Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History Author: Glen Berger | Language: English | ISBN:
B00BSB2C2O | Format: PDF
Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History Description
As one can imagine, writing a Broadway musical has its challenges. But it turns out there are challenges one can’t imagine when collaborating with two rock legends and a superstar director to stage the biggest, most expensive production in theater history.
Song of Spider-Man is playwright Glen Berger’s story of a theatrical dream—or nightmare—come true. Renowned director Julie Taymor picked Berger to cowrite the book for a $25 million Spider-Man musical. Together—along with U2’s Bono and Edge— they would shape a work that was technically daring and emotionally profound, with a story fueled by the hero’s quest for love—and the villains’ quest for revenge. Or at least, that’s what they’d hoped for.
But when charismatic producer Tony Adams died suddenly, the show began to lose its footing. Soon the budget was ballooning, financing was evaporating, and producers were jumping ship or getting demoted. And then came the injuries. And
then came word-of- mouth about the show itself. What followed was a pageant of foul-ups, falling-outs, ever-more-harrowing mishaps, and a whole lot of malfunctioning spider legs. This “circus-rock-and-roll-drama,” with its $65 million price tag, had become more of a spectacle than its creators ever wished for. During the show’s unprecedented seven months of previews, the company’s struggles to reach opening night inspired breathless tabloid coverage and garnered international notoriety.
Through it all, Berger observed the chaos with his signature mix of big ambition and self-deprecating humor. Song of Spider-Man records the journey of this cast and crew as a hilarious memoir about friendship, collaboration, the foibles of hubris, and the power of art to remind us that we’re alive.
- File Size: 2230 KB
- Print Length: 384 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (November 5, 2013)
- Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00BSB2C2O
- Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,221 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #14
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Theater > Broadway & Musicals - #69
in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Theater > Broadway & Musicals - #92
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts
- #14
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Theater > Broadway & Musicals - #69
in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Theater > Broadway & Musicals - #92
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts
Glen Berger is the co-author of the "book" -- the words other than the song lyrics -- for the Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. He stuck with the play through more than six years of drafts, rewrites, the firing of superstar director Julie Taymor, the complete revamping of the show, and -- finally -- the relative success of the new version.
I saw the original version of Spider-Man and it was, by far, the worst experience I have ever had in a theater. The plot was incoherent, the music (by Bono and The Edge of U2) was mediocre -- and the lyrics were often unintelligible because of the muddy sound system -- the attempts at humor fell flat, and the attempts at transmitting a message fell even flatter. Berger was clearly responsible for some of these problems … and yet, he has written a terrific book about his experiences.
I'm not sure what I was expecting -- probably a hatchet job laying all of the blame on Taymor -- but what I got was a funny, insightful, candid, honest, even-handed attempt to make sense of his long experience with this play. Sure Taymor comes off as a bit of an inflexible egomaniac -- and her tendency to blow up at the expense of assistant set directors and the like, is very unappealing -- but Berger bends over backward to play it straight, and, at least as far as I can see, he succeeds.
Clearly, Berger should be kept far away from writing Broadway musicals, by the use of machine gun nests backed up by drones, if necessary. But he should be encouraged to write more first-person nonfiction. I don't know what else he has done in his life that he can write about, but on the basis of this book, I would be happy to read his account of walking his dog and brushing his teeth.
I have never seen Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. The first person I knew who had seen Spider-Man was actually present during the infamous December 20, 2010 preview performance when an actor fell 30 feet into the pit in front of the stage during a botched stunt. Like most people, I followed the weekly horrors of our favorite neighborhood Spider-Man in those early days with a nearly sick since of delight and a large helping of schadenfreude. Who thought this would be a good idea in the first place?
Glen Berger's book, honestly, is about a million times better than it has any right to be. I mean that in a positive sense, because after all, he's writing about a show (as he astutely points out in the first chapter). That's it. Just a show. However, through his narrative style (which, I will admit, took a bit of time to get used to), his frequent, but significant, diversions and allusions, as well as his almost frighteningly specific recollections of every thought and feeling he must have had during his six year long chronology with the musical, I am presently more interested in seeing this show than I had ever been! The fact that the show is still running three years after it's first flawed preview performance is a testament to something -- or, perhaps more accurately, a lot of somethings -- and since I missed the first iteration of the show, I am now looking forward to not missing the current one.
Having never seen the musical, I wasn't sure how accessible the book would be. Luckily, it was extremely. Additionally, all of the early buzz on the book was that it was a "tell-all" (perhaps, sure, it is...) and that Julie Taymor was raked over hot coals in the book (she will probably feel that she was, but I, however, didn't really feel that way).
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