Theater Review: Spider-man Turn Off the Dark

Patrick Page and Reeve Carney in a scene from “SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark” © Jacob Cohl

A New Version Saves the Day for This Super Hero
By Lauren Yarger
In the comic-book-inspired Broadway musical Spider-man Turn Off the Dark, the super hero beats back bullies, vanquishes villains and gets the girl, but in real life, he comes back from the dead.

The $75-million show, long beset by production problems, injuries and inquiries about safety postponed its opening, first scheduled for last November, multiple times before shutting down. What finally did Spidey in was a slew of horribly negative reviews filed by New York critics who broke with tradition and wrote about the show before its official opening. After all, they reasoned, audiences had been paying full price for shows for months and an official opening might not happen if financial woes or safety issues shut down the production.

In April, producers put the show on a three-week hiatus while shaking up the creative team. Director Julie Taymor, who had collaborated with Bono and The Edge (the rock group U2), who wrote the music and lyrics, as well as co-wrote the book with Glen Berger, left the show. Philip William McKinley was brought in as creative consultant, along with book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (a playwright and writer of Spider-Man comic books) and choreographer Chase Brock (Daniel Ezralow did the original choreography and aerial choreography). Previews on what has been dubbed “Spidey 2.0” began May 12 and the show finally opened last Tuesday.

I had attended a preview and had been skeptical that anyone, even a super hero, could save the woefully bad show, especially with only three weeks to vanquish the villains of an incomprehensible book and a surprisingly bad score. But “Pow!,” “Zap!” Some major edits have resulted in a decent, if not excellent, production that provides a visually stunning flying spectacle that’s absolutely worth seeing.

Scaled back is the overpowering storyline that had Arachne (T.V. Carpio), the spirit of an ancient Greek weaver who angers the Gods and is turned into a spider who tries to seduce and control Spider-man (Reeve Carney) when she isn’t out shopping for shoes (I’m not kidding. As I said, incomprehensible). Also edited are content issues that had me pausing about whether I could recommend the show for younger audience members. In this version, Arachne is a sort of helpful fairy godmother who encourages Peter Parker as he makes the journey from nerdy and oft-bullied high school nerd into a super hero.

Meanwhile, schoolmate Mary Jane Watson (Jennifer Damiano), who lives next door to Peter, his Aunt May (Isabel Keating) and Uncle Ben (Ken Marks), hopes a career on stage will take her away from life with a drunken father. When Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically mutated spider on a school field trip to the research lab of Norman Osborn (Patrick Page) and his wife, Emily (Laura Beth wells), nothing is the same. Peter suddenly is shooting web from his wrists, walking on the ceiling and taking care of the school bullies, Flash, Kong, Meeks and Boyle (Matt Caplan, Luther Creek, Christopher W. Tierney, Dwayne Clark and Ken Marks).

At first seduced by trying to use his super powers for profit, Peter opts instead to heed his uncle’s advice that “with great power comes great responsibility” and starts fighting crime in New York City. He and Mary Jane start a relationship, but she doesn’t know about his alternate identity and feels neglected by his frequent absences to foil the bad guys, which he disguises as following the super hero to take photos for the newspaper.

When Osborn uses his genetic experiments on himself, he is transformed into a pumpkin-bomb-throwing Green Goblin, who unleashes the “Sinister Six,”  -- Carnage, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, The Lizard, Swarm and Swiss Miss (Collin Baja, Emmanuel Brown, Christopher W. Tierney, Brandon Rubendall, Gerald Avery, Sean Samuels) a mutant squad of villains on New York City and on Spider-man, who fears for Mary Jane’s safety should the Goblin learn his true identity. Page hams up his role and deservedly gets most of the show’s laughs.

Reeve Carney and Jennifer Damiano in a scene from “SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark” © Jacob Cohl

But enough of the story – let’s talk about effects. An aerial encounter between Arachne and Peter is quite nice (though the spider has to abandon her extra legs to accomplish it). The flying confrontation between Spider-man and the Goblin above the Chrysler Building, with its breath-taking perspective as created by the colossal sets (George Tsypin, set design; Donald Holder, lighting; Kyle Cooper, projection; Scott Rangers, aerial design) is amazing. Loved the tiny little taxis making their way on the streets below.

Huge video screens fragment and rotate and in some scenes, animation is used to graphically illustrate the backdrop and at times, give the impression that the story is unfolding within the pages of a comic book.

Completing the visual odyssey are masks, prosthetics, puppetry and multiple costumes (Eiko Ishioko, design). Spider-men fly and leap from the stage up into the balcony or into the house. It’s certainly the highlight of the show, and it’s too bad there isn’t more, because let’s face it, besides Spider-man’s brand name, the biggest draw this show has with the audience is the flying.

While the book is much improved (elements that were lost before now make sense), and sticks pretty close to the comic book story, there still are a few places for edits. In particular, the time frame seems fractured. At one point we appear to be in the hey day of newspapers with old-fashioned flash cameras, fedora-wearing newsmen and black enamel phones with the receiver cradled on top. In the next beat, editor J. Jonah Jameson (Michael Mulhearn) is talking about the internet and Homeland Security and Osborn is wearing a jacket designed with computer circuitry.

The music still isn’t quite what we would expect from a Broadway score either. The revised version sounds less repetitive and a few songs have some nice parts (there are a couple of nice ballads and Carney and Damiano do them justice). For the most part, however, the tunes aren’t memorable and are more of a driving beat to which scene-moving lyrics are attached than melodic songs (though there are reports that the duo will continue to work on the music even now). Snippets of U2 tunes are inserted for music at the high school dance and while the Goblin is on hold while placing a phone call (credit for that knowledge goes to my younger, hipper and U2-savvy daughter).

So is Spider-man Turn Off the Dark the best musical I have ever seen? No. Is it a musical worth seeing? Yes (and if you are a fan of Cirque du Soleil, this should be right up your alley). Now that it is open, catch it at the Foxwoods Theatre (retooled specifically for this show) at 213 West 42nd St., NYC. Discounted tickets are available by clicking here.

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