Guest fountainhall Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 The cover of last week's New Yorker magazine featured a cartoon of a bustling hospital ward full of injured Spider-Men: one has both his legs in casts; another has a clamp holding his head together; another, who is bedbound, can only change the TV channel by firing out a web; another is swaddled in bandages and walks with a frame. http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/jan/26/spider-man-musical That cartoon captures what all New York has been talking about for months. The musical based on the Spiderman comics with music by U2’s Bono and The Edge has been in development for about 9 years when the producers got the theatrical rights. Julie Taymor, the brilliant director of The Lion King musical, was hired and work started on weaving a web of magic and illusion that would have audiences gasping in awe. Unfortunately, it has been the cast that has been gasping. The aerial effects are apparently as dazzling as anything in a Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas show. But the Las Vegas theatres were specially built to Cirque’s specifications. Broadway theatres are general old, dilapidated and require a lot of work before adventurous sets move in. Over many months, the Foxwoods Theatre was essentially gutted, the roof strengthened, a new flying system installed and a ton of computers required to propel multiple actors out over the audience in all directions at terrific speed put in place. Yet, since previews started in November, the production has not only been accident-prone, losing its principal villain to injury, and others who have been able to return after injuries have been treated (one fall was captured on You Tube), it still hasn’t opened! It’s the custom with new show to have round 2 weeks of reduced-price previews when the creative team tweak and fine-tune a production before the media are allowed in at the official opening night. Spiderman’s opening has now been postponed 4 times and will stay in previews for 4 whole months before the producers reckon it’s finally ready. Being ready has meant virtually a complete rewrite of the second half of the show. Investors in musicals – known in the trade as ‘angels’ - are brave people. Occasionally some strike it rich. Andrew Lloyd Webber was once a sure fire profit generator. If you had put money into CATS or Phantom of the Opera, you received your investment back along with a return of thousand percent or more. On the other hand, if you invested in Sunset Boulevard, you lost everything. Spiderman’s producers have come up with by far the highest investment ever seen on Broadway – over US$65 million. With that having to be amortised over its first few years and in addition to weekly running costs of over US$1 million, the show will literally have to run for around a decade before any returns start to be realised. The ban on critics attending previews has not been completely successful. According to the New Times on 30 November: The show stopped five times, mostly to fix technical problems, and Act I ended prematurely, with Spider-Man stuck dangling 10 feet above audience members The New York Post was less ‘enthusiastic’: an epic flop as the $65 million show's high-tech gadgetry went completely awry amid a dull score and baffling script But, as they say in show business, all publicity is good publicity. The accidents and the obscene costs have only increased the Spiderman buzz. Previews have been packed at much higher than usual prices. Provided no more of the cast end up in the casualty ward and the show runs until I next get to New York, I’ll be there to witness either a massive flop or an amazing theatrical experience. Quote
