. However I have heard that Spiderman is not just pushing back the release date to postpone reviews, but they are actually making changes to the music. Hopefully those changes will save the show enough to keep it going for five years...
I have sporadically listened to the Glenn Beck Radio Show on and off for the last few years during my evening commute and when I saw this article I thought I would dig a bit deeper. Glenn Beck does EVERYTHING with a political slant and I figured this would be no different. Well. Here it is.
http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/01/12/glenn-is-obsessed-with-spider-man/
Watch the first few minutes of this source material and Mr. Beck opens by asserting the “Global Warming, Anti-Science, Big Government-Secret Message” of this show. This seems a bit of a stretch and more of Glenn Becks ideology, BUT his descriptions of the show entices me to want to see it even more.
I'm with Nick in his surprise that Glenn Beck wasn't financially tied to the show. This is especially because only earlier this week, a story broke about 50 Cent getting an $8 million endorsement deal for tweeting about a penny stock that he owned stock in (and the subsequent "only your financial advisor can help you make the right decisions" disclaimer tweet). Maybe it was how forward he was about his enthusiasm that seemed fishy. At any rate, glad to know somebody likes the show. Hopefully if those changes end up happening, then we can actually see a turnaround in the reviews.
It is great to hear that someone in the press likes Spider-Man. I saw the show over break and I found the show great on the technical aspects of the show. Most of the things that they are doing have never been done on Broadway. Many things have never been done anywhere on a theatrical stage. I agree with Glenn Beck that everyone should go see it at least once in their life maybe even twice to really capture all the production elements besides the storyline. The cost is prohibitive and this may be part of many people’s ability to see Spider-Man. I know that I am going to go back and see it once it opens. The book of the show is not all that good. That is one thing that needs a lot of work before they officially open but I have a feeling that they are not concentrating on that. I hope that this show will be the next Wicked.
The producers of Spiderman must be jumping for joy because of Glenn Beck's comments. This is exactly the type of audience they are trying to get interested in the show - people who do not have a lot of prior knowledge or experience with theatre, and who would probably not go to any other production on Broadway. And I can see why Glenn Beck liked it - apparently the stunts and special effects are amazing, and these are just the things a lot of people value in movies these days. Personally, I enjoy seeing artistic merit and plot development in shows I see, but I am not the target audience. Lucky for the producers Glenn Beck saw their show.
Yes, Spider-man has been panned in the press recently but I never really thought it was about the style or creative content. From most of the articles I read it was more about how poorly the production has been approached and managed which have resulted in major delays and accidents. I do agree that there are "theatre purists" and "ny elites" that often gripe too much about what comes and goes from Broadway, but the truth is Spider-man will bring a different audience to New York which will ultimately affect different places that will receive business from the show. You may hate it, but there are going to be some people who are going to down right love it.
Commonly comments about what some people think come to a surprise and shock for others. wether the person is a critic or not i feel the american people put to much stock in what other people think . grow your own assessment and form your own opinions
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