Theater dying? Or dead?

This one goes under the heading "You want to make a Broadway Play about WHAT??"

When I first heard someone was going to make a Broadway Play based on the comic book "Spiderman", my first thoughts were things like further proof of the dumbing of America, if not the world and oh, yeah, theater--at least in America--further proof that theater is dying, if not already dead and this shows it.

I mean, I think this ranks up there with the idea that someone should make an hour and a half movie based on "The Flintstones".

Oh, yeah.  That was another beauty.

And then you start reading about all the dumb things that have gone on with and into the making of "Spiderman:  The Broadway Play". (Real name:  "Spiderman:  Turn Off the Dark", for whatever reason).

To wit, from The New York Times:

--It's the most expensive Broadway Play ever;
--The driving force behind the show for the past four years--from 2001 to 2005--had been Tony Adams, who had produced “Victor/Victoria” on Broadway and who had sold the “Spider-Man” idea to the U2 partners. But as the Edge went to get a pen, Mr. Adams suffered a stroke. Two days later he was dead.
--it had a year of "false starts", according to the NYT
--Julie Taymor was signed on as director and co-writer of the script, a dual role that many on Broadway consider risky;
--the show’s composers, Bono and the Edge of U2, who had never before written a musical, were on tour rather than locked in the theater working on revisions;
--a couple weeks ago, the producers replaced their marquee director, Ms. Taymor; hired a new creative team; and said major changes were coming to the book and score.  Yikes.  That is really late in the game.


Anyway, in typical American style, it's selling about a million dollars of tickets per week already, making it "higher than most on Broadway", again, according to the Times.  It may or may not break even.  (It doesn't look like it but you never know, of course).


So it's a rock concert Broadway Play about a comic book character and it's had about a thousand things go wrong and it's the most expensive play ever.


In America, that sounds like success.


A few quotes come to mind: 


--"Nothing succeeds like excess"  --Oscar Wilde


--"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." — George Carlin


--"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."  --HL Mencken and, finally,


--"You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public." - Scott Adams


Who knows?  I might love it.


There's always that or The Book of Mormon by  Trey Parker and Matt Stone, (co-creators of "South Park").


Strange times we live in, indeed.




Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.


Links:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/theater/spider-man-a-superlative-for-all-the-wrong-reasons.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=Spider-Man:%20Turn%20Off%20the%20Dark&st=cse
http://spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com/
http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/the-book-of-mormon-hits-broadway--2617