This is a Broadway post. I've seen two Broadway shows in the past few days, and I'm here to report back.
First was Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. I was really excited about this musical when I heard about it for the first time years ago. Bono and The Edge, two of my favorite musicians in the world, were writing the music. That made it pretty intriguing to me. I followed the show's creation with excitement, anxiety, and finally frustration as it descended into the trainwreck that it is now. The opening has been postponed numerous times, people have been seriously hurt, and it's turned into a joke, which I don't think is good for Broadway. It's a bad show and it's still getting tons of attention, which bothers me. The script doesn't make any sense. When I saw it, they stopped the show during the Act 1 finale. After awhile they announced that they couldn't complete the flying sequence in that scene so they were skipping it. At one point a prop went flying off the stage and landed in the lap of an audience member in the front row. An empty harness, which was supposed to be holding an actor, flew across the stage. Why are they still having these problems when the show has been playing for four months?? I think that's unacceptable. Now Julie Taymor has been fired and they're trying to rework the show, but I don't know if that's possible or even worthwhile. I refused to pay to see it (Nic got us comps so I went for free) and I can't believe how many people are paying a lot of money to see such a disaster. Maybe someone new can fix it. I don't know. It all just seems like such a waste to me. A huge waste of money, a waste of talent, a waste of time. Read Ben Brantley's New York Times review for a laugh. It's more entertaining than the actual show. Here are some highlights:
"Spider-Man is so grievously broken in every respect that it is beyond repair....Anyway, the whole thing disappoints me. Oh, I have to post this, though. It's funny. I love Kristen Wiig.
The sheer ineptitude of this show, inspired by the Spider-Man comic books, loses its shock value early. After 15 or 20 minutes, the central question you keep asking yourself is likely to change from How can $65 million look so cheap? to How long before I’m out of here?....
Spider-Man is not only the most expensive musical ever to hit Broadway; it may also rank among the worst....
There are lots of flat, cardboardish sets, which could easily be recycled for high school productions of Grease and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying....
Some wear grotesque masks that bring to mind hucksters on sidewalks handing out promotional material for fantasy-theme restaurants....
I get the impression that Arachne, as the ultimate all-controlling artist, is the only character who much interests Ms. Taymor, but that doesn’t mean that she makes sense....
On a much brighter note, last night I saw a wonderful new Broadway play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. It was written by Rajiv Joseph, a young playwright who's been getting a lot of attention lately (his play Gruesome Playground Injuries played off-Broadway this winter, and it was good, though not as good as Bengal Tiger). Robin Williams stars in it, and he gives a fabulous performance as the tiger. He's best known for comedy, but he handles drama really, really well. The play (obviously set in Baghdad) takes an interesting look at the relationship between Iraqis and Americans. It's a drama, but it does have comic moments. It makes you think. It haunts you. I'm so glad I got to see it. I was in the front row, which was awesome. I love seeing dramas from the front row.
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