Looking back at the year of the 'Spider'
Seems like only yesterday -- just kidding, it seems like a lifetime ago -- that a little show called "Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark" took its fledgling flight.
But tomorrow is the first anniversary of the first preview of what became Broadway's most-delayed (six times), most injury-hexed (six, including the head gash suffered this month by matinee-Spidey Matthew James Thomas), most expensive (arguably, $75 million) and most technically complex flying musical with the most pre-opening previews (more than 180) in recorded time.
That first preview, really a public rehearsal, attracted more global press than, I'm guessing, all the seasons of all the Broadway shows in history. The action stopped five times for technical fixes, and there was virtually no finale. Spider-Man (Reeve Carney) and spider-lady Arachne (Natalie Mendoza) were stuck hanging over the crowd at different times. Days later, Mendoza reported she had suffered a concussion offstage that night when she was hit with a rope. By late December, she was out of the cast.
The show -- once expected to break the old-school Broadway mold with music by U2's Bono and The Edge and everything else by "Lion King" visionary Julie Taymor -- did officially open, finally, in June. Taymor was long gone, having been fired in March, her work rewritten/restructured by newcomers during an unprecedented three-week hiatus. And, despite mixed-to-negative reviews, especially for the mediocre music, box-office grosses have been consistently up in moneybags-land with the very biggest hits.
End of story? Not likely. Our Year of the Spider cannot be commemorated without updates on Taymor's new lawsuit against the producers for royalties and copyright infringement -- for $1 million in damages -- plus her ongoing arbitration through the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society for more than $500,000 in royalties. She claims she has been paid just $125,000 for her work -- including the amazing stage pictures -- created in the nine years since Bono and The Edge invited her to direct and co-write the show.
Taymor, who chose not to comment for this column, gave a rare interview to Esquire for next month's Americans of the Year issue -- an inclusion that must be vindicating around now. She says her dismissal came as a "complete shock." She also denies accusations that she refused an ultimatum from the producers to make fundamental changes, which ended up cutting a tedious four-member "Geek" chorus, refocusing the story from a muddled high-minded myth about Greek goddess Arachne to a dumbed-down comic-book battle between Spidey and the show's best character, the deliciously evil Green Goblin.
(Asked how he feels about the final revision, Patrick Page, who plays the Goblin, tells me: "My part is a lot bigger in version two. I'll let you take a guess. I never heard an actor say 'I love the version where my part is smaller.' ")
Then there is the question about the budget. How expensive is this monster, anyway? Taymor, whose $29-million "Lion King" has grossed more than $4.2 billion for Disney, says "Spider-Man" really cost around $35 million to get up and running. The rest went to the gutting and refitting of the Foxwoods Theatre.
Producer Michael Cohl, too, chose not to comment for this column. But spokesman Rick Miramontez unsurprisingly tells me, "The production does not discuss financials, but the figure in Esquire is not correct."
In other words, nobody's talking about when or if, given current grosses and attendance and reported weekly running costs between $1.1 million and $1.2 million, the show will break even. It is generally believed that any bonanza will have to wait for national and international tours. But these cannot be any ordinary tours, not with the flying and other dangerous gymnastics that, after aerialist Christopher Tierney famously fell 30 feet from a platform last December, got the attention of both the New York Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (Tierney, who suffered serious injuries, has been back doing all his old tricks since May.)
There are no known tours planned, though a source close to the production agreed that another stand-alone production, perhaps in Europe, is more realistic than a road company.
Meanwhile, there is talk of Tony nominations, unthinkable when the show missed last year's Tony deadline and opened to so much bad press. As the joke around Broadway goes, the musical season is so weak this season that "Spider-Man" is actually a contender.
Producers who hadn't planned to bring in musicals this spring are rumored to be rethinking their schedules. If they do bring shows in early, they, like all Broadway producers these days, will have to make sure they follow the laws and clearly label previews. "Spider-Man" conspicuously didn't, which got Bill de Blasio, New York's public advocate, and the city's Department of Consumer Affairs to issue a warning about deceptive practices.
As the anniversary approaches, there are two new principal cast members -- Rebecca Faulkenberry as Mary Jane Watson and Christina Sajous as Arachne. Contracts for Reeve and Page are up at the end of May. When I remind Page that the Tonys are in June, he concedes he just may be around.
For the anniversary, Miramontez promises a giant cake in the shape of the Chrysler Building. As someone still obviously remembers, owners of the Empire State Building refused to light the building Spidey red and blue for the opening.
And Taymor, who gamely took a bow and applauded her former collaborators at the opening, says in the Esquire story, "I think the show is what it is, and we'll see if it lasts." The Tony committee recently ruled that she, not her replacement, is eligible for a directing nomination. Taymor says she'd like the show to keep running -- "so I get paid."
