Spider-Man: The Musical, music by U2

ned otm re cirque

have we considered that the rep said "several" because he didn't know how many feet exactly?

If a rep knows so little about the situation that he bought that THAT was "several", then imho he shouldn't be repping anything to the general public.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdRS_LDu7AY

they need to shut this shit down. There's a score of people on BroadwayWorld.com who are pointing out that 'lots of shows experience many injuries', but what they fail to realize is that most of those are minor injuries due to physical accidents, whereas the four major injuries regarding Spiderman have mostly been due to equipment failure or failure to maintain safety regulations. The Department of Labor is making its SECOND visit after all.

fuck this show!

I do feel for the actors though. they all deserve Purple Hearts.

would actors equity shut it down? or the city?

well, they'll probably work in tandem to make that happen. I mean after this little delay, assuming that they do prove in good faith to both parties that they have addressed all safety concerns, they're going to be on such a short leash with the Department of Labor from tehn on...the show is so infamous now it's going to be impossible for anything to go unnoticed.

I wouldn't be surprised if a demand is made to scale back certain stunts, which would mean *gasp* another delay (which would be funny considering that they only just pushed opening back another month like a week ago).

only spiderman can shut this show down

@Robalope SPIDER-MAN: TURNED OFF BY OSHA

maybe if they jettison the Bono/Edge score and get Randy Newman to do a brand new one, and then have all the fight sequences performed offstage while clangy sound effects play, this show will have a shot.

from september: taymor's quote is chilling in light of recent events.

Bono agrees that "what's special is the very ordinariness of Peter Parker. It sounds odd to say, but Spider-Man is as important to the 21st century as the story of Ulysses was to the ancient Greeks. These are morality plays, where luminous characters duke it out in ways very revealing of the nature of who we are."

In Spider-Man, that battle is enhanced with spectacle. "We've got a great dance company, and there will be acrobatic circus feats and unbelievable action sequences," Taymor says. "We'll have (performers) flying over people in the audience, landing in the aisles and the balconies."

http://movieclips.com/DbPN-three-amigos-gringos-falling-from-the-sky/

did the audience present the night of the most recent accident get their money back, i wonder?

probably not, because even though they didn't make it to the end, I'm sure Julie Taymor will argue that the first three preview shows didn't even have an ending.....

A friend of mine was in that audience (and tweeted about it like a fiend for 24 hours) and no, I don't believe they got their money back.

No one's been getting their money back, because these shows have all be retroactively declared previews. Which is just one more facet of the royal scam.

Taymor tries to reassure cast everything is cool, cast not so sure, tonight's performance is off

yea I know it's previews -- I'm not so sure all the paying audience does though, which is part of the problem.

i think there's too much money involved/to be made for this to jump the tracks now

with the nut being one million a week, I'm not so sure there is a lot of money to be made. The show has extremely negative word of mouth, and while in general "there is no such thing as bad publicity", there are limits to that.

They'd have to be at near capacity almost nightly, and not many shows that aren't Lion King and/or Wicked are capable of that.

I'm sure they're not going to quit right now at this moment, but the idea of opening day happening seems less likely to me. If the cast is really as unhappy as they sounded in the report, I don't doubt we'll start to see attrition and people fleeing to other projects.

and if they do get to Opening Night, they will almost surely be lambasted by Ben Brantley, who isn't quite powerful enough to kill a show with his pen like his predecessors, but well can weaken it significantly nonetheless.

they've made a million a week in previews!

and there's already been attrition and people running to other projects; doesn't seem to have deterred the thing from stumbling on

xpost I know, but that isn't necessarily a predictor of long-term success. Experts are already predicting that Spidy would have to run for years to even begin to make a profit, and that's a tough fate no matter what type of show you are.

Critically panned crap has succeeded before (hello Mamma Mia), but it didn't begin its run with a sea of controversy like this either. Nor did Wicked. I don't think this show could run for years, there's too many x-factors, such as the safety concerns, and the fact that people are pointing out that beyond the spectacle, it's a pretty terrible show that even many Spidy fanboys are trashing.

ie, the general public isn't even liking what they're seeing.

The spokesman, Rick Miramontez, categorically denied a media report that “Spider-Man” had been shut down indefinitely. “Absolutely false,” Mr. Miramontez said shortly after 5 p.m. on Wednesday. “The performance is on for tomorrow night.”

Rick "Several Feet" Miramontez

regarding the attrition, some attrition doesn't hurt because they have understudies, but if a significant number of principals walk at the same time, it could have a devastating effect and might require more cancellations. also worth noting is that they are now in previews, whereas much of the aforementioned attrition happened before that stage.

Surely, though, with most of the money now spent, they'd keep it running as long as they could not to make a profit, but to diminish the losses

But, you know, fuck this show anyway

You know if they keep up this controversy then they can just keep doing disastrous sell out shows to NYC audiences who want to go and see if anything crazy will happen tonight that they can blog about.

two years from now it will be revealed that this was the masterplan all along

The lead with the concussion is reportedly leaving the show

On Sunday, Ms. Mendoza wrote on her Facebook page that she was grateful to be down to two nausea tablets and four painkillers per day to cope with her concussion.

Looks like Taymor cancelled a public interview. Because she's so busy, LOL. At least they're offering refunds to that.

March 15th now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/nyregion/14spiderman.html?hp

Over a year late!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704803604576077940743813136.html

One key element the show is still hammering out: the ending. Producers intend to replace the $65 million show's temporary finale—a scrim unfurling to reveal an image of Spider-Man—with a more elaborate scene, Mr. Cohl said. "The actual ending that we have planned is still not in the show," he said. "Nobody's seen it—including us, by the way."

How can you say shit like that while charging full price for tickets

cuz it's America 2011?

see New Yorker cover, btw

This may the first Broadway production to make record money during its previews and then flop when it goes live. Assuming they ever land that pesky, elusive ending, that is. Might I suggest lighting the cast on fire? It worked for Metallica.

not really thinking this will ever open

Waiting for Doc Ock

Taymor should try her hand at a musical adaptation of "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" next.

wld be great if it turned out steve ditko was carrying out a phantom-of-the-opera-like vendetta against this

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ESC4bygtp2M/SHxxLB7wVII/AAAAAAAAEE8/cn7ug6kRKdc/s400/Ditko+Mr+A+Laughs+witz4p8pn2.jpg

they should announce new untested scenes every so many weeks, the way other shows have "8 weeks only!" stuntcasting

or combine the two. "Bono to be flung across stage until April 13th!"

U2 must be scrambling to make a new album to release a month after this opens/closes.

lol @forks

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/jan/26/spider-man-musical