Tired of honoring the show’s ever-more-extended stint in “previews,” The New York Times finally reviews Broadway’s Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. From Ben Brantley’s brutal review:

The sheer ineptitude of this show, inspired by the Spider-Man comic books, loses its shock value early. After 15 or 20 minutes, the central question you keep asking yourself is likely to change from “How can $65 million look so cheap?” to “How long before I’m out of here?”

Directed by Julie Taymor, who wrote the show’s book with Glen Berger, and featuring songs by U2’s Bono and the Edge, “Spider-Man” is not only the most expensive musical ever to hit Broadway; it may also rank among the worst……from what I saw on Saturday night, “Spider-Man” is so grievously broken in every respect that it is beyond repair.

Oh well. Spiderman still has Glenn Beck on its side. Read the whole NYT piece here.

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...

4 replies on “Speaking of Spiderman….”

  1. too bad, I really like Julie Taymor’s movies – not surprisingly though it’s dreck, it’s glitzy dreck and is currently second highest grossing show in NYC – plus you have the chance to watch someone hurt themselves – a real crowd pleaser just like NASCAR

  3. Considering how easily Beck can convince his followers to continue buying up those essentially worthless 20 Franc gold coins, I imagine convincing them to spend $150 on a Broadway disaster like “S-M:TOTD” shouldn’t be much more difficult.

  4. I saw Spider-Man on January 27, and the show went off without a technical hitch. But Brantley is spot on with his condemnation of the show. It is shockingly boring; you know it is bad if the seven year-old kid sitting behind me was asleep as Act I came to a close. The critic also pointed out my biggest complaint about the show: highly theatrical events (Goblin attacking a military base; Goblin capturing Spider-Man) happen OFF-STAGE, or are explained in barely audible voice-overs. People were tense throughout the show, worried that someone was going to fall on them, and there was absolutely no magic to the flying scenes. Spider-Man should have been a circus show in the style of Cirque de Soleil. Those people always impress.

    I have to disagree with Brantley on one thing, however. I loved Arachne’s shoe-dance song, as insane and inexplicable as it was.

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