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U2 Bringing Spider-man to Broadway
Music Juice writes "A Broadway musical based on the web-slinging superhero is in the works, Marvel Studios said Friday. It will be directed by Tony winner Julie Taymor with new music and lyrics by U2 frontman Bono and guitarist The Edge. The musical will be the first time a Marvel Comics character has been the subject of a show on Broadway, the company said. No opening date was announced, but Marvel said a reading would take place this summer. "
Hopefully they'll run this past some test audiences before really launching. The Lord of the Rings musical disaster shows that musicals epic in scale can't depend on their multi-million dollar special effects to be successful when the plot itself drags and the dialogue is clunky.
When I see things like this, I have to wonder if it's on there because it's a great story with a great Broadway adaptation or is it on there because it has been repopularized by the recent movies & they're hoping to make another quick buck?
All too often, I think it's the latter or merely proof that you can throw enough money at something to make it happen on Broadway.
I could be convinced to go see this, if U2 hadn't been involved. My gods, everything these guys have done since the Joshua Tree has been utterly inane and lame pop-crap. I don't want poor, innocent Peter Parker getting all mixed up with these self-important dolts.
The future isn't here until I can type "car keys" into Google and have it say "You left them in your pants last night."
Don't get me wrong, I've been enjoying most of the Marvel movies as much as the average SF/comic geek. Spiderman 2 was probably one of the few sequels I've ever seen that was better than the original. But can no one in the entertainment industry come up with an original frickin' idea?!?! Name three hit musicals from the past 10 years that weren't revivals or movie adaptations. The musical is one of the few unique American cultural contributions. We can honestly say that the musical (like Jazz and the internet) is an American invention. Now we have a theatre industry controlled by the over-commericialized mass media, whose investors are looking for a "sure thing". A multi-million-dollar box office hit that'll sell sountrack albums and t-shirts and keep the groundlings enthralled for years. I don't mean to sound elitist. For example, I think Disney musicals are an excellent way to promote appreciation for theatre amongst children. But, come on! What happened to original stories? What happened to character-driven drama? Did all those starving playwrights and composers actually die off? How do we go from West Side Story, The King and I, and Cabaret to Big, Legally Blonde, and Spiderman?