Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas in NYC: SPIDERMAN!!!

This show gets a post all its own.

OH MY GOSH.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!

I was REALLY skeptical about this show. First off I don't know the first thing about Spiderman; I don't like comic books. Above all I don't like U2 and I think Bono is plotting to take over the world.

Why did I go?

Two reasons really.

The first is that I met Reeve Carney (aka Peter Parker) last spring at South by Southwest, and he's a really, really nice guy. He is in a band called Carney with his brother Zane. Well the band is the house band for the show and Zane, the guitarist, and Aidan, the bassist, are onstage for the entire show.

The second reason is, of course, all the press about the show. Most of that press was negative, little things like actors and stuntmen falling 20-30 feet, no big deal.

When we realized we were snowed in we just started booking tickets to shows: Miss Abigail's Guide to Dating, Mating and Marriage, the Fantasticks, My Big Gay Italian Wedding; all were good, none matched this one.

Before the show began one of the technical directors came onstage and explained that they are still in preview phase. For those not familiar with Broadway shows, the preview is generally done away from Broadway, in other cities. Because of the complexity of special effects there is no way they could have done it anywhere else. He also explained that safety was of foremost importance, for the actors and for the audience. The Department of Labor or something issued a statement and a warning saying something about not trying to jump onto Spidey or one of his enemies and take a ride. That was pretty funny.

The opening scene had a huge platform risen with Mary Jane hanging from it and Spiderman climbing towards her. I was in awe for the next three hours. The show was very much done as a comic book with words like Pow! Wham! and such popping up everywhere. The scenery was very sketched, as a comic book. As opposed to the rest of the Broadway shows I have seen lately where all the set pieces are "knifed" and come on the stage electronically there were a lot of stagehands bringing stuff on. The flying was AMAZING. They flew and fought over the audience. The music was good (sorry, I don't like U2, that's the best you're getting :)). It very much fit (Carney, of course sounded amazing). T.V. Carpio from Across the Universe was Arachne. There were a lot of people from Across the Universe in this show (since Julie Taymor directed that film and also directed this show it made a lot of sense).

Reeve Carney was amazing, very different than when he is singing with Carney, but amazing nonetheless.

Overall the show was AMAZING. If you are in NYC go see it. If you can come up with any reason to go to NYC go see it. If you like Spiderman make an excuse to go to NYC to see it. If you like Carney make an excuse to go to NYC and see it. (If you've never heard of Carney go buy their album!!!)

I'll post more about the blizzard and my observations of it later. Now to pack!

2 comments:

  1. My friend is a producer on the show and I have been PRAYING daily for him to get some good feedback. So happy you liked it!

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  2. I really did not expect to like it at all; I went more for the spectacle of it all. However it was the most amazing show, I was blown away. And now anyone going in the general vicinity of NYC that I hear about is getting an earfull about how awesome it is and how it is worth every penny! :) (If I could get some backstage time for all the publicity the next time I'm in NYC, I'd take that! ;))

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