NYTimes.com: "History is being made on Broadway this weekend: The $70 million museum piece that is Julie Taymor’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” the most expensive musical of all time, is on display in its final performances through Sunday afternoon, then disassembled out of existence.
Friday, April 15, 2011
‘Spider-Man’ - Julie Taymor’s Vision Takes Its Final Bow
NYTimes.com: "History is being made on Broadway this weekend: The $70 million museum piece that is Julie Taymor’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” the most expensive musical of all time, is on display in its final performances through Sunday afternoon, then disassembled out of existence.
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9 comments:
When I first saw this I thought it was saying that the show was closing for good, which would have been a much more interesting article. I look forward to this overhaul and i'm glad to hear it talked about as one show closing and a new show opening. I hope the changes the new team makes save the show so it's lasting reputation is something other than the ridiculous path it's taken.
YES! I think this show is definitely headed in the right direction and all the cuts that were mentioned are fantastic ideas and they are the specific parts of the show that I hated. Someone is finally making the right decisions on this production so good riddance to Julie Taymor, while she is still responsible for the foundation of the piece I think the creative overhaul might be able to bring something good out of this.
I will be very interested to see how things are settled with Julie Taymor. There's no way that all of her work will be completely gone, and she should be compensated and acknowledged for her work. I wonder if she really was the issue...I just wonder if she would have approved of these cuts or if she was in the way of them happening. While I haven't seen the show, these changes seem like they will be affective. I think the family-friendly idea is especially smart. Disney has proven how much family-friendly Broadway shows can succeed. In terms of the eventual expansion of the show into other cities, think that the idea of bringing Spiderman to Vegas is ridiculous. Most Broadway style shows don't last long there...productions of Hairspray and Spamalot were very short-lived on the Strip, and even Lion King is closing after only a few years. Avenue Q, with its adult themes and comedy, didn't survive either. I don't see why Spiderman would be any different. Jersey Boys has been going for while, and I think that's because its story is tied so closely to Las Vegas, and also because the show is fun, hilarious, and appealing to a wide variety of people. I don't know that Spiderman will have this appeal. People in Las Vegas won't be flooding in to see the show because it was previously a train-wreck. I think that people in Vegas are going to spend their money on Cirque shows and Jersey Boys, not super heroes like Spiderman.
Return of the Jedi opened in theatres in May of 1983. Aside from specials and smaller offshoots, another Star Wars movie would be 16 years off. Rumors abound for years (some internet hubbub started as early as '96; a full three years before Phantom Menace was released). During the year prior to the movie's release, as promotional material began leaking and being released by LucasArts, rumors and fan speculation on what the film itself would contain and be about were all over the map.
Ignoring for the moment a great deal of the monumental disappointment revolving around Phantom Menace, there is simply no way ANY film could have lived up to the hype that surrounded the first feature length Star Wars film in almost two decades. It was doomed to fail, no matter how good it COULD have been.
I see any revamps to Spider-Man in a very similar light. If Stan Lee himself were to play Uncle Ben I don't see how the production will ever pull itself out of debt or the dark fog of its current reputation. People will still see it and I will even give it the benefit of the doubt as to changes improving the show itself, but Spider-Man will ALWAYS have the taint of Julie Taymor's Most Expensive Broadway Failure attached to it. The show (and Miss Taymor's reputation itself) will never really be free from that.
They are really trying to save this show, aren't they. They just keep pushing and pushing and pushing. I don't know, it's great that they are exercising everything taymor from the show, but I still don't see the salvation in sight. I think that it is too late for this show. It's a joke and a waste of the producer's money. Then again, all this "saving" is still letting them sell out the seats every night. I hope someone does another money break down and recuperation prediction. Is it more financially savvy to keep filling the seats and change the show, or to just drop the show completely....in the short term anyway.
I made the same mistake that elize did, and must say i was disappointed to realize that i was not reading an article about that at all. I had not commented on a spider-man article in a while, out of principle? maybe, but i really just got tired of hearing about how this obviously bad, safety issue racked show could suck so much money, and divert fund which should and could be devoted to helping people in need, or producing something with some sort of meaning. alas, but one day this show will disappear....
we hope
I agree with Jackson that the parts they are cutting/changing really are they parts they needed to work on. I feel that these changes happening immediately after the release of Taymor shows that she was the one opposing the changes that everyone else knew the show needed. I didn't like that everyone was defending the work. Yes she is a great artist and her mark on the show can not be erased nor should it be. Taymor gave Spiderman life, but it is the woman that should be praised not the flop. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, just most of our mistakes are not so expensive. I worry to that her reputation is harmed by the show, not because her design or ideas were bad but because she refused to see the reality of what needed to be done. I hope Spiderman succeeds with its new changes because that may soften the blow to her reputation. Then again it may make things worse depending on how the critics write it up. In a way Taymor was to much the artist, and it is sad that she is maligned for it.
What Elize said about one show closing and another one opening is a great way of putting this. While I feel like the new one won't be any better than the old, it's nice to see the production headed in a possibly safer direction for the cast and crew, and a cheaper direction for the producers. The thing that irks me still is that the interest in Spiderman seemed to come from the fact that it was such a trainwreck waiting to happen. Will there still be any interest in seeing it if there aren't any accidents or failures to keep America interested? Or is this actually going to turn out to be an interesting piece of theatre that draws crowds without the promise of near death experiences? Only time will tell. Hopefully this one will open soon enough for us to see what happens!
While I agree that this is a step that definitely needed to take place for the show to succeed for the future, I think people may be a bit too critical. I am well aware that there are major things that are well worth criticizing, but at the same time, Julie Taymor took a chance. A huge chance, that didn't work out as intended, but a chance none the less. It is something new, inventive, creative. It should have been executed better, but how many times do we sit here and complain that there is no one producing new theatre? And yes, this is based off a comic, so it's not really "new", but the ideas she brought into the arena where exciting ideas that haven't been tried. I like how in the article many of the actors are stating that she should be commended for her part in this production. I agree. I think this quote from Ms. Carpio is great, “I’m sure you can always find flaws in things, but the fact is she took that risk and she should be commended for it.”.
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