SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK 2.0 Numbs All Senses

THEATRE: Foxwoods Theatre, New York

DATE: 12-05-2011 (preview)

TIME:

WITH: Reeve Carney, Jennifer Damiano, Patrick Page, Isabel Keating, T.V. Carpio, Michael Mulheren, Christopher W. Tierney

DIRECTOR: Julie Taymor & Philip Wm. McKInley (creative consultant)

No musical in recent memory has received as much (negative) global publicity as “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” from the ever increasing costs ($70 million plus), injuries, multiple delayed premieres, horrid early reviews and word-of-mouth, to the firing of its star director Julie Taymor (“The Lion King”). After this firing and hiring of new creatives the show shut down for 3 weeks to incorporate revisions. I attended the first night of the reopening, christened “Spider-Man 2.0,” and although it played without a technical glitch I have to say it completely left me cold. It is rather boring and would be more appropriate entertainment in a theme park.

Reeve Carney as Spider-Man

The show starts off with a striking image of Arachne – T.V. Carpio (Across The Universe) who replaced injured Natalie Mendoza - descending from the sky with her posse of spider-women. Originally Arachne was the main villain of the show, but after rewrites the role has been reduced to that of a superfluous guardian angel. My hopes - that this just might be interesting after all - were quickly dashed, however, in the next scene where nerdy Peter Parker (Reeve Carney) is bullied in high school by Flash and his gang. The accompanying song Bullying by Numbers is just awful, the choreography shockingly bad, and the flat cardboard sets laughable. The design by George Tsypin aims to emulate the comic book look, but the flatness and bright colors that this has resulted in are not theatrical at all. Bouncing Off The Walls is another atrocious number, in which Peter discovers his super powers, and poorly executed in its staging. The most winning visuals are a couple of perspective skewing sets: Osborn’s lab and the Chrysler building.

Carney & Jennifer Damiano

The book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger & fixer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, which was reportedly a mess, is now easy to follow but also boringly by the numbers. It closely follows the familiar origins-of-Spider-Man-tale and covers similar territory as Sam Raimi’s first Spidey movie. The major action sequences are not set up very well and the songwriters (U2’s Bono and The Edge) do not seem to have a clue how to write for a musical.

For version 2.0 five flying sequences have been added, but they are all surprisingly unexciting. Musicals like The Witches of Eastwick, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins had far more effective flying sequences, mostly because they were dramatically set up much better. Great talents like Isabel Keating (The Boy from Oz) as Aunt May, Jennifer Damiano (Tony nominee for Next To Normal) as Mary Jane and Michael Mulheren (Kiss Me, Kate) are wasted and although the charismatic Reeve Carney has everything in him to make a strong Spider-Man the material fails him. Patrick Page’s campy turn as the Green Goblin is about as good as it gets, but his gang of villains are quite silly in unconvincing masks.

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark is like noisy novocaine. It numbs all senses. I suspect there was more fun to be had in Taymor’s original version, but this show was never going to work with such an atrocious score. When a superhero spectacle leaves you sitting indifferent in your seat something is very wrong. In an unusually strong and original Broadway season this production stands out like a sore thumb.