8/17/2019 "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" revamp to preview

1/2

ftntertainment

Y

FRAI{X I.OVEG

Sp€cial

to Newsday

I

n his old Marvel Comics

"Bullpen

I

Bulletins"

homilies, Spider-Man

I

co-creator

Starl Lee would some-

I

times

wish for his readers,

"May

thy

I webs

be

ever untangled "

With any luc\ that's

exactly what the

producers

of the much-maligted Broad-

way

musical

"Spider-Marr

Turn Offthe

Dark"

have

achieved

with the revamped

version retuming in

previews

tonight:

Untangle

the spectacular

stagecraft of

departed

director

Julie

Taymor

from the

obliviously

convoluted and self-indul-

gent

web ofco-writer

Julie

Taymor.

"We have not spoken with

her," says

the show's new book

writer,

Roberto

Aguirre-Sacas4

sealing

the break be-

tween

the old

show and

"Spidey

2.0."

That break

may lift what seems

to be

a

curse on the

show.

'Spider.

an'aspunchline

Aside

from the

Dear-unanimous

brickbats it

suffered when critics re-

viewed

the

preview

of Feb. 7

-

the

fourt} armounced

ard

delayed opening

night

-

enough

performers

suffered

iniuries

that

the show became a

punch

tiDe-

Sh"Er,Spider-Man

Cbristopher

Tierney

was hoCpitalized

after falling at

le2st

20 feet, ard Natalie

Mendoza, tle

6rst to

play

the spider-goddess

Arachne,

suffered a concussion

during

the first

preview

Her replacement.

T-V.

Carpio, was later iniured

and had

to sit

out the show for two weel$.

"It's

great

to have spectacle, but the

heart

and soul is the story, firsb then

tlat

combined with music. And then

you

lill in

around

it,"

says co-producer

feremiah

Harris, echoing the view, he

says,

of composers Bono

and

The

Edge

of

U2.

"That's where we

struggled," he

admits,

"on

the story side."

Though doing mega box-office, it was

clear the

musical was in danger ofbecom-

ing

a

laughingstock

fuuirre-Sacasa,

director Philip

William McKinley and

creative

consultant Paul Bogaev all came

in at the

producers'

request, In early

March,

Taymor ageed to

step

aside.

Harris and

fellow prcducer

Michael

Cotrl

saw the crisis

"at

alnost exacdy the

same time, during the

Christmas breah"

nearly

a month after the shov/s initial

preview

on Nov. 28.

"And

we

didn't

lqlow

exacdy

what we

had to

do,

but

we

knew we had to do sometlfng."

"It

was touglL"

agrees CohL

"There

was

so much publicity,

and

you

tell

yourself

you

don't want to read it all and then

you

just

do. And

your

friends and acquaintan-

ces tell

you

what tley've read, and wery-

body

1'a(

atl spini..

-

what's wrong,

what s right, how to fix it. It's hard to keep

a

clear head, but we think we\ue done it "

Expcct maior

changes

Tte

changes to the show involve

wholesale

deletions of

scenes

and

characters

(see

sidebar) ald a new

emphasis on

the

human

factor

that has

made Spider-Man so

popular

since Lee

and adist

co-conceptualizer Steve

Ditko devised the character in 1962.

"Flash

Thompson, Aunt May, Uncle

Ben

-

the

classic

[supporting]

charac-

ters

-

have all had their stories deep-

ened, and they have more to do," says

Aguirre-Sacasa, an established

play-

wright and screenwriter

(HBO's

"Big

Love")

who

in 2006 and 2007 vrrote

18

issues

of

"The

Sgnsationd Spider-

Man,"

a

spinoff of

the

llagship

series

"The

Amazing Spider-MaIl"

Revamped'Spider-Man'

previews

open tonight

One big change in

particular,

Aguirre-

Sacasa reveals,

has been to the

pivotal

moment whe& in the classic

teUing,

Peter

Parker sellishly lets a robber escape

whom he

could have easily

stopped

-

a

robber

who, as fate would have it,later

kills Petet's

Uncle Ben, triggerirg Peter's

desire to take responsibility for his

power

and become the superhero

Spider-Mal

In the musical

Peter, more

or

less,

simply

didn't

yell

loudly enough to keep high-

school bully

Flash Thompson from

-

uite

accideatally

-

rurmhg Ben over.

Not exacdv

the same thiner

"Ifs alw;ys hard

to kil

s-omeone on-

A fiee

URR dde to the show

I

ong

lslanders

can

get

a break

on

I

trbvel expenses

when

going

to

l-

see

"Spider-Man":

The Lohg

lsland Rail Road is offering

promotion-

al codes on

platform posters

and in

fliers at the stations

that theatergoers

can

present

when buying a ticket to

the show.

ln return, they'll

get

a free

LIRR

round-trip ticket,

good

for

anywhere on the line.

lf

you

buy through Ticketmaster,

you

need to

purchase

show tickets 10

days in advance for Ticketmaster

to

mail

you

the train tickets. Those

who

purchase

at the theater box office

will

be handed LIRR tickets there.

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FRAt{t( tovEc

8/17/2019 "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" revamp to preview

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Whats

different

ere are some

of

the

changes

between

the original

and the

I I rewamped

versions;

GONE

The Geek

Chorus

of

four

teenage

Spider-Man

fans

who

framed

the

storv-

GONE

The mini-boggling

musical

number

"Deeply Furious,"

in

which

Arachne

and her

spider-women

minions

do a

dance with desieler

foohl'ear that

these

powerfid'mytho

rrgicJ

beiqs" ha;e,

;:tt,si;I""

ft

;;

New

York

City shoe

stores.

REDUCED

The role

of the soider-

goddess

Aracbne,

widely

sein as a

Taymor

manqu6,

who manipulated

the actions

of ttre

storv and created

illusions

that only

maie a labyrin-

thine

scrht

even nwkier,

EXPANDED

The

role

of Spider-

Mar's

arch-nemesis. the Green

Goblin,

played

with brio by

Broadway

wonder

Patrick

Pase.

EXPANDED

The roles

of such

sup-

porting

characters

as Peter

Parker's

Aunt

May

and

Uncle

Ben,

and

his

sweetheart

Mary

Iane

Watson

CHANGED

The

pivotal

death that

causes

Peter Parker

to realize

that,

'" Vith

great

power

there must also

come great

responsibility-"

-

tMl{K

tovtc

stage and

carry ttrat moment

through""

Harris

says.

"Clearly

the staging

ofthat

was

probably

not

our best momene

Him

tun'cle

Benl

running out in

front of the

[car)

pop-out,

which

is a

great piece

of

art,

but it

iust

had no impact,"

either

physically

or

emotionally.

"So

we've

come

up with a new

way ofdoing that

critical

moment

in Spider-Man's li{e."

Going

to t{re sourte

It

didn't

hwt

ttrat the

prcducers,

in

addition to

bringing on McKinley

and

Bogaev,

acrually

drank at the original

creative fountain for

helD.

"We

went to

Marvel"'Cobl

recalls,'aia

saia,

.ltire

Z

need one

ofvour

writers, Who

do

vou f

recommend?

Someone voune and' i

energetic.'And

they

sa;6 noUieno, and *e

e

met

v/ithhim and ii

clicked.'

F

He n'asn't

the oDly Marvelite

direct-

3

ly involved

says Aguirre-Sacasa.

The

companyis

chief

creative officer,

=

ormer

editor in

chief

Joe Quesad4 _€

pitched

jokes

for the new

script, and

p

inore

seiiously

"helped

us witir

one

i

olthe

things

we

did for this

iteration,

i

which

was expand tle role

of the

c

Green.Goblint-

-

Spider-Maa's

arch-

g

nemesis.

who

bad atrticlimacticallv t

died at the

end of scene one.

It

is

a

tangled web

that

Tayrnor ;

wove. But

perhaps

by the

tirne this new

I

version

of

"Spider-Maa" opens

N

offrcially

June

14,

true to Lae's dictum,

H

yon

webs will be

untangled.

-