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Why did theSpider - Man : bend Off The Darkmusical fail ? In 2005 , Glen Berger was hired to solve on a Broadway adjustment of Marvel ’s Spider - Man . In possibility , this should have been a surefire success ; the superhero craze was only just beginning , and Spider - Man was at the vanguard of it . In 2002 , Sam Raimi’sSpider - Manhad grossed over $ 800 million in the global box office , and 2004’sSpider - Man 2had come close to matching that .
The so - called"comic book rock-and-roll opera circus"[via60 Minutes ] was depict as the most technically complex output of all time , with 27 sequences of case flying through the air or engaged in airy combat . Julie Taymor was fundamentally in armorial bearing of originative decisions , fresh from her work on the Broadway adaptation ofThe Lion King , and she signed up after leafing through issues ofUltimate Spider - Manand spotting a nerveless reference that just begged to be develop . In a remarkable coup , Bono and U2 were commissioned to drop a line the soundtrack , and although the stars sputter to live up to Bono ’s vocals , the songs were pretty strong .
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Given the natural endowment on board , Spider - Man : Turn Off The Darkshould have been a hit . Unfortunately , it all went awry ; in a tell - all Quran calledSong of Spider - Man , Berger himself delineate the product as a " interior joke . " Just what bump to this Spider - Man story ?
Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark Was A Problem From The Beginning
A superhero musical is , of course , an absurd idea ; as suchSpider - Man : grow Off The Darkshould have been treat as a bit of fun escapism rather than an intense melodrama based on Greek mythology . unluckily , that was n’t the vision of Julie Taymor , who became captivated with an original villain establish on Arache , the god of spider . This lead to lead battles with Marvel for literally months , with Avi Arad - then primary creative officer ofMarvel Entertainment- reject to sign off on the lineament . The arguments uprise incredibly heated , and after manufacturer Tony Adams died from a stroke , his colleague David Garfinkle took over a project that was already seeming badly - fated and continue to endeavor to mediate the differences .
And then Marvel go radio - silent . A shake - up was in the work at Marvel Entertainment , with Avi Arad growing well-worn of the behind - the - setting conflict there . In May 2006 , he depart , setting himself up as an independent producer . It take months for the book to regain its manner to Marvel ’s new creative policeman , David Maisel , who signed off on it at last . But even he had booking . If left unchanged , harmonize toSong of Spider - Man , he admonish , " the musical will adversely affect Marvel ’s blade [ due to the ] level of gender and extreme adult composition that are unfitting both for the case and the melodic . " His note went neglected .
The Technology Didn’t Yet Exist For A Spider-Man Musical
The output team behindSpider - Man : Turn Off The Darkknew they were making their show at a time when superheroes were in style , but they did n’t stop to ask why that did n’t happen until the twenty-first century . The reason , quite only , is that thetechnology to make superhero filmswork just did n’t subsist at an low-priced monetary value until recent times , and the Spider - Man musical faced the same problem , even if its technical crew failed to realize it .
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The plot was too challenging . Stunts were so complex they ask computer system of rules to align them , one web annulus cost $ 1 million to build and only turned out to work part of the fourth dimension , and at one point Gerber and Taymor considered add up to the topsy-turvyness with immense mirrors to stick out holographic images of theSinister Six . This was a funny book brought to the level , but there are more limitation to the stagecoach . With a musical , both rehearsals and performances are springy , and anything that go wrong will have a permanent , dramatic effect .
Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark’s Budget Problems
Spider - Man : Turn Off The Darkbecame the most expensive show in Broadway history , with the budget growing from an already eye - watering $ 50 million to a stupefying $ 75 million . operate cost for the backstage rigging alone stood at $ 1.1 million per week , meaning the musical theater would have needed to ply for over five years to break even - assuming every undivided exhibit sold out . Ironically , the timing of the project became an outlet because the economic clangoring of 2008 ultimately result investors to take the air off . By the time new backers had been find , more million had been spent on rent and cast retainer ( several member of the cast eventually walk aside disregarding ) . All this was extensively reported , and as a resultSpider - Man : call on Off The Darkgained a reputation for being a blackened muddle that swallowed hard cash . In the end , investors reportedly lose $ 60 millionby the clip the show finish its three - twelvemonth Broadway run .
Stunt Performer Injuries on Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark
Spider - Man : Turn Off the Darkalso clear a reputation for accident to the extent the New York State Department of Labor conducted safety review . During rehearsals , stunt performing artist Brandon Rubendall land on a ramp that was perhaps five degree out and wound up on crutches . A calendar month later , Kevin Aubin attempted the same stunt and slammed into the point , breaking both wrists . Most shocking of all , Christopher Tierney fell from a 30 - foundation platform during prevue showings , fracture his skull and suffering interior bleeding and broken rib . This accident was all the more dread because he happen to fall at the sentence a prerecorded thigh-slapper was play , meaning the audience were unsure whether this was part of the act . Later , actress Natalie Mendoza put up a concussion when she was hit on the head by equipment , and another stunt performer suffered trauma to his leg after his ankle was caught in a hydraulic stage lift . Soon actors get to wonder whetherSpider - Man : Turn Off The Darkwascursed .
Not all of the problems lead to accidental injury , of course ; sometimes they just cut off the show . On one social occasion a line got catch , and the entire show was put on hold for 20 minutes while the technician attempted to fix it . Gerber coined the phrase"TurnOffTheDarkus Interruptus"to describe these moments , which left audience bored and frustrated .
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Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark’s Story Problems
And then there were the issue with the hand . Julie Taymor was convince these did n’t weigh , and she pushed on disregardless , furiously oppose anyone who dared to challenge her originative vision . Meetings sprain into shouting matches , as egos clash . At one detail Taymor was pass rehearsals that consort with her singular visual sensation , while - unknown to her - Gerber was rewriting the whole show . The entire script wound up rewritten afterTaymor pull up stakes in March 2011 .
The first plot , as Taymor wish , focused entirely on the character of Arachne . She was put as Spider - Man ’s true scourge , the being who would never let Peter Parker quit and who ascertain he was hold up up against a perpetual stream of supervillains . swear by the gods and no longer wishing to live alone , Arachne ultimately kidnappedMary Janein an attempt to force Spider - Man to depone to be with her constantly . She relented in the goal , regaining her lose humanity as she recognise Peter ’s true dearest for Mary Jane . It was a strange plot , capitalizing on the idea of people being turned into wanderer - animal , and the second human action in particular was garbled . As a result , the rescript turn Arachne into a B - level character and brought the Green Goblin to the cutting edge . This fresh version had the moral excellence of being forgetful , which meant it involve a lot fewer stunt and was thus loud .
It was also category - well-disposed - at last . Philip William McKinley had essentially taken over from Taymor at this point , formally just a " advisor " but in reality the principal decisiveness - maker . After the rescript , Mary Jane ’s don was no longer an abusive drunkard , a string of badly - judged onanism jokes had been dropped , and even the choreography had been changed . Unfortunately even this was n’t perfect , gather poor reviews from fan and critic .
Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark’s Bad Reviews & Box Office
The critic , of course , were unmerciful . At first the crew put it down to what they call off " Spidenfreude , " think journalists were taking delight inSpider - human beings : Turn Off The Dark ’s bad luck . They may well have had a point , but when even the best review [ viaVulture ] describes the show as " the base cells of a protean imagination dividing anddividing and dividing , decent out of control , " there is a trouble . " The result is brutal and deeply perplexing - a boiling Crab - scape of living hurting , " Scott Brown continued in his cutting reappraisal forNew York Magazine . Ben Bradley of theNew York TimessuggestedSpider - Man : change by reversal Off The Darkwasn’t just Broadway ’s most expensive musical , it was also its worst . And even the rewrites go to garner any real praise .
by nature , all this had a issue . A melodic , just like a movie , depends on strong word - of - rima oris if it is to succeed , andSpider - Man : Turn Off The Darkjust did n’t have that . At metre it was successful in terms of its corner office , but never successful enough , and by the end it would have taken five year just to recoup its costs . producer discussed adding in extra birdsong and scenes in an attempt to prompt multiple visits , but these program were forsake . In the end , the failure ofSpider - Man : Turn Off The Darkstands as a will of hubris , of Godhead whose dreams were out of the question to realize and whose egos clouded their imaginativeness , and it stood as an example of a Broadway that was more interested with commerce than art . All this is ironical given the cardinal baddie was earlier supposed to be Arachne , a mythologic figure of speech who symbolizes the same fault .
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