Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark hasn’t even premiered yet, and it has already taken hit after hit since its practice run began at the Foxwoods Theatre. In addition to being plagued by technical difficulties, the show has received scathing reviews from critics, some of whom declared it to be among the worst shows ever to be performed on Broadway.
But others, such as Grammy-winning artists U2 are thrilled by the show, and there is even speculation that they consider it to be the best Broadway musical they have ever written. Fans also seem to be enthused with the show, and many of the practice shows leading up to the March 15th premiere have been sold out.
Performers vying for roles in the show faced fierce competition in auditions that could be described as among the toughest in Broadway history to survive. Many actors were dying for a part in the production, but of course only a limited number of them were selected to potentially have that honor.
Some of the actors’ talents have even inspired rave reviews from unexpected sources. New York Presbyterian Hospital boldly entered the world of theater review by raving about the dangers and complexities of the stunts. They even went so far as to say that one of the stunt men was “doing surprisingly well” after one of the show’s first performances.
This is rather high praise for Christopher Tierney, who has a lot of room to improve considering that he fell 30 feet after botching one of the final scenes.
Sadly, praise like this hasn’t stopped the New York Times from featuring a negative review of Spider Man as the lead story on its website. In it, author Ben Brantley describes the show as loud and chaotic, saying that the audience cheered loudest when it was announced that there was a technical difficulty.
Spider Man has been the butt of many jokes in the Broadway community, especially because of the attention garnered by its 65 million dollar budget. But its time the press quits it with this bigger-they-are-harder-they-fall mentality.
After all, Spider Man must be one of the biggest shows in American history because there sure have been a lot of hard falls.
Trevor Christian
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I am hoping your posting here is a joke. I have seen this show and it is even worse than the diastrous Bob Dylan musical “The Times They Are A Changin’” — and that was really, really horrible.
Do you consider it a positive comment when U2 considers this “the best Broadway show they have ever written”? U2 wrote this music — they aren’t exactly objective. I think what the NY Times did was a public service — warning people away from wasting their money.
Just wait — when the show finally DOES open on March 15th (tho I wouldn’t bet on that — the opening date’s been moved again and again and again) but the critics WILL return and the final reviews will probably even be worse what was written this week.
It’s clear to me whoever wrote this hasn’t seen the show. If you did, you could never write what you did.
Don’t worry, its a joke. And U2 are the only people who I could find that gave it a compliment, so I had to put them in.