March 13, 201114 yr Author I think this whole project could end up being very costly for Bono and Edge. I can just imagine Larry sitting tut tutting in an 'I told you so' fashion :lol:
April 3, 201114 yr Author From http://www.musicrooms.net/showbiz/30039-ne...astly-time.html Neil Tennant says U2 are having a "ghastly time" By Anthony Lund on 01/04/2011 The singer made the comments in relation to the rock band's work on the ill fated Spiderman musical. Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant has commented that U2’s Bono and The Edge are having a “ghastly time” with the less than earth-shattering musical, Spiderman Turn off The Dark. Tennant was talking about the Pet Shop Boys foray into the world of musicals, which came in the form of 2001’s Closer to Heaven, when he made the comments on the pickle the U2 boys have found themselves in. “In the 90s there were lots of pop musicals,” he said (really?). “Most of those were just catalogue musicals though. Now there’s just Elton John, Boy George and Bono and the Edge who are having a ghastly time in New York at the moment.” “I’m sure they’re discovering that when you start to write musicals it’s a lot harder than you would first think because your music has got to work theatrically.” Spiderman was hit by another setback last week when lead actress TV Carpio had to take two weeks off due to sustaining an injury. :rolleyes:
April 19, 201114 yr Author Details of the 'revamp'. Opens June 14th now... http://www.nme.com/news/u2/56215
April 25, 201114 yr U2's Spiderman gets revamp The controversial musical 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark' will return to Broadway this June with new songs and an altered storyline. U2's Bono and The Edge have written new songs for the musical, which shut down earlier this year, following negative reviews. According to Rolling Stone, the relaunched production will also feature new choreography and a revamped story ahead of its return to the stage on 14 June. Broadway veteran Phil McKinley replaced original director Julie Taymor in March. Taymor, who resigned from the production, previously expressed frustration over the negative reviews that the musical received during her time as director. It was previously reported that changes to the musical could include a strengthening of the love story between Peter Parker and Mary Jane, a clarifying of the Green Goblin's role in the play, and a reduction in the appearances of the villain Arachne, created by Taymor. RTE Entertainemnt news
May 10, 201114 yr Author From http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/b...usical-20110510 Bono Promises a More Heroic 'Spider-Man' Musical Troubled show will return to Broadway with revamped storyline on Thursday May 10, 2011 11:00 AM ET Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the most expensive musical in the history of Broadway, is set to return on Thursday after a three-week hiatus, during which the show has been overhauled significantly. According to the New York Times, the production has mostly abandoned the high-concept vision of its original director, Julie Taymor, in favor of a crowd-pleasing, family-friendly sensibility more closely connected to the character's comic-book roots. The show has included more flying sequences, added new music by U2's Bono and the Edge, and expanded the roles of Spider-Man's supporting cast. In an email interview with the Times, Bono explained that while he enjoyed Taymor's version of the show, he and the rest of the creative team are working to correct its shortcomings. "What was not right about it was a catalog of commonplace problems — story knots, bad sound and, finally, a failure to cohere, meaning that the whole was not greater than the sum of the parts, as wonderful as some of those parts were," he said. :rolleyes:
May 16, 201114 yr Author From http://www.wtma.com/rssItem.asp?feedid=115...itemid=29669255 U2's 'Spider-Man' Musical to Reopen Next Month A revamped production of the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is now in previews and will have its official Broadway opening on June 14. According to published reports, the musical -- which features a score by Bono and The Edge -- includes not only some new scenes but one brand-new song, "A Freak Like Me." In addition, snippets of U2 classics like "Beautiful Day" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" are now woven into the show. :w00t: Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is the most expensive musical ever staged, with a staggering budget of $70 million. The musical recently went on hiatus for nearly a month after a series of delays prompted by technical glitches, cast injuries, and negative reviews from critics.
May 18, 201114 yr Author From http://www.sacbee.com/2011/05/16/3630907/s...espectable.html 'Spider-Man' musical posts respectable numbers NEW YORK -- The retooled "Spider-Man" musical is still managing to spin its web at the box office. According to data released Monday by The Broadway League, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" pulled in a very respectable $809,000 over five preview performances last week and was at 95 percent capacity. The show restarted Thursday after a three-week hiatus following the firing of Julie Taymor as director and with rejiggered music and a smoothed-out script. The average paid admission was $88.52. The show, with songs by U2's Bono and The Edge, managed to beat many other musicals, including "Mamma Mia!" "Rock of Ages," "The Addams Family," "Catch Me If You Can," "Chicago," "Baby It's You!" and "Anything Goes." Opening night is set for June 14. ^_^
May 21, 201114 yr Author From http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/0521/u2.html Bono and The Edge for American Idol Saturday 21 May 2011 The U2 frontman and bandmate The Edge are in talks to perform on the finale of American Idol. According to reports Bono thinks the 'American Idol' stage is the perfect platform to showcase some of their songs from the Broadway musical 'Spiderman: Turn The Dark Off'. Bono is also negotiating for the play's stars to join him on stage. An 'American Idol' insider revealed to Page Six: "They are talking to Fox about how it would work. Ideally, Bono and The Edge would perform and be joined onstage by the 'Spider-Man' cast. If everyone agrees, with millions watching, it could be great for the production." During rehearsals and preview shows of the Spiderman musical several of the cast members have been severely injured. Initial reviews of the show saw it panned by the critics. But with tweaks made to the production Bono and co are hoping it will be a roaring success when it officially opens next month.
May 27, 201114 yr Author Album info From http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/spi...n-june-20110526 Bono and the Edge's 'Spider-Man' Cast Recording Due in June The cast recording of Bono and the Edge's musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will hit stores on June 14th. The disc will include 14 songs penned by the U2 duo for the recently revised show, which is set to open officially on Broadway on the same day. The cast album was produced by longtime U2 collaborator Steve Lillywhite, who was brought into the show earlier this year. [billboard]
June 14, 201114 yr Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark' Last Thanksgiving weekend, families across America gathered around the TV to watch 60 Minutes and wonder the same thing: What the hell is up with U2? As Bono and the Edge previewed songs they wrote for the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, your parents probably asked you some tough questions: "Wait, these guys are still famous, right? Didn't they just make an excellent album in 2009? Aren't they in the middle of the highest-grossing tour in the history of showbiz? Why are they doing this?" But that's the thing about U2: "Why are they doing this?" is their favorite question. They love to try crazy moves nobody would expect, just to see if they can get away with it. Sometimes that means trying to boogie with a single called "Discotheque." Sometimes it means letting the Edge rap. Sometimes it means emerging onstage from a 40-foot rotating lemon. That's always been a key element to U2's greatness: These lads have no fear of looking absurd on an epic scale. Everything about the stage production of Spider-Man has been tinged with mythic disaster, from the $65 million budget to the way it poses the biggest health threat to arachnids since Raid. But if you're hoping for train wrecks on the soundtrack, you'll be disappointed, because Bono and the Edge know their songwriting, even as they tone it down for the ill-fitting medium of the Broadway show tune. For the most part, the songs come off as slightly vague sketches for U2 songs. The theater-trained singers sound stiff when they try Bono-worthy emoting. Reeve Carney, in the role of Peter Parker, has some passable growls in "Boy Falls From the Sky," but he keeps reminding you of who he isn't. Bono and the Edge appear on "Picture This" and "Rise Above 1," which unsurprisingly are the best tracks here by a mile. The distant third-place honors go to "A Freak Like Me Needs Company," a theme for the Green Goblin. It has the album's only moments of humor, making a camp joke out of the show's backstory: "If you're looking for a night out on the town, you just found me/I'm a 65-million-dollar circus tragedy." Several moments on Spider-Man — the chorus of "Rise Above 1," the guitar figure of "Bouncing Off the Walls" — remind you of U2. Sometimes they remind you of a U2 song you already love, as in the gorgeous coda to "Picture This," which revamps "The Three Sunrises" from Wide Awake in America. But there aren't any emotional climaxes — and those are what really make a U2 song. No matter what happens with Spider-Man, it can't hurt U2 — even though this gamble makes that giant-lemon tour look like a play-it-safe move. Hell, they could have banked easier money doing Achtung Baby: The Musical, with giant puppets bouncing around to "The Fly." But U2 never seem satisfied taking the easy way, do they? And that's why we love them. Source..Rollingstone.com
June 14, 201114 yr 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark': U2's Bono, the Edge Open Up About Troubled Musical http://i54.tinypic.com/33kzonr.jpg Bono, left, and the Edge at Sunday's Tony Awards"If we thought it would take this long, there is not a chance on earth we'd have done it," says Bono, who composed the music with his bandmate. With Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark set to finally open Tuesday, U2's Bono and the Edge are opening up about the troubled production. The duo, who composed the music for the show, told the New York Times that they were not prepared for the ambitiousness behind director and chief creative force Julie Taymor's ideas despite the fact that they fully embraced the script (Taymor was ousted in March). In fact, they said they never would have signed on if they had known it would take a decade for the whole thing to finally come together. 'Spider-Man' Owes Julie Taymor $300,000, Union Says "The hours and weeks and months," Bono said. "If we thought it would take this long, there is not a chance on earth we'd have done it." The show -- at $70 million and counting, the most expensive Broadway musical ever -- has been plagued by technical issues, cast injuries and opening-night delays. In February, several critics posted mostly scathing reviews in a move that angered producers, who argued that they should have waited until the official opening night. (Read The Hollywood Reporter's review here.) Julie Taymor Speaks Out on ‘Spider-Man’: ‘I Am in the Crucible Right Now’ Part of the problem, according to Bono, was that no one involved in the show had even seen a full run-through before the November previews and that doing the previews before an out-of-town tryout was a "terrible decision" that put a lot of pressure on Taymor. But because of the massive sets and aerial technology, such a test would have been impossible. 'Spider-Man' Director Julie Taymor Out; New Creative Team Hired "Looking back, we, through inexperience, had no sense of the implications of that decision," Bono said. "That the first time anyone saw a full run-through of the story, songs, staging, and show was the first night of previews. Can you imagine that? No one had seen the whole thing before everyone saw it." And U2 was on tour overseas, so Bono and the Edge didn't see the show until later, on video. And they said they realized both the plot and music needed a lot of work, and the show lacked an ending. The creatives then began reworking the story, but Taymor was later ousted, with Philip William McKinley taking over as director. Asked whether the two had plotted against the director, the Edge said: "Julie was clearly exhausted, overwrought, and we all thought that if we don't tread carefully, she's going to walk. We were tiptoeing around her, and I think that probably meant that people were careful in what they said or told her. I certainly didn't feel I could be 100% frank with Julie, and that was because I felt she was carrying so much of the weight." Bono and the Edge -- who revealed that he put some of his own money into the show but declined to say how much -- claim that the musical still needs a little bit of work, mostly concerning the relationship between Peter Parker and the villain, the Green Goblin, that will be done this summer. Meanwhile, Bono said he didn't come to "love" the show -- at New York's Foxwoods Theatre -- until recently. U2's Bono Agreed With Terrible Reviews for Spider-Man on Broadway "The first time I loved Spider-Man was two and a half weeks ago," he said. "Even when I was really angry about its obtuse story and some of the awful readings of the music -- even then I was still saying, it was kind of magical." Hollywoodreporter.com Edited June 14, 201114 yr by Sacramento
June 15, 201114 yr Author It has finally opened. I'm in such a state of shock I can't muster the energy to post anything about it. -_-
June 29, 201114 yr Author From http://www.gigwise.com/news/64418/U2s-Spid...-Box-Office-Hit U2's Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark Musical Becomes Box Office Hit After its first week... June 29, 2011 by Holly Frith U2-scored musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, has become a box office smash after its first week of release. Despite being hit by a series of delays the musical, which opened on Broadway on June 14, has generated over $1.7 million (£1.06m) in ticket sales over the last week, reports the Associated Press. Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark is now the third most popular musical on Broadway behind Wicked and The Lion King. U2's Bono and The Edge have also written new songs for the revamped production which has been nine years in the making. Meanwhile, U2 frontman Bono has admitted he felt “sick with nerves” before the Irish band headlined last weekend's Glastonbury festival in Somerset.
November 13, 201113 yr Author Producers of U2's 'Spider-Man' musical sued by former director for over $1 million Julie Taymor says the show's producers owe her a lot of compensation The original director of the U2-scored musical Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, Julie Taymor, has announced that she is suing the producers of the show. Taymor, who was sacked from the show in March after it received scathing reviews from critics, is seeking $1 million (£621,000) in damages, claiming that her creative rights have been violated and that she hasn't been paid appropriately for her work, reports BBC News. Full story here http://www.nme.com/news/u2/60294
June 11, 201213 yr Author From http://www.zimbio.com/Star+Pics+2012-06-11...al+Peter+Parker The Real Peter Parker! Even if you don't know Reeve Carney by name, the Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark star's presence was a big deal at the Tony Awards on Sunday night. The musical didn't win any awards, but producer and U2 frontman Bono is likely consoled by the records the show has set with its box office take, which includes pulling in more than $111 million since its opening. Ker-chingggggg!!!!
June 12, 201213 yr From http://www.zimbio.com/Star+Pics+2012-06-11...al+Peter+Parker The Real Peter Parker! Even if you don't know Reeve Carney by name, the Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark star's presence was a big deal at the Tony Awards on Sunday night. The musical didn't win any awards, but producer and U2 frontman Bono is likely consoled by the records the show has set with its box office take, which includes pulling in more than $111 million since its opening. Ker-chingggggg!!!! O My G !! :mellow:
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