Is a cluster f@#! of both good and bad.
As I was on the train last night, heading to Rockwood music hall to see two great music performers, my buddy Benny call me. He told me that he had bought a few rush tickets to see Spiderman Turn Off The Dark! I have to admit, as a HUGE comic book fan, my curiosity was peeked.
As I entered the theater people were already making jokes about people
falling and slamming in to the walls. The woman next to me said
jokingly that she was glad to be on the side, just under the balcony.
I told her that hard hats were available at the consessions stands for
1000 dollars each! Even I was joining the hilarity of the moment.
As the show began, I noticed that the opening stunt was altered, so
that Spiderman would no longer jump off the bridge after Marry Jane.
(This of course was the stunt that Christopher Tierney fell 30 feet in to the pit on, breaking his back.) Right away I could see that the stunts were going to be done slowly and safely. Even the producer came out before the show and said
that the Dep. of Labor had given the show and thumbs up. Whew!
What followed was what I can only describe as a cluster f@*! of ideas,
good and bad. An awful phoned in score by U2. And very poor story
telling.
Let’s begin, shall we? First of all, the sets were
amazing! Yet, there were some smaller set pieces, like the school, which
looked very poorly planned out and almost stockish-ly painted. The
first number “Bulling by Numbers” is serviceable and the only song I
can kind of remember.( Besides the Spiderman guitar riff heard every
three minutes in the show. Especially when someone was about to fly over head.)
We meet Peter as he is getting thrashed by the bully for writing MJ’s
initials on his homework. As he walks MJ home, we get to see each of
their family’s lives. Mj’s abusive dad, and of course Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Ben and May come across as mean spirited and cruel. As does Peter, coming across like a bratty kid in this mirror image number. I have to say, I was more interested in Mj’s story at this point than the title characters. This is due to the great performance of Jennifer Damiano and Jeb Brown.
As we meet Oswald/ The Green Goblin, played by Patrick Page, he is dressed in silver tin foil and for no reason at all has Colonel Sanders accent. (I wonder if that was his choice or he was directed that way?) Either way, he didn’t seem like a passionate Doctor of medical science but more of a crazy buffoon. His opening dialogue and his song (which he spoke sang) was both non-plot motivated (like all the songs in the show) and badly written. What followed next was a mess. Followed by an impressive act one closing Arial battle.
As the curtain went down, I heard several people comment about this being the worst show they’ve ever seen.
Now time for a slightly better act 2.
Now, at the top of the show they made a point of introducing this arachnid queen type character, which could have been an interesting plot line if only it were more thought out. The premises of this character revealed a story about a princess or something or other, who spun silk and thought her spinning of silk was better than that of the goddess Aphrodite. So the gods punished her and turned her in to a spider and stuck her in Oblivion. (What is Taymor’s thing with adding Greek mythology in EVERYTHING she does anyway?) She’s also the one who gives Spiderman his costume as a present of her love during the show. (Because, clearly “teenage boys can’t sew!” {Roll of the eyes.} )
So then this Greek spider queen begins to haunt his dreams and wants him to leave the human world and be with her forever. Not a bad story line for a comic book musical. But it gets stupider and more implausable from there on in.
I’ll stop here because, one, I don’t want to give anything away and two, there is far too much crammed in to this show, that just simply can’t be sum upped by one blog. But I will say the super villain fashion show and the number about shoes HAS TO GO!!! These numbers are awful, tacky, and make NO SENCE what so ever! (The second act has some really nice moments between Peter and MJ that I really liked.)
The score leaves much to be desired. Let this be a reminder of why not all rock groups should write musicals. I would have been interested to hear Duncan Sheik’s take on this score. Or even that of Tom Kitt. The score, except for the spidey riff theme, is completely forgettable. And having two members of Carney’s band on stage the entire time is unnecessary, distracting, and talking up valuable space on the stage.
Another thing that annoyed me, is the four kids who narrate the story. Their dialoged is stale and bad! As is their acting! There’s no reason for them to be in the story and no explanation as to why they know who Peter Parker really is. It becomes too much like a children’s theater show having this kind of narrative. It would seem they’re only really purpose is to intro the Spider queen character at the top of the show. I would have settled for comic word boxes projected on to the back wall and a voice over to explain her back story.
Spiderman Turn Off The Dark suffers from too many ideas shoved in to one show
(kind of like the third movie) and too many technical aspects happening
at once, and not enough storytelling and heart.
The reason people identify with these stories is not because of all the spectacle
and action, but rather because these stories are about real people
dealing with real relatable issues! Even though they are hightened by
improbable or imposable odds, they are still about “the human condition”. (In Stan Lee’s Words) 🙂
Miss Taymor has forgotten the most basic rule of theater and that is simply to TELL THE STORY! And for that I am very disappointed her.
Spiderman Turn Off The Dark has some good moments and amazing aerial work, but a bad score and bad story telling out weigh the good in this musical. Let’s hope they can fix this mess before opening night. But in my opinion, this doubtful.
What follows is our honest reaction to having just seen the show.
themanabouttown 