After much delay, obstacles and snafus, “Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark,” the most expensive show to run on Broadway ($65 million), had its first preview night on Sunday. The hype machine was geared up with news vans lined up along the sidewalk, microwave masts extended — and I was one of the lucky few with a ticket.
I’m not much of a comic book fan, but have traveled the world to see U2 concerts, and since Bono and The Edge had written the music for this stage production — I was interested.
Spidey Talent
Music alone doesn’t make a show, so this had some star power collaboration.
Julie Taymor is the director (Tony award from “Lion King”), Eiko Ishioka designed the costumes (director of costume design for opening ceremony of 2008 Olympics in Beijing), Jaque Paquin rigged the aerials (created “O” for Cirque du Soleil) and Scott Rogers designed the aerials (stunt co-ordinator on “Spiderman” and Jason Bourne movies) — just to name a few of the talents brought together.
Spidey Trouble
The drama to birth the show is a story in itself. As with many entertainment properties, the rights for movies, cartoons, television or theater are varied and complicated when it’s a character that has as long a history as the Spiderman character.
With the “stage rights” acquired over eight years ago, the producers set out toward putting together their dream team for the show. The original producer Tony Adams died in The Edge’s apartment, literally as they were signing the contract to participate.
His producing partner David Garfinkle took over and the show was supposed to open in February of 2010, but ran out of cash. Due to these delays, the actors secured for the lead roles, such as Alan Cumming for the Green Goblin, had to move on to other projects.
Then a new producer was brought in, obtained new investors, put things on track and targeted the lucrative holiday period for previews and an opening with tickets finally being sold to the public.
That’s when the technical challenges threw a monkey wrench into the mix since the NY State Dept of Labor must inspect a show before it’s performed to the public, and the elaborate aerials led to delays. Tickets sold to the public were cancelled. Doom and gloom started to appear in press accounts.
Ultimately the government agency approval came without modification (other than a notice that is required to be read to the audience before each performance), and the show was a go.
Thankfully, those such as myself, who had purchased tickets for the first preview performance, were allowed to shift their seat to the “new” night for the first preview performance.
A very full recount of these trials and tribulations can be found here.
Spidey Delivers?
It isn’t fair to judge a show by it’s first preview night.
On my way into NYC, 1010-WINS was reporting that they had yet to do a full rehearsal. Having done community theater, I knew the difference between rehearsing a scene and “dress rehearsal”, and looked forward to an interesting evening of witnessing the creative process. I wasn’t disappointed in that regard.
The show was to begin at 6:30 p.m., but started 24 minutes late. The show stopped five times due to technical issues, most notably when Spiderman got stuck about 10 feet above the audience just before the intermission.
After several attempts, the technicians were able to retrieve him to the stage.
To be fair, the flying sequences are out of this world. This is not your parent’s Peter Pan or Mary Poppins. There is a battle scene over your heads where Spiderman and the Green Goblin fly over, around and even through the ropes of one another, from the very back of the stage all the way to the top balcony and throughout the theater reaching box areas left and right.
The scenery is like a pop-up book with notable moments where the Chrysler Building projects toward the audience and you are looking upstage toward the cars on the street “below.”
Costumes are cartoonish, as should be expected, with the standout character being newly developed for the show called “Swiss Miss”. There are LED curtains allowing video montages, light projections, elevated platforms — really quite elaborate in every technical respect.
Spidey Sings!
I came for the songs, and was frankly a bit disappointed. Bono and The Edge have written music that others have performed (Tina Turner recorded “Golden Eye” theme song for James Bond movie), and have worked in the comic book realm (“Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” — for a Batman movie), but they are not Rogers and Hammerstein.
Writing songs for a character that fit a specific story telling is a different normal for this principal songwriting team that usually tackles big theme topics in their music and lyrics of U2.
Previous to the performance, I had heard “Boy Falls From the Sky” performed by the lead singer Reeve Carney as a promo on Good Morning America, as well as by U2 while currently on tour. “Rise Above” is a notable song by the character Arachne, performed by Natalie Mendoza. Also memorable is “Walk Away” in the second act by the character Peter Parker, performed by Reeve Carney.
The CBS show “60 Minutes” broadcast a segment regarding Spiderman on the same night as this preview performance. A very illustrative video to the creative process behind songwriting is shown on a web-only presentation on the CBS website.
Spidey Progresses
Don’t expect to see the familiar movie story line repeated on stage.
This is not a re-telling of what most know as familiar through the movies and books. It draws on Roman mythology Athena as the Goddess of Wisdom and War, with themes of mortality and power. It was a bit jumbled in the story telling, but these are the things that tighten up through preview performances.
The technical issues continued throughout, and intermission went on nearly an hour as items seemed to be addressed backstage. There was another stop in the show during Act 2, so apparently not all the kinks were straightened. The show finally ended at quarter after ten.
In the theater, it is not normal to have reviews until after opening night, and this is simply previews. It is certainly not fair to project what I saw into what will become a tight package that will be repeated nightly in the future.
No matter the final opinion: it is elaborate, it is entertaining, it is artistic. I witnessed a special treat to see the creative process at work. The showbiz adage “the show must go on” certainly applies for this production, but like a Spiderman toy gift at Christmas, I would say that some assembly is still required.
Spidey Tweets
Postscript: A final note regarding rendering a “review” during previews.
In the modern world of social networks and instant communication, every patron is a critic with equal ability to broadcast their opinion. By the time I arrived home, the NY Times already had quoted some fellow U2 fans I had been tweeting with at the show, and today I was interviewed with the Wall Street Journal as result of those tweets. The world is a stage with everyone listening to the collective opinion.
I must hold back overall judgment until Spiderman reaches final assembly.
The writer is a Shelton resident.
