Category: theatre

“The new Spider-Man is all for fun, a live-on-stage comic book, pure and simple – precisely what the last version wasn’t, and what its team, on hiatus for several weeks of rewrites and rehearsals, reimagined. It will by no means assume a spot in the pantheon of great Broadway musicals, but it’s now far more than a tortured curiosity.”

“After a record 183 preview performances, technical problems that resulted in injuries to a couple of actors, the firing of director Julie Taymor and a major reworking of the script, the troubled musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark debuted officially on Monday night at New York City’s Foxwoods Theatre.”

“Whatever Ms. Taymor may have had in mind, the end product does no more than aspire to being the live-action counterpart of such big-budget comic-book films as Tim Burton’s “Batman” and Warren Beatty’s “Dick Tracy.” The problem is that no stage show, even a multimillion-dollar extravaganza, can offer anything remotely as believable-looking as the digitally generated magic.”

After months of setting theater records, like a $70 million budget and 183 preview performances (compared with the usual 30), “Spider-Man” unfolded flawlessly before a buoyant celebrity audience that included former President Bill Clinton sitting in Row N beside his old friend Bono, of U2, the show’s composer with his band mate the Edge.

“Given the limited amount of fix-‘er-up time, and the depths of incoherence from which this show had to rise, 2.0 is a remarkable achievement for those who have toiled for coherence and a measure of absolution in this dangerously tangled web.”

“For his next act, Mr. Petit, 61, is making his tightrope disappear, at least briefly. In Wireless!, a new one-man show … he will spend 90 minutes with his feet mostly on the ground, discussing and showcasing his other identities: juggler, magician, pickpocket, bullfighter, lock picker, motivational author.”

Many members of the “Spider-Man” team have lately come to Taymor’s defense, including Bono, who called Taymor a “card-carrying genius,” and T.V. Carpio, who plays Arachne and says, “The foundation of what makes the show amazing and magical is what came out of Julie’s head.”

“Broadway had its biggest year ever, setting a box office record that was attributable not just to the usual uptick in ungodly ticket prices but also to a spike in attendance. The Great White Way, once a poor corner of showbiz, is now solidly a billion-dollar business.”

Michael Billington: “Where would Broadway be without the British taxpayer? I ask because it always strikes me as faintly ironic that the most flagrantly commercial theatre district on earth depends heavily on imports from the British subsidised sector.”

Just as the tempest-tossed Spider-Man is set to formally open on Broadway, Zarkana, Cirque’s “own high-flying blend of circus and rock opera,” begins a four-month run at Radio City Music Hall. Both shows feature “a character soaring over the audience, a hard-driving rock score, a villainous spider lady and gravity-defying acrobats.”