For Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark, it's turn on the lights... finally. Opening night has finally come for the most expensive Broadway show ever in the history of ever ending the longest preview period for any Broadway show... you guessed it, ever in the history of ever.
The price tag has now hit $70 million dollars (but even with all the problems, preview tickets have been selling like crazy). The show has been in development for about a decade. After a long slog - one too long to relay in a blog entry - it finally made it to the Great White Way for previews last fall. Then, there were all the injuries and investigations into safety. Award-winning director Julie Taymor, known for putting together the still-successful Broadway adaption of The Lion King, was ousted back in March. Bono and The Edge of U2, who wrote the show's music, missed a lot of the preview shows because of touring obligations. When they got back, they didn't like what the show had become. In fact, it was just yesterday that Bono told The New York Times that he only finally fell in love with the show during a preview performance late last month. Adding to tonight's drama, Taymor (as you can see in the photo above) is attending the show's opening night performance as I type this blog entry. She was all smiles for cameras in front of the theaters... but that could still be a bit awkward.
Full disclosure: I love Spider-man. A lot. I also saw a preview performance of Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark back in March with my sister. I really liked a lot of what I saw in that show. But I also really didn't like some of it. Between then and tonight, the show shut down for several weeks for even more major overhauls. Then, the script was finally frozen (meaning no more changes) on June 8. I'm curious to see how it's evolved since I saw it back in March, and I'm looking forward to going back.
In the meantime... I'll sate my Spidey on Broadway appetite with this amazing spoof from Sesame Street, Spider-monster: The Musical.
So. Awesome.