Spiderman: Turn Off The Lights

Well, the critics just said no more. In public relations terms, it was a revolt.  The media will do it from time to time if anyone's being too clever with them for too long, and New York's theater critics had finally had enough of the fraud they were active participants in:

The New York Times: "After 15 or 20 minutes, the central question you keep asking yourself is likely to change from 'How can $65 million look so cheap?' to 'How long before I’m out of here?'"

The New York Daily News: "The show reportedly cost $65 million and that's clearly gone into mechanics, hydraulics and aerial rigging. It seems only 10 cents has gone into the confusing story and humorless dialogue."

The New York Post:  "Another new character is the spidery mythical figure Arachne. Pulled from the depths of Greek mythology, her role is confusing. Is this webslinger real or merely a figment of Peter Parker’s dreams? Why and how does she come back from wherever she was, and why does she leave again? Inquiring minds would want to know, if only they cared."

We all love producer Julie Taymor and Bono, but we all have bad days.  And when the Spiderman team lost control of the critics, the resulting carnage was the marketing counterpart of the physical injuries caused by the hard mishaps. The critics say they'll give the show another look if and when it finally opens, but Ben Brantley of the Times wrote that he thought the show "is so grievously broken in every respect that it is beyond repair."

 

Years ago, when I was a volunteer on a political campaign and was as politically clueless as can be, I was told by a press handler to stand in a certain spot and not to let the reporters past it to speak to a certain media hog of a politician.  The press stopped at my barricade, annoyed but compliant.  Then the politician, 25 yards behind me, waved to them and motioned for them to come, and they ran me over as if I wasn't there.  

I don't know what the musical's team could have done to prevent today's review debacle. But they certainly must have had a spider sense it was coming.