Spider-Man’s high flying aerial gymnastics are just some of the thrills the family will enjoy in the Broadway production.
I’m not a huge fan of comic book heroes but I when heard that Spider-Man was being turned into a Broadway musical, I knew I had to see it.
When it first came to Broadway back in 2011, it came with all the ballyhoo you might expect with music by Bono and the Edge of mega-band, U2 and the direction of two-time Tony winner Julie Taymor. How could anything go wrong? Then Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark came out in previews and seemed to stay there forever. Suddenly, disaster struck during rehearsals when the complicated aerial work lead to a series of accidents, which caused the official opening night to be postponed…seemingly forever. Eventually Taymor was sacked from the show as production costs soared.
But the show must go on…and so it did. Soon there was a new script, new songs and a new director, and the box office receipts got bigger every day. The reviews remained tepid, but the audiences kept lining up and leaving with massive smiles on their faces.
As I approached the crowded theater on a Friday evening, I tried to set aside all the rumors and gossip I had heard about the musical. I had even avoided reading other reviews in order to make up my own mind about the production. I was prepared to be dazzled and entertained by what-is-now the most costly show ever produced on Broadway, coming in at a whopping $75million.
The show is indeed remarkable, although at times I felt something was missing. I hadn’t expected to find a show that was clearly geared to a family audience; I was rather hoping for something a little darker, a little edgier.
The opening of the show, when the character Arachne hovers above the stage with her handmaidens, is quite beautiful and I was excited to think there was going to be a mythical element to the production. But this was very much underplayed. The story really unfolded into one of teenage angst and a fairly predictable battle of good versus evil.
Still, sitting all around me in complete rapture, was a younger audience, hanging on every movement on the stage! Of course, they were anxoiusly waiting for Spider-Man to start flying through the air and after forty-five minutes he did! The aerial work, as you might imagine, is the highlight of the show, with characters swooping both high and low over the audience on a very complicated system of wires. With seven young men playing the ‘flying’ Spider-Man, it truly is an extraordinary sight to see them swinging around the auditorium in their highly choreographed aerial dance.
What I’m sad to say about this musical is that there is no stand-out song, one that’s still running through your head when you leave the theater, which is really quite remarkable considering that Bono and the Edge have produced some of the greatest rock music of the last thirty years. The acting is fine with Robert Cuccioli, playing the Green Goblin, standing out, in part due to his conspicuous costume but mostly because of the comic relief he provides in the second act.
The Green Goblin manage to steal the show from the superhero.
For the more sophisticated theater–go’ers palate, Spider-Man is somewhat bland. At times the dialogue is as flat as the two-dimensional pen-and-ink sets and I had the sensation of being at a good high-school production with amazing lighting. It is the perfect show for families—especially those with teenagers, and it was wonderful to see their excitement as the audience emptied out onto the bustling streets in the heart of Times Square.
If it’s sensational spectacle that you seek, Spider-Man definitely delivers.
Review by Fiona Tedds
For tickets to the show, go to: spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com