Spiderman News - Part 2

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noooo i was just getting in a fight with BVS! lol just messing :heart: :hug:
 
Bono likes giving massages.:D

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/68404/238008

The New York Post was less charitable in its report, calling the show an "epic flop as the $65 million show's high-tech gadgetry went completely awry amid a dull score and baffling script."
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niver.jpg


Bono: Shut up Lawrence!
 
Apparently there are a couple of nods to Bono/U2 in the play including Mary Jane being in a play called "The Fly" and Vertigo playing in the background in a scene at a disco.
 
Julie Taymor's SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK 'preview' not a disaster - needs a little tweaking? Amazing Aerials! -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

The story was by far the weakest element of the production. There was not much explanation between scenes, and I felt like to truly understand it, you needed to have seen the first two Spider-Man films. For instance, Peter likes Mary Jane, but she's with some other guy in high school. Later on, they're together and dating, and we don't really see the bridging scenes there. Likewise, we have Peter lose his powers later, and then gain them when the world needs spider-man again. This was explained decently, but I felt like I understood it more because of the movie. They need to work on having a more coherent plot.

The music was totally not catchy, at least not to me. I thought all the songs were from Bono and The Edge. However, on the playbill song list, only one song has that little asterisk, with a note on the bottom saying music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge. Makes it kind of dubious that the other songs are theirs, which may explain why they don't really sound too hot. :crack:

Basically, I think this show has potential. It needs to work on the plot. And I understand that this was a preview, and the first one no less, but there were long breaks during the show. I believe these should be fixed by the end, and once the are, this can be a good show. The plot seriously needs the most work, and they should consider cutting down on the Arachne scenes, as they often were drawn out and unnecessary. Also, those kids telling the story later interacted with the characters in the story, which doesn't quite make sense. Once these things are worked out, this should could be stellar, just for the aerial work alone.
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I am not loving the music
at all at this point… It is all monotone and does not move the story along, and
as much as I like Bono and the Edge, I am beginning to wonder if they should
have stuck to playing with U2, and avoided composing Musical Theater music…

The show, as it is now, ran over 3 hours and much could be cut and pared down,
starting with the teenagers that opened the show. It added nothing, and the
device of having them essentially narrate the show disappeared halfway through
the second act, never to return. The ending of both the first and second acts
seemed like an afterthought. I heard from someone involved with the show that
they were rewriting the ending that day. The whole book needs to be rethought. I
wish they had let the simple moments shine more. indeed, the best moments were
the ones that were not about flying and theatrics, but the human emotional
moments that made you feel what Peter felt. When he sings "The Boy Falls From
The Sky" alone, with virtually nothing onstage with him, it is one of the most
touching moments. The show needs so much more of that if they expect to have
any kind of future. I don't mean to pee all over what they presented onstage
last night, but how could no one have seen what direction it was going and
helped it back to where it needed to be? They have a month and a half of
previews to fix things, and I hope they are able to make it work. $65 million
dollars is a lot of money, and I cannot understand how it could have gotten
here. I can see where the money went. I just don't know why they bothered.
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I just spent an hour reading through the thread over on Broadway world and found the discussion very interesting. I work in the theatre industry so I guess I am a theatre snob but I am also a huge U2 fan. I felt that people generally want the show to succeed but have concerns about the preview system and the structural integrity of the show. Generally previews are more like FINAL dress rehearsals and the show last night sounded more like a tech rehearsal. All those thech things will be fixed, but when people complain that the music and book are bad, those things can not really be fixed as easily. Those things should have been reworked before tech rehearsals even started with script doctors and music clean up.

The new generation of Broadway loves the rock opera...Rent and Tommy were hugely popular and Broadway needs another amazing show for the new generation of Broadway lovers. For those of you who were commenting that the Broadway sobs don't understand rock music, that is a blanket statement and not true. Good music is good music. Perhaps this effort for Broadway was not as good as we had hoped????? Or maybe the tech issues were too much of a distraction for the actors and musicians to give an amazing performance and give the audience a clear picture of what the show should be.

Hopefully the technical problems will clear and the creative team will make the changes necessary to make it a better show. Hopefully it is a strong enough show to survive all of this madness.....
 
Maybe this just shows that music written by Bono and Edge, or any other member of U2 for the matter should always be done by them first? i mean whose to say that the songs arent actually great, but the versions done by the actors just wasnt upto the mark?

but we all know it will be Bono and Edge who get slated for it, no matter what,
 
BVS said:
Apparently there are a couple of nods to Bono/U2 in the play including Mary Jane being in a play called "The Fly" and Vertigo playing in the background in a scene at a disco.
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Awesome. :D

purpleoscar said:
"The music was totally not catchy, at least not to me. I thought all the songs were from Bono and The Edge. However, on the playbill song list, only one song has that little asterisk, with a note on the bottom saying music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge. Makes it kind of dubious that the other songs are theirs, which may explain why they don't really sound too hot. :crack:"
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Ruh-roh. That would be really weird, especially considering how much the band has been hyping TOTD recently...
Maybe Bono did the lyrics by himself for most of the songs, with Edge helping out on that one? :hmm:

But, yeah, we definitely need scans pronto.
 
dstalksalot said:
I just spent an hour reading through the thread over on Broadway world and found the discussion very interesting. I work in the theatre industry so I guess I am a theatre snob but I am also a huge U2 fan. I felt that people generally want the show to succeed but have concerns about the preview system and the structural integrity of the show. Generally previews are more like FINAL dress rehearsals and the show last night sounded more like a tech rehearsal. All those thech things will be fixed, but when people complain that the music and book are bad, those things can not really be fixed as easily. Those things should have been reworked before tech rehearsals even started with script doctors and music clean up.

The new generation of Broadway loves the rock opera...Rent and Tommy were hugely popular and Broadway needs another amazing show for the new generation of Broadway lovers. For those of you who were commenting that the Broadway sobs don't understand rock music, that is a blanket statement and not true. Good music is good music. Perhaps this effort for Broadway was not as good as we had hoped????? Or maybe the tech issues were too much of a distraction for the actors and musicians to give an amazing performance and give the audience a clear picture of what the show should be.

Hopefully the technical problems will clear and the creative team will make the changes necessary to make it a better show. Hopefully it is a strong enough show to survive all of this madness.....
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this :up:

i agree with you on the theatre snob comment too - i love good music, and i am totally passionate about theatre - i trained professionally, and it has been one of my big passions that i've pursued and taken places successfully at different times in my life, both in an acting and directing capacity, and i think that's why many things about this production have been driving me absolutely effing crazy and making me pull my hair out... lol :crazy: :D

there is also the Greenday show as well isn't there? how is that going down out of interest??
Damon Albarn of Blur also wrote the score for Monkey which was huge and awesome and also involved lots of effects and circusy things... so these things have been successful in the past... it worries me that the story isn't coming across in Spiderman... a good story/script is key i'm afraid...
 
KUEFC09U2 said:
Maybe this just shows that music written by Bono and Edge, or any other member of U2 for the matter should always be done by them first? i mean whose to say that the songs arent actually great, but the versions done by the actors just wasnt upto the mark?

but we all know it will be Bono and Edge who get slated for it, no matter what,
Click to expand...

Sorry, I have a hard time believing Broadways's best talent is to blame for the songs not working in this show. Sorry but don't blame the talent.....
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
does anyone have/found a scan of the playbill so we can put all these rumors to bed re: how many of the songs were actually done by bono & edge?

i'd be very surprised/disappointed if, after all this hype, they only actually wrote a song or two.
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All songs were Bono and Edge! BFFTS was asterisked and it said "Lyrics by Bono and edge, music by U2
 
Mama Cass - good to see another theatre and U2 lover here. Yo
Code:
u mentioned American Idiot.....from what I understand, it is a hugely successful adaptation of the Green Day album. Vibrant and punk. Don't know much about the book. As you said, story/script is key.

I wonder if Spider Man would be more suited for Vegas? Vegas has a knack for producing the circusy stuff with flair and a bit of Broadway.
 
dstalksalot said:
Sorry, I have a hard time believing Broadways's best talent is to blame for the songs not working in this show. Sorry but don't blame the talent.....
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Ok sorry, but why is it that many people here prefer Bono singing Boy falls from the sky?
 
To the person that asked about taking a 6 year old in the previous thread, I think it depends on the child. My son at 6 would have loved it, however, Sarah at 6 probably would have been scared!
 
circa1992 said:
Nope, that was the only one. Sarah and I truly enjoyed the music, and there are definitely a few gems that would benefit form the full U2 treatment for sure!
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Thanks :) I hope it does well, maybe I will have the chance to see it next year. However I think dstalksalot's idea of Vegas being a good home for it is a pretty good one!
 
If anyone has any other specific questions, feel free to ask. BTW, Sarah and I did not hear New Year's Day as someone else stated. Vertigo was funny- we chuckled out loud, as did the person sitting behind us. I'm guessing that was Julie's idea, not Bono & Edge's (I don't think they'd be that presumptuous, but who knows). I missed it, but apparently Sarah heard Peter Parker say something about a "bloody Sunday" after he was bullied.
 
KUEFC09U2 said:
Ok sorry, but why is it that many people here prefer Bono singing Boy falls from the sky?
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Bono is our boy, that is why. He's fricken Bono! :D :cute:

Seriously though, in stage performance, the actor is only as strong as the material. If there is bad script and the music does not fit with the story, the actor will have a hard time giving as good of a performance...
 
circa1992 said:
If anyone has any other specific questions, feel free to ask. BTW, Sarah and I did not hear New Year's Day as someone else stated. Vertigo was funny- we chuckled out loud, as did the person sitting behind us. I'm guessing that was Julie's idea, not Bono & Edge's (I don't think they'd be that presumptuous, but who knows). I missed it, but apparently Sarah heard Peter Parker say something about a "bloody Sunday" after he was bullied.
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Thank you context and truth will set us free...

I heard the nods were all Julie's idea, apparently she's a big fan.
 
Here's something I'd like to know - Compared to other Broadway musicals that you've seen, and I want you to be as objective as possible, how would you compare the score? As good as The Lion King? Avenue Q? Wicked (probably nowhere near the quality of Wicked, but I just thought I'd ask)? ...Rent (pleeaaase tell me it's better than Rent - most overrated gobbledygook I've heard)?


EDIT: Just found this little video... http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/11/2...ay/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Bono had me :lol: "I'm calling it a pop-up... pop-art opera. Because I'm pretentious." Ha!
 
Catman said:
Here's something I'd like to know - Compared to other Broadway musicals that you've seen, and I want you to be as objective as possible, how would you compare the score? As good as The Lion King? Avenue Q? Wicked (probably nowhere near the quality of Wicked, but I just thought I'd ask)? ...Rent (pleeaaase tell me it's better than Rent - most overrated gobbledygook I've heard)?


My family and I have seen quite a few shows in the past few years (including each of the ones you mentioned). To be perfectly honest, this is a hard question for me to answer. I prefer to be familiar with a show's score prior to seeing it live because I find I get so much more out of the experience this way. And with a show like Spider-Man, there are so many visual distractions, it's often difficult to focus on the music (especially last night with all of the technical difficulties). Sarah and I were just saying how much we wish we had a cast album or recording of some sort to really give it a fair listen. That said, I truly believe there are some great songs in this show. I loved Boy Falls From The Sky from my very first listen when it was live streamed from Coimbra. Rise Above was beautiful, even with the 6 minute long stop to address technical difficulties. Musically, it wasn't the most memorable show for me, but I'm certain that it will be right up there once I have the opportunity just listen to the songs without everything else going on around me! The score definitely had a U2 feel, which is fine with me since I happen to be a huge fan of their work! Based on comments Bono has made, I think I was expecting more variation in the musical styles of the songs, but again, I didn't care because I love U2's sound! We did hear a few lines of "vision beyond visibility" and Sarah and I just looked at each other and smiled.

Obviously, art is subjective: we loved The Lion King visually, but were disappointed otherwise because we were already so familiar with the story and score. Avenue Q was funny, but we all felt it got old real fast. Wicked was enjoyable and had a fantastic act 1 finale in Defying Gravity, but once again, we all felt it was overrated. Rent was pretty good with some fun musical numbers, but not "Oh my God that was so amazing..." Our absolute favorite show out of the many my family has seen over the years has to be Next to Normal which is closing in Jan. It has a contemporary score that's instantly memorable, and a unique and interesting story. Another show with a fun, contemporary score is Spring Awakening. Sitting on stage for that show at times felt almost like being at a rock show! At the moment, it's hard to say where Spider-Man's score will fit when compared with other shows, however, I can pretty much guarantee that as soon as I can get my hands on it, it will be in constant rotation on my ipod!
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Are there any musical defining moments for this show or any really amazing ensemble pieces? A "seasons of love" or "no day but today", "defying gravity", "one day more", or "on my own", ......any music moment that you held your breath for?
 
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