Monday, February 28, 2011
‘Spider-Man’ Opening May Be Delayed Again
NYTimes.com: "The producers of Broadway’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” are considering delaying the musical’s opening night for a sixth time, people familiar with the deliberations say, to make more changes to the show in hopes of improving its worldwide commercial prospects after theater critics savaged it this month.
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9 comments:
No. Just no.
Guess "The Spidey Project" won't have much difficulty opening before the real show...
So the audience is essentially paying them to watch rehearsals...
I think this probably has taught Broadway about many things. For one, don't allow a batshit crazy director to spend $60M (I'm sure it's way more than that by now). And also, with a show that seems to rely quite a lot on machinery/spectacles (as was the case with The Lord of the Rings), it requires many workshops/revisions/out of town try-outs, etc. And this incident really seems to emphasize the importance of the book to a musical. The Book of Mormon didn't have any full-blown production before starting the previews last week, yet it's already receiving decent reviews on the Internet. Woman on the Verge had a cluttered plotline, and the critics panned the production for it. If Spider-Man had a story that was worth telling, this might have turned out a little differntly...
It seems a bit pompous for the producers to throw money into a party that would essentially celebrate their failure to open, yet again. No matter how they want to spin it, that's what it will be seen as. In addition, they are already spending more money by the day on the additions to fixing the show, whether it is towards new designs, new music, or adding new members to the team. Why throw money away on a party they are just going to throw again when it actually does open? I would be concerned as an investor that the show was throwing parties before it has even opened and yet continues to ask for more money. Or perhaps the heads of Broadway should be concerned that a show is previews is making enough to throw a party. Either way, it seems frivolous and poor PR to throw a gala for this show in the state it's in.
Some of hmiura's comments here may be worth echo'ing. Creating a new work and sticking it right on Broadway with all of the expensive engineering, IA labor, and everything else that goes into making this a 1mil/week run is a bad idea. You can't put a show in that type of environment when it is half baked... That is going to lead to a lot of wasted money while the show is still finding itself. I think this is a perfect example of why shows have such a long development cycle before they hit Broadway. It's simply a waste of money to develop a show while it's in place with all of the bells and whistles.
Okay despite my last comment's lack of seriousness, this has gotten completely out of hand. The project has cost so much money that it would have to run more than 13 years with full houses to make it back, people have been injured, they've been shut down because of safety issues, and delayed their opening so much that there's not even a point in counting anymore. Reviewers have gotten so tired of waiting for an official opening that they just went ahead, reviewed it, and deemed it an awful waste of time and money and an all around bad theatre experience. Why is this show even being treated like a serious production anymore?
Shocker.
There is a point where it is time to look at a piece of work and decide whether or not it is time to stop. It is possible to rework something and make it fantastic, but the term "rework" does not so much apply to Spiderman as "scrap, and do not but if you must, start from scratch" does.
How can there be plans for Spiderman to be released worldwide if it's not at all well-received? It's not even beating a dead horse, it's trying create something out of nothing. It's negative publicity benefits are wearing off. Hearing that it'll be delayed again is not even remotely a surprise. I do think that everyone involved is working very hard, but I don't see how without scrapping nearly anything, Spiderman can even be a good show, much less a long-term financial success. At best I think the Spiderman team needs to bring in other artsts to help rework the show. I don't think anything can save it, but hopefully other artists can help Spiderman have a shot at a run.
Well I think we all saw this coming. I agree with Nicole, I don't really see the point of celebrating thier failure. It is not something that should be rewarded. Not to mention the cost. All the reviews keep saying that it cost 65mil. and 1mil. a week to run, but with all the weeks that the reviewers have been talking it must have cost more than 65mil. by now. They have set a new record for delay that is not a good thing and should not be rewarded with a party which costs more. Thier is no way for them to make thier money back now. Even if the show was a huge hit at this point it would still lose money.
There is good and bad here. The good is the producers clearly understand the show and it is not fixed. The bad is my wife and I are seeing the show next week...so we might not be seeing the real show. I've often been told that a show is never finished it just goes up. It appears that no one told the Producer of Spiderman this. I really hope eventually they get a product that does well, however, I feel that our collective attention span for this show is about used up. By the time they get to a product that everyone will enjoy, no one will care about it.
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