Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History by Berger Glen

Author:Berger, Glen [Berger, Glen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2013-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

11

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Breakdowns

Spectacular, innovative and interesting things are happening at Broadway’s newly renamed Foxwoods Theatre . . . Taymor is very close to a finished product that could become the event of the season . . . You can see the money on the stage and it will take your breath away.

—Broadway Critic Blog, reporting on the first preview

An epic flop, as the $65 million show’s high-tech gadgetry went completely awry amid a dull score and baffling script.

—Michael Riedel, reporting on the same first preview

The entire cast got a day off after the first preview. The next day, they all assembled on the carpeted floor of the mezzanine foyer for a relaxed little powwow with Julie. She told the cast with a laugh that she was clear about the show’s plot, but “whether you all follow the story or not—we don’t have a clue!”

Julie acknowledged that for too many people at our first preview, the question of Arachne and her illusions was a head-scratcher. Though Arachne explained more than once in the show that the “return of the Sinister Six” was “all an illusion,” Julie admitted that, “when Arachne is flying, it’s harder to hear the words somehow. Half the people are looking at how spectacular she looks and not necessarily listening to what she’s saying.”

After several actors—with deference—offered their two cents, Patrick Page said he had an “intuitive sense that this character who has inspired awe is now somehow in Act Two becoming . . . trivialized.”

This got Julie’s back up. “Why? Why is it trivial?”

Taking pains to not appear like he was overstepping his bounds as an actor, Patrick tried to explain. Julie clearly wanted feedback, but she was also beginning to bristle. If she allowed too much debate, if the actors started piling on, confidence in the whole show would erode, and that would be dangerous. It was time to shut this down.

“I believe in it as a concept,” she said. The tone in her voice brooked no dissent, and anyway it was time to let the actors go—there was a preview in a few hours. I found Natalie Mendoza in her dressing room a few minutes later and was excited to tell her about some of the ways we were going to upgrade her character. We were going to add a spoken section in the “Think Again” number.

“And it’ll be underscored by a sort of Tuvan throat singing—”

“I’m sorry,” Natalie interrupted. She said it all sounded thrilling, but she was still a little woozy from two days before.

“Oh?”

“I got a concussion that night.”

“What?!”

“In the pit, while I was getting in my legs for the final scene, something hard, like metal, hit me in the back of the head.”

I was dumbstruck.

“It was dark, so I couldn’t see what it was. And I was trapped in my legs—I couldn’t move . . .”

Replaying the events, it was eventually determined that a carabiner on one of the cables hastily thrown into the pit had conked her. If Tech that afternoon hadn’t been so rushed might this accident had been prevented? Perhaps.

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