The Stage

Spider-Man - Turn off the Dark

Published Monday 7 February 2011 at 09:49 by Mark Shenton

Julie Taymor’s production of The Lion King became the seventh longest-running show in Broadway history when it played its 5,462nd performance in January. Meanwhile, her latest directorial effort - which swaps turning an animated feature into 3D to musicalise a cartoon strip instead with Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark - is currently breaking records of different kinds. Not only is it the most expensive musical of all time, with a bloated budget of a reported $65m and counting, but it is also set to become the longest previewing musical in Broadway history.

It’s a show that has repeatedly refused to officially open - a third opening night date, set for February 7, has now been moved to March 15, by which time it will have played for three and a half months and 110 previews, at full price (and more) to paying customers that also saw it overtake Wicked as the highest grossing show currently playing on Broadway one recent week. Yet every performance is being prefaced by a warning, delivered live from the stage, that the show has forgone an out of town try-out and may therefore be liable to be stopped at any point should any safety concerns arise, and that audience members should not attempt to hitch a ride on Spider-Man when he’s flying.

On the February 5 matinee I saw, over two months into the preview run, the show was duly stopped for an extended five minute pause, and while no one sought to jump on top of any of what turns out to be 11 Spider-Man’s that share the flying and other stunts, the show needs to carry another safety warning of its own, one that the majority of New York critics have, so far, been prevented from delivering (even as every blogger, tweeter and bulletin board poster has had their very vocal say), namely that the show, as it currently stands, is a thundering, over-hyped, undercooked disappointment.

It should be stressed that the creators, having bought extra preview time (at the audience’s expense, in every sense), have not yet officially finished their work on it, so this has to therefore only be an interim report; but is all the blood, sweat and tears worth it? Is it any good, or is there at least the potential for it to be so?

Expectations have been sky-high, of course, partly because a flying spectacle was promised to send the actors hurtling sky-high, over the heads of the audience across the entire theatre. So first things first - yes, as in productions of old like Peter Pan, you can see the wires, but unlike them, you also can’t always see the flying. From my balcony perch, much of the flying below and under me was invisible, while from the stalls, it would frequently be above and behind you. Expect business for osteopaths to soar not just among the cast but also audiences as they twist to follow it.

But it’s not just your body that may need twisting, your mind may also have trouble following the plotting as it seeks to first provide the back story of how Peter Parker became Spider-Man, narrated by a “geek” chorus of excitable kids who narrate some of the show but are soon perplexingly dropped from view. It then predictably morphs into a projection of the age of anxiety that we now live in with Spider-Man becoming a figure that protects the city of New York from a series of villainous threats.

Perhaps we need to ask him to protect musical theatre from opportunistic producers that are trying to hitch a ride on his leotard-covered body (just as audiences are specifically told not to). It’s been a bumpy journey so far, with lots of crash landings (including one that put a Spider-Man stunt double in hospital).

But if the technical problems may yet be ironed out, Bono and the Edge’s debut as Broadway composers also turns out to be an uninspiring disappointment - two onstage guitarists are on hand to provide the rock riffs, but the music stays stubbornly unmemorable and earthbound, even when the show is seeking to fly.

It is difficult, too, for the actors to give much human dimension to the cartoon characterisations they have been given, although Jennifer Damiano as MJ (Peter Parker’s love interest) and British actor Matthew James Thomas (the alternate whom I saw in the title role instead of the billed Reeve Carney) bring some heart, warmth and vulnerability to a show that otherwise fatally fails to have any.

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