• Lol, awesome. All the rage over this makes me want to enjoy it, but alas, I cannot. Swiss Miss actually looks pretty badass though. If only she wasn't being introduced in this travesty of stage and page, and with such a cheesy name...

• The question remains: will it be Smallville bad or Birds of Prey bad? (Or is that too optimistic?)

• You mean making a business out of appealing to charity didn't tip you off? The man's like a televangelist. Only in this case, he jerks the chain of idealistic college students who think they're doing good by going to one of his concerts, much in the same way they do when they pick up 'Ethos' water at Starbucks. I'm not saying they're not a little stupid for being milked by a corporation that only forwards a little to a good cause but...it makes you wonder how the bilkers live with themselves. The current appeal to the nerdly among us is no different, except that it's failing spectacularly.

• Yes, but Bollywood would also manage to make it crazy-awesome. This? Not as such.

• That's a well-known Japanese holiday where the men congregate on the dance floor and pogo while another thrusts rhythmically at a camera and chants the mantra 'Spiderman'. Shame on you for not knowing that.

• Don't say that. I want that crazy old bastard to live forever.

• I've said it before: **Chartreuse Goblin**

• "Biff! Bam! Flop! Expensive disasters aren't just for kids anymore!"

• I'm pretty sure I saw that Carnage as a bootleg action figure at a flea market I used to go to every weekend.

• Motherfucker. Being a Broadway, and, well, nerd in general.... I feel like my soul's been kicked in the balls.

• Yeah, these are fashion dresses straight off the runway, borrowed for the shoot, not costumes. http://tomandlorenzo2.blogspot.com/2010/11/vogue-spider-man-turn-off-dark.html

• Spiderformers: Turn off the Dark of the Moon

• Please turn the dark back on, for the love of god, TURN IT BACK ON!

• I was watching the original spiderman cartoon the other day and i was struck by how much cooler the original goblin costume was compared to the movies. But this is a whole other level of suck. The irony is that the original goblin costume would translate really well to the theater.

• Annie Leibovitz, one of the most over-rated photographers of the modern age...

• From the Vogue article: Bono: "It's a rock score, but in the way that Sgt. Pepper is a rock album."" Ok, I haven't liked U2 for years. Many years. But I never thought that Bono was *that* conceited. Sheesh.

• Remember a few Spider-man musical threads back, and some anonymous poster mentioned "the artistry behind it"? BWA-HAHAHAHA! BTW, I love Carnage's huuuge head and googly eyes. There's just so much....artistry.

• Lady's and Gentleman, There's only one thing we need to do. Lets start a fund to send Michael Nelson, Bill Corbet and Kevin Murphy and by as many seats around them as possible.

• These are like bad perfume ad's in "Cosmopolitan"

• I noticed that immediately. I know on some level, that should wound me but I'm already numb inside.

• MY EYES! ZE GOGGLES DO NUH-ZING! God, this makes me wonder what they'd do with other villains. Mysterio's already pretty gaudy. Here he'd probably be invisible because it would be so terrible, your brain would refuse to process the image as some sort of safety mechanism.

• Say! That's a tad preemptive, there old chum! Stan Lee is still alive & shilling.

• I can't be the first one to post this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2p02DfyzCE

• So this is the other side of the anti-drug Spiderman issue?

• nono - then we'd have to see all this in godforsaken daylight. I don't think my retinas can take that.

• SECONDED. WTF is that?!?!?! *eyes her box of Pocky certain someone sprinkled mescaline on it*

• Oh god, I completely hadn't thought about the parade! If they actually do go through with a scene (most likely after a tie-in with the Spidey balloon), that means that countless throngs of people across the country could possibly be front and center to this insanity! But despite all of this, do you know the absolute worst part? Hearing the horribly shitty puns that will lead in,and follow, this portion of the broadcast. Anybody want to throw in a few bucks to start a bar called Mephisto's? I'm already ready to drink away this weirdness; might as well make a few bucks and meet a few Robot-teers in the process.

• As somebody who is fairly nerdy (Spiderman was never my favorite but I'm familiar enough) and has been involved and working on costume design for theater for awhile I just...don't like these costumes at all. It seems to me they're trying too hard to be high concept and and strayed too far from the source material to the point where (as we can see) it's just disconnected from fans who would be the biggest market to go pay and see something like this. Yes theater costuming, especially something like broadway, needs to be exaggerated so people can see you and the fact a show like this a bit fantastical, and variation is nice but you do have to keep a balance. Spiderman is the only one I would get from looking at it off the bat that it is indeed him. (and green goblin because he's green but that shouldn't be it.) Costumes are also supposed to give you more depth and description of the character that dialogue and action don't and I don't know what the hell these costumes are telling me. The whole production seems a bit of a jumbled mess.

• it was a good thing that i did not look at the photos after going on a double giant pixie stix binge......

• It looks more Bollywood than Broadway.

• Really? She took these pictures? ...well she does do a bunch of crazy shit so I guess that's to be expected, but my god the photoshop is horrible! Its just so tacky! Its like some horrible foreshadowing of the show! ...oh wait...

• Take a look at the seats in the first picture to see how many people did pay to see it.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNEsWIWR5fw

• I was saying Boo-urns...

• NO!!! All Spider-Man problems MUST be solved by Satan! Its a Marvel Mandate!

• Actually, MJ's dresses were just borrowed for the shoot. Plus, we don't see any of the real set in these pictures. So, it will look at least a little bit different.

• It's all the girl, Jennifer Damiano, who plays Mary Jane. Looks to me like she doesn't have the red hair yet, so they digitally colored it in the first picture and ignored the rest.

• Because it hasn't been said (and it NEEDS to be said)... what is this i don't even o.o Seriously, those are AWFUL. Just... who thought these would be a good idea? A street-level hero like Spidey going up against the freakin' Cirque du Soleil? Just... ow... my childhood...

• This makes me feel exactly like how Howard Stern did about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Hour_(talk_show)">The Magic Hour</a>. We HAVE to see this disaster before it gets taken off to the dump. (Speaking of which, when the powers that be do turn off the dark on this debacle, I call dibs on the Carnage costume...)

• I was just thinking this same thing. I don't intend to overgeneralize, and I'm just going from experience here, but I don't know, from my personal experience, a lot of nerds who enjoy Broadway and, vice versa, a lot of Broadway/musical fans who enjoy comic books. I know there are people out there who's interests do fall into both categories (myself being one of them), but I can't imagine that pool of people being large enough for this to even be remotely successful. Also, any of the above mentioned people can't possibly love Bono. Because Bono is awful.

• Are you saying BOO or BOO-URNS??

• My mum pointed out that this Green Goblin is a dead ringer for the gargoyles of the 1972 TV movie of the same name- http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2218564608/tt0068622 Coincidence????? Also all three of these photos look like they're straight out of an old episode of America's Next Top Model. And they'd all get canned because they're not "smizing."

• will still probably be better than Spider-Man 3.

• The costumes look good to me. This is not a film, everything designed for the stage has to be big, loud, bright. Look at any thing else on stage that has extensive costuming and these do not look out of place. I dont know why Carnage is in this. I doubt they're going to show him brutally killing dozens of people. There are a dozen other villains that seem like they would be more stage friendly. So far this show looks horrible though, all costumes, effects and stunts and zero plot. If we're to judge the music by that first song, even that is going to be boring. I was excited when this was announced but now the best I can hope for is to be only mildly disappointed.

• When this premeires, I really hope to see a huge group nerds outside the theater, Westboro Baptist Church style, protesting the show.

• Yeah, Carnage at least resembles his comic book image. If you showed me a picture of the Green Goblin out of context, I'm not sure I'd have recognized him.

• Stan Lee must be spinning in his grave...

• Producers, directors, and writers in Hollywood and Broadway receive creator credits for any character or changes they make to an already existing franchise. Which is the primary reason why nothing is ever exactly like the book, character, etc. So, even though Steve Ditko receives absolutely nothing in royalties for helping create Spider-Man, the producers of this show will get paid heavily for every Swiss Miss object that's sold (even if she is just one of many characters on a t-shirt, for example).

• No self respecting praying mantis would be caught dead near this steaming pile.

• Y'know, I've been putting way too much thought into this whole "Swiss Miss" thing, and I may have stumbled across the possible inspiration/origin for the weird ass name, and as usual, like everything horrible related to Spider-Man, be it the death of his first true love or fathering children with said love, it's all thanks to Norman Osborn. In Peter Parker: Spider-Man #47, Osborn confesses to Peter "I wasn't always going to be the Green Goblin. When I first started out, I was going to call myself 'Mister Coffee.'" Perhaps someone read this issue and, feeling inspired, decided to create spin-off villain, and fellow caffeine-fiend, "Swiss Miss"?

• Anyone else think Gobby looks like a GWAR roadie was playing a prank on the band? * Carnage...looks about as good as a Con cosplayer could likely do, so no real fault there aside from the Mardi Gras head. I guess that's more for the "2nd balcony" crowd (I Hate Hamlet fans might get that joke). * Swiss Miss...looks kind like the Silver Samurai if he walked out of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I don't hate it, I just don't see anything to get worked up about other than "ack, techies are gonna poked by that."

• Noted photographer Annie Leibovitz took these photos. I think they should be pretty spot on as to what we'd see on stage. Heavens knows why they'd waste money on such a well known fashion photographer, but they did. And I doubt they'd have her photograph anything besides the final product. This is what we're getting. Even with all the airbrushing and digital touch ups, this is a good image of the final product.

• Ew.

• Nope. It's some female character they pulled out of their ass and made up for this show. Her name is.. ugh.. Swiss Miss.

• You guys, take a deep breath and remember that this is an EDITORIAL FOR VOGUE. That doesn't change the fact that these have been terribly photoshopped and poorly designed, but at least MJ's costuming is NOT going to resemble these photos. I'm not saying this musical is going to be ... good, but it's probably not going to look like this either. Vogue ≠ reality.

• yea, I thought about what you said and...no.

• I... actually kinda like it.

• It's concept art - it's an editorial for Vogue featuring Mary Jane wearing famous designers. I can almost guarantee you that none of those clothes will appear in the show. I can't say the same for the villain costume designs though ...

• I find it interesting that people who are confessed "geeks" make fun of something for not being "cool". Being involved in this play in any way is infinitely cooler than having an extensive action figure collection and reading message boards.

• "Turn off the Suck" will join the cursed ranks of Amityville Horror, Manos: The Hands of Fate, and Last House on the Left. But it will not be as good as any of them. It'd be sad if it weren't so ridiculous!

• Doubt that's the actual MJ from the show, more likely some hapless fashion model, buried under all that haphazard Photoshop!

• Well, it all depends on their explanation for Carnage even being there instead of Venom. Carnage is the offspring (kinda) of Venom, so if you just have him show up out of nowhere, it makes no sense. I mean, if they're going to include actual Marvel villains, why did they even bother coming up with Robo-Pocketknife or whatever her name is?

• IF only Rifftrax did musicals . . . if only!

• I think the second picture is supposed to be Electro. Shocking what they've done to him. I'm sure Stan Lee will love it though. He is very fond of that super-weird Japanese Spider-Man TV show from the 80s.

• Honestly, the 1st picture isn't that bad. If I'm going to spend bucks on a ticket, seeing Spider-Man, Green Goblin, and Mary Jane flying above my head instead of flying on the stage would look pretty awesome. But, aesthetics aside, one practical thing gets to me about this.......... How is Spider-Man going to sound? Will his singing and talking sound all muffled through that mask?

• When our parents told us comics were bad for us, we all knew that they were wrong for the most part. Except for the parents of future theatrical costume and set designers.

• Wow this musical is the best bit of trolling I have ever seen. I mean that is what U2 and everyone else involved is doing right? Trolling? That has to be it, no one could actually think that this is a good design for the show. I think we're all getting trolled and every bit of info that get put out on this musical is just flame bait. Right?

• So, if everyone going to see this are mostly interested in seeing what a huge train wreck it is, what are the chances that it devolves into a laugh riot (ala Springtime for Hitler)?

• I'M CARNAGE I'M GONNA SLICE AND DICE YOU UP MUHAHAHA LA LA LA TURN OFF THE DARK Seriously, this fucked-up trainwreck is the best thing going on. Man, I want the drugs U2 and these show producers are on.

• Bialystock and Blume Present: Spider-Man--Turn Off The Dark! Think someone oughtta take a look at the books for this show?

• Don't forget their tasteful, subtle, and loyal to source costumes!

• Ha! Turn Off the Suck.

• Yeah, how many starving African children would $60 million dollars feed, Bono? But you instead spent all that money on this... delight.

• I like to think he's made of marzipan. Although you could make a much better looking Carnage out of marzipan, so maybe not!

• KA-POW! VO-UGE should LE-AVE comics AL-ONE! Stick to FA-SHION!! Tim Gunn weeps.

• Perhaps it will be so bad that I'll actually welcome death by idiotic villain impalement.

• Well, I think we have a winner for this weeks TR competition

• And I thought I wasted money recently spending four dollars on an old vinyl album of the failed Superman Broadway musical...

• The Swiss Miss thing is bugging the hell out of me. Why pull a character out of your ass when there are so many already to use. Plus.. Carnage?! Why the hell would Carnage be in this?! And damn if he doesn't have a giant bobble head. Hell, even Goblin's almost passable in a stylized way compared to those two. I will admit the whole perspective thing using stagecraft sounds pretty damn brilliant. If only the characters, costumes, and music didn't seem so damn random. Man, I can't believe they wasted Annie Leibovitz's time for taking these photos.

• Thanks, Bono. I think children in Africa hate you now, as well.

• I hope Swiss Miss doesn't trip and impale you somehow..because this could be so bad you die! you could die going to see this.

• One of many whys...but WHY are the buildings crooked? It looks like the Fortress of Manhattan-tude.

• Agreed. Rather than bitch and moan about it, I'd rather sit back and see if it succeeds or fails on its own merits. I have the feeling it will be at least modestly successful in spite of what anyone here says about it. Taymor's other projects like her Lion King production or her film "Across the Universe" tend to have been regarded as successful. So as outrageous as this looks, as much as nerds won't like it (And let's be honest here, they didn't really make this thing four us. They made it for the regular folks who never picked up an issue of Spider-Man in their lives), it'll probably find an audience. P.S. How much does anyone want to bet we'll see them performing a scene from this on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year?

• Am I the only regular TR reader who actually has tickets to this? I ask because the more I see of this in press releases and such, the worse it looks. I wanted to see it because it has all the earmarks of a fiasco and I want to witness it for myself, but even with that goal in mind I still feel like I've taken my money, thrown it in the street, took a reeking piss all over it, doused the urine-soaked greenbacks in gasoline and then set that alight. If it weren't for my girlfriend's student discount it would be even worse.

• Am I the only regular TR reader who actually has tickets to this? I ask because the more I see of this in press releases and such, the worse it looks. I wanted to see it because it has all the earmarks of a fiasco and I want to witness it for myself, but even with that goal in mind I still feel like I've taken my money, thrown it in the street, took a reeking piss all over it, doused the urine-soaked greenbacks in gasoline and then set that alight. If it weren't for my girlfriend's student discount it would be even worse.

• Is anyone else reminded of the Ember Island Players episode of Avatar? It's like someone did a ton of research on Spider-Man comics, but never actually read one, and now they're making a show about it. The end result is something that looks not entirely unlike Spider-Man, and despite enamoring those who see it, it will insult those who actually know how the story is supposed to go. I'm not against making an attempt at a Spider-Man musical. There are lots of great book writers and musicians out there who could turn around a decent and well thought out plot with appropriate music. But this production looks less and less like an homage and more like a parody everyday.

• I honestly don't think this looks bad. I'd see it.

• I honestly don't think this looks bad. I'd see it.

• Man that Carnage just looks so SAD in that picture. Like he just knows he's a bowl full of suck. Poor guy.

• As bad as this looks, as much as you wish this wasn't happening, it could get worse. It could be a gigantic hit, prompting more Broadway musicals on Superhero characters.

• Holy shit, Metal Madonna is a fucking awesome potential band name. DIBS.

• Ha, people are going to pay money to see this thing.

• the first pictures of the green goblin looked like the wicked witch of the west

• These, and their sheer suckage/insanity, just made my day. Thanks :)

• Perhaps he's secretly a praying mantis?

• Um, are we sure that the first picture isn't of the Vulture instead of the Green Goblin? I mean, I know everything says Goblin, but... um... wings. C'mon.

• ....'least they got Spidey right.

• Actually, I'm still pretty clueless about the demographic this whole affair is attempting to appeal to... I realize that Spider-man is pretty mainstream these days, but I've never thought of any comic property as being Broadway compatible. Is this supposed to be for mainstream people who want to feel artsy...? Or do they really think that Oscar de la Renta or [insert other random designer name] is gonna show up to this, all jazzed, and exclaim "this is so moving! I am SO featuring tights in my new spring line!"

• Nevermind, it probably will be that bad.

• what. This should be called Turn off the Suck. Although it looks like it'll suck the whole way through, but people are going to be devastated by this colossal money wasting Bono wank session guised as a Spidey property. Oh yes, this WILL be the Macbeth of our generation- by that I mean thwarted will collapse at the very mention of it, the thought of it will be cursed hereafter. Or maybe Bono will just get smooshed.

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