"Spider-Man" the musical

At several points a nun appears onstage without explanation? More so than anything else in this review, that line struck me as particularly humorous, mostly because I can't recall any scene in spider man where a nun existed, let alone had a role so noteworthy as to need to be faithfully reproduced in a musical. Also, I agree with the ending that perhaps the best role of this musical may be how much of an expensive flop it's turned out to be. Who doesn't have a guilty pleasure movie that they love simply because it's so bad?

This tends to happen when too much money and expectations are put into a single project. Movie makers have done this in the past. When the director and the fans demand amazing special effects and graphical design, movies tend to flop because the plot is under developed. I believe spiderman is best left the way it was. We can apply the old saying: why fix something that's not broken? Spiderman should be left the way it is.

Does America do anything right anymore? I'm beginning to think the attack on the World Trade Center was just a diversion while minions of Osama bin Laden laced the waters of America's reservoirs with time release stupid pills.

Guess what? I just spent my entire life's savings to assist "Spider-man Turn Off The Dark" to become a success on Broadway through positive PR (both on the street and on the internet), and Guest Relations (both at the Foxwoods Theater and on the internet). I have done many interviews and photo-ops for this AMAZING show, and to this date, I have not received one cent. If you ask me why I would do such a strange thing this is my response: 1) God told me to do it, because "Spider-man" is a great role model in today's society, and I needed to break the curse (inwhich I did on May 14th). 2) I gave some suggestions for script changes, and they gave me the honor of actually using them. 3) A truly professional and talented cast! 4) I have seen both versions and it was such a wonderful experience. Professionally, Super Laundry Bag (Official Guardian Angel/PR/Guest Relations). www.youtube.com/bigswallow2

Too bad it's not good, we need the escapism that a good hero experience provides.

And $65 million is a drop in the bucket when you consider the BILLIONS of dollars wasted in scaring and threatening the public "for their own good". The list of fear-based campaigns that have failed to accomplish their primary objective is long: The D.A.R.E. program, Scared Straight, Abstinence Only, and almost all disaster preparedness campaigns -- just to name a few. Long-term, volitional, behavior change is not accomplished by one-size-fits-all scare tactics delivered by "experts". $65 million on a play that fails looks almost innocent.

Still, I'm pulling for Spider-Man...we need to see a hero or two swing by these days.

The comments are fascinating, but perhaps not for the reasons they were offered. We have two rough categories: company mistakes and government mistakes. They both make mistakes. Surprise! And yet a main argument in the US is that business is better than government. Inherently better. Ideologically, necessarily better, despite the vast evidence that companies make huge mistakes all the time. So for example, there is great denial that Medicare has lower costs than private insurers because government can't be efficient. I'd say they are more similar than ideology demands and that Spider Man is in a class all by itself.

When was the last time you witnessed $65m worth of mistakes?

My county ALSO spent $44 million buying and adding improvements to a property that is now worth $17 million.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The latest appraisal of Cuyahoga County's Ameritrust complex sets its value at $16.9 million -- $28 million less than taxpayers have invested in the downtown property.

County commissioners bought the complex in 2005 for $21.8 million, at the urging of former county Commissioner Tim Hagan. They envisioned a new headquarters for county government, and spent $3 million for a real estate consultant, $14.4 million for construction, supplies and asbestos removal, and $5.1 million for a connected parking garage.

More at:
http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-county/index.ssf/2011/05/ameritrust_ap...

Regards

In the timeline of the decline of Broadway, this will be a watershed. Like Hollywood, Broadway is dead creatively, though making itself the butt of the joke can hide this for a while.

It's about money, and if it turns a profit then the joke is on everyone who paid for a ticket.

When was the last time you witnessed $65m worth of mistakes?

I see it every day. It is called Washington D.C.

When was the last time you witnessed $65m worth of mistakes?

I use microsoft products almost everyday.

If everyone is in on the joke, then the humor kind of disappears.

@Jasiek; I agree, Spiderman is a uniquely New York affair, my choice for music would have been the Beastie Boys, acomplished composers and more in the Parker mould.

Quote: “With music by U2's Bono and The Edge”

Ugh. That may highly probably be the cause of the failure.

I wonder why they didn’t hire urban hip-hop artists like The Black Eyed Peas but chose those preachy rock’n’roll old-timers.

What category of the market were they targeting? White liberal Christian American middle-class males of the MTV generation now suffering from household debt and male menopause? Hey, they are the very chunk of people who spend the least of their money for troubling themselves to go over to New York to see a musical.

Every director has their flops/disasters/ect and this just happens to be Julie Taymor's. She is an otherwise extremely talented and imaginative director who has produced a fine set of work over the years.

Not only that but she has created some of the most memorable costumes seen in recent years.

When was the last time you witnessed $65m worth of mistakes?

In my city the county was to build a new Juvenile Detention Center at $50 milion.

By the time it was finished it cost $180 million.

And it comes out of my property taxes.

Regards

This show was always a corporate affair, from the beginning it heralded "Accountants". And to use Terry's name in this context (despite the sackful) is just plain vulgar. Terry would simply refuse to go on after such a knock.

Ah, but vulgarity done well is something. Witness The Producers in either form, with a flower child Hitler or one with the middle name "Elizabeth," and the big production number: "Don't be shtupid, be a shmarty, come and join the Nazi Party". Pretty much any Mel Brooks work explores the worth of vulgarity, from the farting scene in Blazing Saddles to the great splendor of The Inquisition number: "hey Torquemada, whadda ya say? I just came back from the auto da fe."

And being able to laugh at vulgarity is also something. I saw the excruciatingly bad movie Heart Beat (about Kerouac et al) in a crowd that seized the moment and made fun the entire time. That turned the experience into one I remember with great fondness. Can you share the badness of Spider Man with the crowd? Doesn't seem that way.

I went to a restaurant in another country, highly recommended in a big article, and it turned out to be run by 2 people including one rather elderly waiter. The salad was two belgian endives with raspberry vinegar poured on top. It was hideous, but then when the waiter left the room one of the diners spoke to the rest about how he only came here because the place was so well known and this was outright ridiculous. And so we all talked and had a great time except whenever the old waiter came back into the room we'd all get quiet and pretend to be having private conversations. Being in on the joke makes the experience. My impression is that Spider Man sells tickets because the joke is on you the theatre goer.

Zing!