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NOTE: I’d like to point out that this show is still in PREVIEWS. There is a planned ending for the show.

Well, we were wondering how Spider-Man musical previews were going. Former Marvel editor and DC editor, now writer, Steve Bunche went a few days ago and turns in the most detailed review yet, expressed as only he can. Be forewarned the review includes ALL the major plot points, so spoilers ahoy. However, he and his date were unimpressed but may perhaps be able to tell their grandchildren that they saw something beyond imagining all right. Some excerpts:

When the fifteen-minute intermission happened, Thaytia and I compared opinions and both agreed that the show was rather unimpressive save for the truly spectacular sets, costumes and amazing aerial stunts that required Spider-Man to somersault and land about fifteen feet away from where we were seated in mid-balcony (which afforded an excellent view of all the action on and off stage, except for when the flying and web-swinging combat moved to just below the balcony’s edge).


But then…

Then the lights dimmed and Act Two began, and what followed caused both myself and Thaytia to consider the possibility that, mediocre though it may have been, the first act was at least carefully thought out, but after that the show’s creators must have went off and downed some serious quantities of the highest grade peyote imaginable. And let me be clear: I do not mean that in a good way.


Of one of the second act’s musical numebrs:

It was like some scene that loony film director Ken Russell had left on the cutting room floor during the editing of his balls-out lysergic LISZTOMANIA (1975), and as it played out onstage, Thaytia nearly laughed until she puked, while I sat through the entirety of the number with my mouth hanging open in complete and utter disbelief. I looked around to see how the rest of the audience was reacting to it, and all I saw were stony faces like a multitude of deer caught in the proverbial headlights.


MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more in the link. Read only if you have no intention of ever going — an attitude which Bunche urges is quite sensible.

1 COMMENT

  1. I took notes during the intermission and after the show, over a drink. I’m waiting for Thaytia to write a review from her perspective, but I assure you she was every bit as gobsmacked as I was. I was so wound up by it all that when I got home afterward I immediately hit my keyboard to write the review It took over five hours to pare down my confused ramblings to a coherent form, but I had to get it out of my system, despite only having had an hour of sleep the previous night. Worst of all, I actually dreamed a repeating loop of the “shoe chop” musical number nonsense.

  2. All this talk makes me want to see it… but not in a good way. I want to see it in the way you want to see a horrible train wreck of a film. This thing sounds like it makes Batman & Robin look like a mere Batman Forever.

  3. HI,
    I just saw the show on Saturday night. Act 1 was fantastic. The flying was insane and fun, costumes great, the set amazing, and music great, and the cartoon creatures fabulous. Act 2,,,, not sure what happened. It was boring. The flying was great, but the rest boring. The ending, was odd, it really didn’t end it just stopped.

    On other notes. The dancing is fantastic. Lots of talented kids up there. The young man playing Peter Parker is great, Green Goblin fantastic, we saw Arachine’s understudy, (eh) and MaryJane was only ok, missing something.

    I had read a lot of reviews before we went up to see the show. I went in with Zero expectations, and left happy. I think with a few tweeks it could be the next thing. People have to remember that the show is being told by a group of high school kids, and try to sink to their level a bit. I don’t want to say too much. They just need a few tweeks.