Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Revisited

After disastrous early reviews and constant postponements, the Julie Taymor musical Spiderman closed down to revamp the material without Julie Taymor. Reports that her schedule didn’t allow for her to continue daily attention to the show was supposedly the reason she was replaced. Although Taymor maintains a credit as “Original Director,” Philip Wm. McKinley, a circus as well as a theatre man, was brought in to take over the direction. His contribution has improved the production tremendously. Young Chase Brock, leader of the small Brooklyn based dance company, “The Chase Brock Experience” and expert in the history and traditions of musical theatre, took over the choreography duties, though Daniel Ezralo retains his credit as dance and arial choreographer. Also, comic book writer and playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa was brought in to revamp the book, originally written by Taymor and Glen Berger. This is the area where the most work was done, for the majority of the book is brand new and all for the better. Now the building of the relationship between Mary Jane (Jennifer Damiano) and Peter Parker (Reeve Carney) is realized, now Aunt May (Isabel Keating) is a full through-line character rather than a cameo, now the Green Goblin (Patrick Page) is fleshed out and spans the whole of the story. In the old version, Act II. had a villainess, Arachne (T.V. Carpio), take over the plot in a confusing and senseless episode that didn’t relate much to the first act. Now the character is a kind of guardian angel for Peter Parker. Keeping the character allowed some of the production’s most stunning images to remain, even though the character has been changed and diminished. No problem there, for what we really want to see is how a lonely teenage boy suddenly finds himself with extraordinary powers and how he will use those powers for the greater good. The over all scope of the story now matches, more or less, what we know from the film, though it is told through high concept and immense spectacle. The book has structure, intelligence, character development and holds a bland, rock soundscape of a score together.

Bono and the Edge have significantly reworked their score to accommodate the story changes––especially in Act II. Songs have been moved around to new places, new lyrics added, new titles applied and it all makes sense now. However, the score is an ocean of rock ballads, is entirely uninventive, lacks variety and is over amplified to the point of drowning the singers half of the time. It is impossible to judge the lyrics, but thanks to the crystal clear book, it is easy to follow the story without understanding the lyrics. Even Peter Parker’s big power ballad, “The Boy Falls From the Sky,” which is given the power ballad treatment with the orchestrations, lighting and the actor’s final gesture of fist in air, is bland and without a thrill. Yet, a good portion of the audience reacted to it the way those Frank Wildhorn fans react to his power ballads in Jekyll and Hyde and other shows. But, there was no high belted note, no American Idol vocal pyrotechnics––just a middle of the road easily held long note in a comfortable placement. Reeve Carney’s singing voice is not shown to the greatest potential. Nor is Jennifer Damiano showcased well, for Mary Jane is a character that demands a great song and is given what amounts to leftovers. The authors have not utilized the talents of the leading couple to the best effect. The score fails the show more than any other element at this point.

The sets and costumes from the first version are retained with slight modifications and a lot more video projections to help in the transitions formerly handled by an irritating group of teenagers who used to narrate the show. Those narrators are thankfully gone, but this change didn’t help give the show a better pace. The show still plods along at times, especially during the first half hour as we lead up to the moment Peter discovers his powers in one of the more inventive numbers, “Bouncing Off the Walls,” where he literally springs and dances from ceiling to wall to wall. Chase Brock has added plenty of interesting moves to compliment the spirit and style of the street dancing and acrobatics that have always dominated the show’s musical staging, but he has added some quieter moments––giving the staging a poetry that elevates the experience above the level of an elaborate amusement park show.

All said and done, the production does play like an amusement park show, but at least now it all makes sense. Those who saw the first version will notice the good in the changes, but ultimately this does not make Spiderman a good musical. For the teenagers and kids in the audience it was obviously an amazing experience and visually it is wonderful. A 14 year old boy seeing Spiderman as his first Broadway experience is bound to think that Broadway is pretty cool. For a seasoned theatre goer, this show may be a curiosity, but more so it is bound to be a disappointment.

Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark

When I was small I had seen Walt Disney’s Peter Pan and wished out loud that “they” would make a live action version. My mother informed me that “they” had; that an actress named Mary Martin had starred in it on the Broadway stage. I then began dreaming about a time when I could see this live action stage version. When I was in my late teens I came across an LP in a record shop of It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman the Musical and began to salivate. That was a fascination for me––live on stage the characters beforehand only having been in the movies and animated. I finally did see a very good production of “Superman the Musical” at PCPA in Santa Maria and of course have seen Peter Pan on stage many times. When I was twelve I would have loved to be taken to Julie Taymor’s Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, and would have forgiven its flaws as a musical play and reveled in its spectacle of the mere sight of Spiderman spinning webs and flying over the audience. As an adult, I have no choice but to step back and really see this gargantuan, multimillion dollar experience for what it is––not so good. I will go on to say that I was fascinated by the show and delighted by many individual components. However, string those components together and you have a lot of noise, but not much of a play. Is it supposed to be a musical play or simply a concept––an experience? Expectations will have a lot to do with each individual’s reaction, which so far has ranged from “the worst show I ever saw,” to “I loved it.”

Let it be known that I saw the thirtieth preview performance. By this point the show should have been frozen and ready to open next week, but it has been postponed another month due to the well reported accidents as this wild theatrical experiment irons out the kinks. What I have always loved about Julie Taymor is her visual expression on stage. With puppets, masks, theatrical conventions both embraced and broken, she gives us unusual perspectives, pictures, images and characters. Her imagination is not restricted by the stage but opened up. She is both a serious professional who believes she is imparting a profound message and a kid who has the best box of Crayola crayons ever and her most extravagant dreams are still not her limit. What Taymor was able to do with The Lion King so perfectly has not happened for “Spiderman.” For one thing, she does not have a good enough story to tell––at least the way she and Glen Berger have written it along with songs by Bono and The Edge.

The show plays like a staged concept album in the vein of The Who’s Tommy or American Idiot, only the concept album did not come first this time. Bono and The Edge have written songs with appropriate hooks: “Bouncing Off the Walls”, “Rise Above”, “The Boy Falls From the Sky,” which all sound good for a “Spiderman” musical, but the end result is a ballad heavy song cycle with interspersed dialogue to keep a sense of story together. The sound is horrid and so it is impossible to appreciate the lyrics if they are to be appreciated at all. The book, for the first act anyway, follows generally what we know of the story from the film. For some reason a quartet of teens act as narrators, sometimes to clarify the muddle we have just witnessed and sometimes to cover a set change in the old fashioned “in one” convention. There are newer ways to cover a scene change and it could have been possible to tell the story through the characters rather than the children’s theater way of relating transition information. In the next month of previews it would be easy to cut those four teens and find better band-aids to cover the set changes (but sadly four actors would suddenly be out of work).

Reeve Carney and Jennifer Damiano

The character of Spiderman himself is played by every able bodied male in the cast at one point or another and sometimes all at once. This is not a straight forward telling of a story in any way––both a blessing and a problem. Peter Parker is played by the accessible Reeve Carney who is every bit the skinny nerdy teen, but with a cool pop rock voice. I found him to be very likable and enjoyed following his scenes when they came around between the spectacle. Jennifer Damiano is Mary Jane and she has a grounded center that is comforting within the cartoon craziness of the rest of the production. Both Damiano and Carney are real and believable, which was absolutely necessary to make the story work, for the rest of the characters are played to full comic book broadness. Reporters at the Daily Bugle, along with J.J. Jameson (Michael Mulheren) are plucked form The Front Page or some ‘40s film noir. Secretaries are plucked from Mad Men. Teenagers are painted in black and yellow and manipulated like dancers in a stylish music video. The many villains produced are in such fabulous costumes and masks that they are given a fashion show runway on which to show off since they have nothing else to do but look fabulous.

For all the bold images, street dancing, rock sounds and really spectacular flying effects, Act One works fairly well at introducing us to the characters. Peter acquires his powers and learns to use them, gets his job with the news paper, shyly attempts to start up a relationship with Mary Jane, etc. The Green Goblin (Patrick Page) emerges and there is a great flying fight between Spiderman and the Goblin to end the act over the heads of the audience. Act Two, by contrast, loses the story entirely. A new villain is brought forth named Arachne (T.V. Carpio of questionable talents), who is a spider goddess controlling Peter’s destiny, but all the interesting Spiderman flying is mostly over and we are informed of his daring exploits rather than fully seeing them realized. There are long stretches where we don’t see anything of Peter and Mary Jane––the only two characters we actually care about. When we do see them they are suddenly a couple then suddenly engaged. The “I love you” scene was building up through act one, but the declaration is the only pay off we get from these characters and it comes too soon in the second act so that we have nothing left for an ending but to have another actor as Spiderman save Mary Jane from her final peril. The other plot build up is Peter’s coming out as Spiderman, but the scene never happens and yet Mary Jane comes to know this truth by the end of the show. We are robbed of real dramatic scenes between the only two believable flesh and blood characters in the show. Am I wrong to want this? Perhaps the polite cocktail applause that greeted the numbers and the absent standing ovation at the end says something about the lack of humanity in the show. When it is all puppets, masks and noise it might be a sensory overload, but it isn’t moving. Ultimately, that is the expectation of a Broadway show, whether it is Annie Get Your Gun or Sweeney Todd.

The very spectacular set done in comic book style is credited to George Tspin and the costumes of insanity are credited to Eiko Ishioka, but Julie Taymor’s hand has been into every aspect, for the visual production has always been her concern. This is Julie Taymor’s show all the way––not to discredit the army of artists who helped to bring this production to life.

This production is so unusual that it has to be seen to be believed. I was not bored, but I left with a feeling of emptiness towards it. Yet I was constantly surprised and interested as the thing unfolded (literally at some moments). Everyone who can must see it just to see what can be done with sixty million. After all, that is one reason one lives in New York: to see a crazy theatrical experience that can’t be found anywhere else. My guess is that the title, not unlike The Adams Family, will survive the critics’ wrath and run the four years needed to pay off the investment, but if you don’t see it in New York you aren’t going to see it, save for an imagined Los Vegas engagement. The physicality of the show can’t tour and the literature of the piece isn’t good enough to come off well in a scaled down production. “Spiderman” is just one of those crazy things that happen in New York sometimes.