Spider-Man: The Musical

[Panther_Gunn]

I'm just surprised Wolverine's not in this thing at all.  Ya know, cuz he's in everything else.





......and there's the whole Hugh Jackman singing thing......

[Glitch Girl]

Gold Lamé Wolverine would rock.  

(I LOVE this clip)

[BlueBard]

GG, don't you know watching something like that can cause severe convulsive revulsion in the average American male?  I had to turn my head so fast I nearly got whiplash.  You should give us more warning next time.

[Glitch Girl]

You mean "Gold Lamé Wolverine" wasn't a big enough hint? 

[Midnight]

Best thing I've heard about it from somebody who actually saw a preview?

"...45 million dollars and not a penny spent on plot..."

Who actually thought a Spider Man musical would be a good idea?!

[Panther_Gunn]

Who actually thought a Spider Man musical would be a good idea?!

"It will also be a great way for us to entertain advertising clients and hold events related to the musical, and also associate Syfy with one of the great newly imagined properties on Broadway,"

This guy.   

[Glitch Girl]

Touche PG. 

Okay, in truth I think a Spider-Man musical is POSSIBLE - I just don't think this is it.  From everything I've seen it feels like it's trying to be both campy and serious at the same time and... well they cancel each other out.  

Here's a question for y'all: if you had to, how would you go about staging it?

Spoiler

Me, I'd try to aim at the "family" market, without trying to talk down to them.  Give it a sort of "Powerpuff Girls"  or "Batman: Brave & Bold" vibe - yes there's a threat and it's a threatening threat, but there's also an inherent level of goofiness to it as well.  

A quick number at the beginning establishes Peter's powers and situation so we can immediately get running with the plot.  By this point 90% of the people out there know his origin, we really don't need to dwell on it much more let alone  make it a major percentage of the show.  Let's move on and play in the status quo a while.

Main antagonist... that's a toughie.  I'm leaning towards Doc Ock because a) he works well with camp yet can still seem threatening b) he's commonly known thanks to the movies c) he can offer some cool visual staging options d) mad scientists are fun.  I'd keep other villains to a minimum.  Carnage and Venom - no appearance, not even a cameo.  Too much baggage attached to both of them.  Even so there are plenty of characters to pull from the comic if you need a quick throwaway villain (Dumb Bunny, the Spot, the Walrus, etc)

JJ Jamison needs a musical number in the bullpen.  

I'd also use both Black Cat and Mary Jane.  This way we can have a secondary conflict (an emotional one) without having to explain to little Johnny or Suzie why Gwen Stacey isn't going to be singing any more.

While the sets can be stylized, I'd use little to no symbolism.  Sometimes a web-shooter is just a web-shooter.

[BlueBard]

THIS

[BlueBard]

Ok, seriously.

I don't think Spider-Man really does work as a musical.  I can totally see it done as a serious live stage play with an instramental music score for mood, yes.  The wirework and sets would be incredible.

Musical, as in people singing about what's going on, no.

I can see where you could wring two or three tragic ballads out of Peter's story.  Sure, maybe.  And you could play the Green Goblin for laughs once, maybe twice.  He's insane, so you can get away with almost anything once or twice.  But only for laughs, since that's the only way I can picture the Goblin singing outside of one of RandomGuy's videos.  The rest of Spidey's Rogues' Gallery, no.

Speaking of which, I would really like to see RandomGuy parody this thing.  Redundant, sure, but probably good for more laughs.

[Midnight]

Oh my God.

They need to can this thing.

[JeyNyce]

Oh my God.

They need to can this thing.

I agreed, this is getting out of hand

[BlueBard]

And so we see there is a reason why the studios use CGI... nobody gets hurt trying to perform superhuman stunts without super powers.

Looks like the Parker luck is true to form, eh?

[Glitch Girl]

[cringe]  It's like "the Scottish play"... people are going to have to start referring to it as "the Spider play" to avoid the curse.

on a lighter note, Peter David saw it and shared his thoughts on it  

-------------
EDIT:
Seems that the Actors Equity Association agrees with Midnight.
Labor union to stop performances of Spider-Man musical following injury

[BlueBard]

I don't know about the musical, but the review panning the show by Richard Lawson of Gawker.com was thoroughly entertaining.

Can't link to it as the language is, well, salty.  You can follow the breadcrumbs to find it if you really want to.

Fortunately, there are several Marvel movies coming up in the next couple of years that will be worth spending my money on to see.

[JeyNyce]

For the money that was spend on this. they could have made a very decent CGI direct to DVD Spidey movie.

[RTTingle]

I honestly think this is made and designed specifically to fail... much like the story in Mel Brook's The Producers.

I love seeing how complete an entertainer Hugh Jackman is, makes me think back to old Hollywood.  Shame all the flack he got for doing it.  James Cagney did tough guy mobsters and musicals - and no flack.  Shame the thinking about things nowadays.

Anyways, I love musicals and shows and think why not with Comics on the stage?  Remember, Annie was a comic --- big hit.    Big has been done in a lot of amazing ways.  Take Disney's Lion King for instance.  That was amazing... without being dangerous.  I think the show can be done... but they need to rethink how a lot differently.

Maybe Spider Man would be better as a Cirque thing, than Broadway.

Just saying.

[JeyNyce]

They should have gotten people from Cirque du Soleil.  I figure they are better train to handle stuff like this.  I would hate to see somebody get seriously hurt on the set

[Ajax]

My Uncle went to see it on opening weekend and from what he said, the show is pretty good. Long but good. The stunts he said were out of this world and the costumes were great. This is a guy who every year goes to New York to see Broadway shows. Plus there was a pretty decent review of the show on Bleeding Cool a week or two ago. So who knows, the show might actually be good if they can work out some kinks.

[JeyNyce]

I believe that the show is good, but I'm worry about people falling and getting hurt

[JeyNyce]

'Spider-Man' went on without a hitch

[Glitch Girl]

A friend of mine had tickets to a preview performance.  He just messaged me..

Better than "A superstitious cowardly lot"

More detailed review (hopefully) coming soon.

[ref]

[Glitch Girl]

Spider-Man:TOTD "opening" delayed until March

ADDENDUM: it's about to break the record for show stuck in previews for the longest time.
Linky here
Previous record belongs to "Nick and Nora" which had 71 preview performances (Spidey's currently over halfway there) before it opened for a week and then closed.