A new air of positivity surrounds the Spiderman musical on Broadway, after preview performances resumed on Thursday night with no glitches and a more crowd-pleasing storyline. The $75m production, with a score written by Bono and the Edge, had taken a three week break to allow a new creative team to drastically rework the much-maligned musical.
New director Phil McKinley has put an increased emphasis on the love story between Peter Parker and Mary Jane, and on the battle with the villainous Green Goblin. The comic book’s most famous line – “With great power, comes great responsibility” has been included for the first time – its omission from the original version of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark had shocked fans. “I’m very glad it’s in there. It’s got to be,” Reeve Carney, who plays Peter Parker/Spiderman, told me after Thursday night’s first preview of what’s being dubbed Spiderman 2.0. He said, after an “intense” few weeks of rehearsals, it was a relief to be back on stage in front of an audience. “I venture to say it was the most positive reaction we’ve had out of all 146 shows,” he said, basing his judgment on the volume of the response, and the laughter from the audience.
The new show adopts a much lighter touch, with many more jokes, some even at its own expense. At one stage the Green Goblin refers to himself as “a $65m circus tragedy” and quickly adds “make that $75m”. Spiderman is the most expensive musical ever staged on Broadway, and has been in previews for longer than any other show.
Patrick Page, the actor who plays the Green Goblin, says the creators of the show have listened to what fans and critics have said, and taken their suggestions on board. “It’s kind of the first Twitter Broadway show,” he said, “where people started saying: well this is what I think, and the creators and producers said okay, well let’s include their opinions.” Page said it had been the “thrill of a lifetime” to work in studio with Bono and the Edge over the past few weeks as they put together a new song “Freak Like Me”, which opens the second act of the show.
TV Carpio, who stars as Arachne, a character that has been transformed from a villain in the original production to a guardian angel for Spiderman in the new version, also paid tribute to the U2 guys. “They’ve been so supportive. It’s a dream come true. They’ve been great mentors and it’s been amazing to watch them work,” she said. Carpio says she’s happy that she continues to have “some of the most beautiful songs” in the show, despite her role being scaled back significantly. “I’m not going to lie and say it doesn’t affect me a little bit,” she conceded, “But it’s a bigger picture, this thing is bigger than my part. If my part has to be sacrificed for this story to be told and people wanting to hear it, I’m for it. I’m a team player.”
Actress Jennifer Damiano who plays Mary Jane, celebrated her 20th birthday on Thursday, and is confident that they now have a “really solid show”. She was keen to give credit to ousted director Julie Taymor, whose “vision is still at the heart of the show”. Taymor retains a billing as “original director” on literature for the show, with new director McKinley billed as “creative consultant”.
One of the biggest cheers of the night was for stuntman Chris Tierney, who made his return to the Broadway show after suffering horrific injuries in a fall during a performance in December. Tierney, who suffered a fractured skull, fractured shoulder blades, four broken ribs and three broken vertebrae when he fell 20 ft into a pit at the front of the stage, said he felt “stronger now than when I fell”. The new version includes four extra flying sequences, and Tierney says, despite still suffering some soreness and a lack of flexibility in places, he’s got no concerns about taking to the air. “We are the most safe show on Broadway, I’ll tell you that much. We’ve gone through about 60 new Department of Labor precautions. I’ve got about four people looking after me every time they clip in anything. I think it’s a little too much now, but I guess it’s the best way to go.”
Audience members emerging from Thursday night’s preview seemed to have enjoyed the show, with most saying it had been a lot of fun. “I really liked it,” said Brian Hartlet from Stamford, Connecticut, who had seen the original version three times. “The overall story in this one is much clearer, it flows so much better than the last one. But there are some elements of the first one that I miss.” Critics have been invited back to review the show in early June, and their verdicts are expected to be published to coincide with the musical’s long-awaited official opening on June 14th.
