The never-ending story of the Spider-Man musical continues:
• Director Julie Taymor is out and about promoting her film THE TEMPEST, and also answering questions about the musical. As many have pointed out…it’s still a work in progress. Maybe that book — the script — does need a bit of work:
Taymor says she never promised perfection right out of the gate. “We have work to do,” she said. “We have work on the book and work on getting it to run smoothly every night. It’s like a circus. There are things that can go wrong and you just have to stop.”
• The injury toll continued as actress Natalie Mendoza was bonked on the head while hanging in the air, resulting in a concussion. She plays Arachne, a new character created by the show who represents the spider that bit Peter Parker. An understudy has been playing the role in previews since the mishap.
• Performances have been going on since the peril-fraught opening night, without reports of injury or dismemberment. On Sunday, there were only three problems:
In a week, the mechanics of this musical, bashed and heralded in equal measure, have started to smooth. The show had only three obvious malfunctions, one involving some acrobatic work in the second scene. It had to stop briefly for the other two: once during an end-of-first-act chase scene between the titular hero and the Green Goblin, and again for an entrance of Arachne—played Sunday by understudy America Olivo—and several female henchmen bugs.
• Finally a roundup of comedy video from SNL and Conan.
