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Was God trying to tell them something?

On Oct. 20, 2005, a small group gathered in the Edge’s TriBeCa apartment to sign the partnership agreement to create a musical version of “Spider-Man.” The driving force behind the show for the past four years had been Tony Adams, who had produced “Victor/Victoria” on Broadway and who had sold the “Spider-Man” idea to the U2 partners. But as the Edge went to get a pen, Mr. Adams suffered a stroke. Two days later he was dead.


–Via this NY Times piece which rounds up the troubled history and clouded future of the show that has become legend.

1 COMMENT

  1. Look this all started when Sam Rami “left” the spiderman franchise, and the studio in an attempt to remove the former directors take, began the “reboot” process.

    let. it. go. before things get worse.

  2. If the production is desperate for money, I imagine they could sell the behind-the-scenes story to a network to be made into a tv movie or mini-series.

    It might even be more interesting and entertaining that the musical itself. :-)

  3. From what I’ve heard what happens in the show, it sounds like Taymor had NO clue what Spiderman was about. At all. Sounds like she never even bothered to watch the movies much less read any of Spidey’s exploits…

  4. “From what I’ve heard what happens in the show, it sounds like Taymor had NO clue what Spiderman was about.”

    I saw the show, and concur with this sentiment.

    I read one blogger’s review which made a great observation. The show is narrated by a ‘geek chorus,’ three comics nerds and one of the kid’s younger sister, who doesn’t like Spider-Man and instead wants to tell the story of the ‘original’ spider-hero, Arachne. This guy posited that the girl is Taymor’s stand-in, and that she’d really rather be directing a show about Arachne rather than Spider-Man. There is in fact a whole scene where the geek chorus argues about what makes Spider-Man cool and can’t come up with an answer.

  5. If I said it once, I said it a thousand times… if a creator has no respect for the source material of a given project, that creator shouldn’t be allowed within a thousand miles of that project in the first place. The reason is simple: Such creative pairings almost always end badly.

  6. “If I said it once, I said it a thousand times… if a creator has no respect for the source material of a given project, that creator shouldn’t be allowed within a thousand miles of that project in the first place. The reason is simple: Such creative pairings almost always end badly.”

    Two words: Bat-nipples!

  7. Actually in the referenced article, Taymor mentions that the geek chorus represents her, Bono, Edge and her co-writer Glen Berger. So the girl geek is a total Mary Sue, as is Arachne.

    Oy.

  8. “There is in fact a whole scene where the geek chorus argues about what makes Spider-Man cool and can’t come up with an answer.”

    Maybe the geek chorus is standing in for the theater critics, who can’t find anything nice to say about the production.

  9. @ CBrown & The Beat: Wow. Yeah. If ever there was a blatant author stand in. I wish Taymor had gone done some abstract play about a spider god instead and left this play to its own material. This whole thing is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

    @ Arnie: Rami and the movies have nothing to do with this play or anything in this article. Save that blind nerd rage for a relevant post.

    @ mario boon: I hope that was sarcasm. There are so many misogynistic comic fans, it’s hard to tell.