Friday, December 3, 2010 - Foxwoods Theatre
The show had it's first real preview on Sunday, November 28th and I scored a ticket to a performance a few days later. Immediately after work I bolted through the crowded, cold streets of Times Square to make it in enough time to get a double-pinot-in-a-plastic-cup and get to my seat in the last row of the orchestra before the curtain went up.
Let's start with the curtain; it's big, bold, and sketchy just like the rest of the show. The abstracted, geometric lines splatter off the neon cherry red backdrop as Spidey lunges toward with a sinister Green Goblin with his spiked tongue nearly as sharp as the dagger in his claw, all the while as an curiously curvy Mary Jane plunges off the Brooklyn Bridge lumbering in the shadowy distance. The whole thing is framed by towering skyscrapers and metallic webbing as I'm sure you can imagine.
The house grows dark, and a piercing electric guitar chord cuts through the fading light to reveal an unforgettable interpretation of the same scene illustrated on the curtain-- our hero, villain, and victim in a dramatic tableaux of life and death. It looks daring and dangerous, and the Vegas-style hydraulics thrust silently at seemingly staggering heights. Within a few short moments, we're quickly transported 'through the Astral Plane' into the world of Arachne, the ferocious new super-villain created by the famously infamous director, Julie Taymor.
Attempting to dissect the intricacies of the plot would be annoying for me and you, so I'll save us both the hassle and just encourage you to SEE THIS SHOW. See it a couple of times if you can-- because trust me, there is a lot going on here. And I'm not only talking about the mind-blowing scenic and costume design, the crazy good music, the FUH-LYING, and the incredible sense of danger you feel watching them pull it off.... But I'm really mean to say that there is a LOT happening in the concept and the subtext of a narrative arc that Broadway has never seen before. Many have criticized the show's seemingly absent 'plot-line', failing to appreciate the many layers of storytelling operating across a catalog over nearly 50 years of material-- MOST TYPICALLY told one comic-frame at a time.
I also have to record the fact that the show ran from start-to-finish without stopping-- which at that stage of development on the third night of previews, despite lacking any semblance of a coherent ending, was a roaring success. There was a collective electricity among the audience-- we experience the insanity of the show together the way parents and siblings spectate a home-town high school football game, cheering for every small point the show scored along the way.
In the end, I was left stunned, confused and I knew I had to return to see the evolution of the preview process, to track the progression of both artistry and technicality. My next encounter with the show will be the subject of Part Two of this series-- but before I depart let me say this:
HOW TO ENJOY/GET SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK (without feeling like a total tool)-
- Get yourself a seat in the Flying Circle.
- Really READ the song titles and character names (especially the Geek Chorus).
- Forget about 'the book' and remember SPIDER-MAN has a heritage that is built of countless books-- so there.
- Don't worry about the fact that this shit jumps around what seems to be some sort of Time/Space Continuum, or something (ie The Astral Plane?).
- Right?
- PS - I'm writing this at 3am, watching 'Across The Universe' on DVD-- hey hey.
As I've mentioned-- I'm going back to the show this coming MONDAY FEBRUARY 7.... so be sure to check back for the rest of by reports coming soon.
.JPG)
