Menu

God Help Me, I Can’t Stop Talking About the Spider-Man Musical


Friends, nerds, countrymen — I come here not to rag on Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, but to… well, not praise it, exactly, but show off a minute of actual behind-the-scenes footage that doesn’t make the musical look like the worst thing ever. Yes, it features U2’s music and people gadding about, but the music is only instrumental in this video, and removing the lyrics cuts down U2’s douche quotient by 92%, and as regards the gadding and prancing about, it’s musical theater. That’s what people do.

So since the video is an actual behind-the-scenes, unlike our last look, and because this might be the one time I don’t have anything negative to say, I figured I’d go ahead and show it. Thanks to Eric J for the tip.

…and then I’d make a simple list of facts as related in this article on the musical and Julie Taymor from New York magazine.

? The portal above the stage where characters drop down has been dubbed “the asshole.”
? As of 12 days before the first preview (on November 29th), there’s a giant web effect that doesn’t work. The effect has already been totally altered once.
? “In 2005, after wrangling the complicated contracts for three years, [original producer Dadvid]Adams
dropped dead of a stroke in the Edge’s New York apartment just as the
guitarist was getting his pen to sign.”
? When Adams died, his business partner David Garfinkle, a lawyer with zero producing experience, became producer.
? The musical’s budget will total $70 million; apparently Garfinkle managed to squander a third of that in the show’s early years of non-production.
? Bono calls director Julie Taymor a “sha-woman.” As in shaman.
? I think I’ve actually mentioned this before, but there will be a chorus of comic book fans commenting on the entire musical, Greek chorus-style. Of course, they are called “the geek chorus.”
? In her early 20s, Taymor once nearly fell into an active volcano.

Seriously, there is nothing I can say that will make any of this thing more insane.