The Stage

The Spider-Man the Musical Saga closed another chapter of its saga last night with a star studded opening -- President Bill Clinton attended, as did Matt Dmon, Cindy Crawford, and of course, composers Bono and the Edge. Even more notably, director Julie Taymor, who got fired three months ago, showed up and took a curtain call. On the red carpet she was repeatedly asked if she missed being a part of this, to which she fired back, “I AM part of this.” At the end of the curtain call, Taymor and Bono even shared a cold, celebratory smooch.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN writer Dan Slott attended the premiere of the NEW, revised, less Arachne Spider-Man musical last night, and he tweeted his review!

A newly family-friendly and sense-making version of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark opens on Broadway tomorrow, and its faithful Boswell, Patrick Healy, has the new storyline for the creators. The new version of of the show, as rejiggered by director Philip William McKinley and writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa includes MORE Green Goblin, MORE Mary Jane, Uncle Ben and Aunt May, FIVE MORE flying sequences, MORE songs, and LESS Arachne. The experience seems to have been an unusually humbling one for the normally egotistic Bono, who co-wrote the songs and shared the blame when it went far off the rails.

Unlike Spiderman: Turn Off The Critics, the BATMAN LIVE - World Arena Tour is a stunt-show, albeit probably one with more plot than the old second act of STOTD. The story is devised by Allan Heinberg, Stan Berkowitz and Alan Burnett, and cast photos from the production -- which kicks off in the UK -- have just been released. There's also a piece from the BBC which suggests this show will include tons of aerial stunts:

While the Spider-Man musical has been struggling along with all the momentum of an elderly man wearing roller skates trying to go up Lombard Hill after it has been covered with lard, another nerd-derived Broadway musical has opened with the fanfare of a million angels playing Handel's Water Music while flying over a burning fireworks factory.

Well, this is sad. T.V. Carpio, who plays the much-dreaded Arachne character, has been on hiatus from the soon-to-be-rebuilt Spider-Nan musical after what some are saying is whiplash:

Was God trying to tell them something?

Someday, we predict, someone will write an opera about the Spider-Man musical, which will be all about immensely talented egos, wasted money and mythic archetypes; it will be the Nixon in China for those days. Seriously, how could you have predicted the scene when fucking BONO would have to step out in front of a theatrical group and take the reins as creative leader, saying they had to move forward without the director he himself had chosen?

Well, it looks like The Beatwill have to see Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark again! Because when it officially opens--in JUNE this time--it could be a different show. The NY Times reports that what everyone was whispering yesterday was true: the opening has been delayed until June, and the production -- the most expensive in Broadway history -- will take a break to try to fix some of the problems, and probably bring in a fixer.

So I finally got to see Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. I use the word "finally" although the show has only been in previews for a couple of months -- still nearly the longest preview run of any show ever. Primarily, I use it because I've been writing about this show for nearly four years. And looking back at my predictions in my very first post about the show, there is indeed a song about Mary Jane's eyes -- so that is one point for me. I also predicted it would be great -- hm, that is maybe one half a point. But NO ONE could have predicted the rest of the saga, from running out of money (after spending $60 million) to people breaking their backs, to Spider-women storming out in fear of their brains being bashed out and a parade of colorful incidents that have already made this one of the most legendary shows in Broadway history.

A new name joins the fabled Spider-Man musical.

BTW, did you know that while the Spider-Man musical has been painfully making its way to a long-delayed opening, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have done what they should have done years ago and created a Broadway musical? The Book of Mormon opens at the end of March. It's a collaboration with Robert Lopez, creator of the cult puppet hit Avenue Q. Parker and Stone wrote the book and the songs, as they did with the South Park movie, TEAM AMERICA, and countless episodes of South Park.

And so far, people actually like it!