Sunday, February 06, 2011
‘Spider-Man’ Becomes the Punch Line of Broadway
NYTimes.com: "Joan Rivers gave a suggestion to the director Julie Taymor the other night: “Hire a stunt person to fall on someone every three or four weeks — that’ll keep audiences showing up.”
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6 comments:
I knew that Spider-Man was taking in a lot of money before this, but WOW, $1.3 million a week in ticket sales. It's really fascinating to see how this is becoming a cultural phenomenon far beyond the actual show itself. The interesting question is, what is going to happen to Broadway after the eventual success or failure of this show? Will audience expectations drive producers and directors to put on more expensive and technical spectacles, or will the Broadway market rebound to more conservative productions? My guess is the latter - even if Spider-Man succeeds from here, producers will be dubious of the show's merits, rather seeing the buzz as a fluke. At any rate, we've got about a month and a half to make predictions yet.
Knowing that Spider-Man takes in so much money because of their downfalls (no pun intended) is intriguing. It reminds me of "The producers", you make an awful show and news will get out. Spider- Man is receiving so much publicity due to the injuries making the show even more of a cultural phenomenon. I agree with Brian, although it may succeed and be a hit with audience, producers may be smart and stray away from other productions that can have this many issues. That doesn't mean that producers wont take risks, or create fascinating works, they'll just do it reasonably.
Although comedians like Joan Rivers have been able to employ Spider-Man as a go-to punchline in their routines, there is a lot of truth to Rivers' claim. The show is going to continue to make money as long as people continue to talk about the injuries, and at this point, the conversation may never end. When tourists come in, they are going to want to see the show that everyone around the country is talking about. And regardless of how good the show is, I think you can already call it a success; its starting to bring in the money that it needed and will probably be profitable in the end.
Though I am very bias towards Joan Rivers, I do agree. If Spiderman has some new event every few weeks that makes the news, it'll help to keep it running. Though I do think that these media events about Spiderman can get old, and they already are beginning to, but I think that it can help ticket sales at least for a little while longer.
I can't believe how well it's doing. Though it has a long, long way to go before anyone ever breaks even, sales have been good. Those who have seen the show have mixed reviews, but it's definitely something to see if not just because it is a huge cultural event. Everybody's talking about it.
I completely agree with this article. I don't think spiderman will ever be taken seriously now. It has had far too many injuries and accidents for anyone to focus on the play itself. I was talking to my sister the other day about spiderman. She really hates theatre and going to see a show of almost any kind, but she was telling me she wants to see Spiderman just in case anything else happens. And this is the attitude more and more people have. I don't know many people who want to see it for the acting or because they want to see an amazing show. It's all because of the injuries now. So when comedians and talk show hosts make fun, they have every reason to.
i Agree with Aj. Not that i have ever seen The Producers, spiderman reminds me of the story line. Not that spider-man's a flop... Its nice to see it can still make a little money. I also agree that it'll never be taken seriously, which is a shame. People wont appreciate the art behind the musical. The technology and art put into it is amazing, even for spider-man... (not funny, i know) I liked Joan River's moment of silence joke.
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