If she does another show with a ton of acrobatics and crazy stuff, I am sure you are correct. But if someone wants her to Julie Taymorize something like Taming of the Shrew - wait, I forgot they only do movies on Broadway now, so let’s say it’s Ten Things I Hate About You - I don’t think the safety of the performers will be that big a deal.
There *are *real actors and musicians in Spider-Man the same as in any other musical, and I am sure they are very happy to simply be working at the moment. Your comment is insulting to those people who have tread the boards for years. No it’s not A Little Night Music or The Merchant of Venice, that doesn’t mean the actors still aren’t worthy of respect. I was close with a production of a different big-budget Broadway show that also had songs by a major recording artist and was an adaptation from a well-known popular source, that ended up crashing & burning and becoming a major flop. The actors were all extremely professional and committed to their job, despite the mishandling and bad behavior by the production team/writers.
My post was hasty, and I apologize to all hard-working professional actors who train, go to drama school, go up for roles against huge competition. You are right, of course they’re ‘real’ actors and deserve to be working! … It’s just that this dog and pony show full of stunts that are injuring people - this is what they’ve worked for? I realize Ibsen, Shakespeare, Crowley, Simon, Capote - you know, the classics - aren’t going to sell many tickets in this economy. An actor has to take on what’s being put out there, and this out of control spectacle is a far cry from what they may have thought they signed up for. I think it’s kind of sad it’s come to this.
Senator Eric Adams Calls for Safety Task Force- article in Playbill.
The actress who plays Arachne - the main villain as I understand it - is leaving the show. She is one of the actors who was injured during rehearsals: she sustained a concussion in November “when she was struck in the head by a rope holding a piece of equipment while standing offstage.” She hasn’t performed since the accident last week, so it sounds like that was a factor in her decision.
Wow. What a bunch of elitist crap. I’m not a big theater guy (I barely need two hands to count the number of plays I’ve attended), but to act like they should be ashamed that they’re starring in a big budget musical that was created with all the best intentions is baffling.
I don’t think they should be ashamed either but I do think it’s sad what Broadway has become. It feels like even when they do run a straight play they have to pull in huge movie star names to get people in the door. Or when they do a musical, everything’s over the top and there’s lots of breaking the 4th wall, and everyone’s trying very hard to be funny or topical. Or it’s a musical based off a movie. It doesn’t feel like it’s about the theatre anymore.
I don’t think pulling in an audience is a problem. I think pulling in an audience at the prices they want to charge is the problem. I love the theater and I’ve seen probably 30 shows this year. I’ve seen 2 on Broadway in 2010. I will see 2, maybe 3, on Broadway in 2011. If I can pay $18-$25 to see really excellent productions off-Broadway why the hell would I pay $70 to sit in the back row to see Shrek the Musical? So they add fireworks and big name stars or base it on a summer blockbuster everyone loved in hopes of convincing people that $110 per person is not too much to spend to sit in the back of the orchestra for an evening. It isn’t about the theater anymore because it is about justifying the price of the ticket. It is almost as if they’ve said that they want to charge $X per ticket and they figure out what kind of show they need to put on to justify that price instead of determining what show they want to do and how much they can reasonably charge for it.
Spider-Man is an all-ages kind of thing. I don’t mind shelling out $100 a ticket so my wife and I can see some Broadway legend on tour, but Spider-Man is something that you’d hope would lend itself to be a family outing. I have a hard time believing that Spider-Man will be viable for a good chunk of its intended audience.
When Cirque du Soleil came to Toronto you could really see a noticeable lack of diversity in the audience. It was priced out of reach for the average family. So most of the people in the audience were well-dressed adults and older kids in expensive clothing. It was priced out of range for a huge segment of Toronto’s population.
My goddaughter probably wouldn’t appreciate the complexity of the stunts anyway. She would be happy with a $12 ticket to the zoo or to see a 3D movie, a juggler or magician, or Disney on Ice.
Maybe they should just add “Springtime for Hitler” and try to make it as a comedy.
Here is a good op-ed piece about the Spiderman of its day, “Via Galactica” from 1972:
I guess there’s no takers for my musical based on the video game “Q-Bert”?
Boing! Boing! Boing! WHHHHHhhhhhhooooooooaaaaaaaaaaa!!! SPLAT!!!
It will be all over when Julie Taymor starts shouting “no one will notice!”
No one will notice the moaning actors lying semi-conscious on the stage?
Huh?
Surely you’ve seen Minesweeper: the Movie.
I totally agree. I recently paid around $65 to see Cate Blanchett in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Kennedy Center.
Best. Thing. I. Have. Ever. Seen.
I almost feel like I can never see theatre again. But anyway…I got the best night of theatre in my life for $65 and they want me to pay $110 to see Addams Family the Musical or Spider Man or some other ridiculousness. :dubious: Whaaat? I don’t think so.
Now I feel sheepish. I paid out big bucks to see Addams Family and I didn’t go to see Streetcar (wanted to but didn’t get around to it). In my defense, I’m a pretty huge Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane fan, and I’m obsessed with the Addams Family movies.