So last May I saw Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark with my friend Kullan on its second day of new previews, fresh off its month-long, completely-reworking-everything-after-being-universally-panned-and-hemorrhaging-millions hiatus. I imagine if this was the first time I saw the show, I would have found it pretty mediocre. But I had the dubious privilege of seeing the show pre-boot, and Jesus. Fucking. Christ. THERE IS SO MUCH IMPROVEMENT! Seeing Spidey 2.0 after witnessing the Taymor trainwreck is such an experience. The latter was the worst show in the history of Broadway; the former may not be great, maybe not even good, but it's far from the worst thing on Broadway THIS SEASON.
If you can't appreciate that degree of improvement on such a complicated production in a one month time span, then there is something wrong with you on a fundamental level. You should reevaluate your life.
So what's so different? Well the biggest thing is that former Turn Off the Dark mastermind Julie Taymor was completely dropped from the show, and with it her...umm, unique...vision of webhead, his mythology, and the larger nature of the musical theatre experience. With Taymor out of the picture, the story could molded be into something more recognizably Spider-Man. That insufferable Geek Chorus is gone, and Arachne - Taymor's authorial avatar and the big bad of Spidey 1.0 - is reduced to little more than a glorified cameo.
The book, resuscitated by comics veteran and celebrated playwright - that rare breed! - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, is finally coherent. Sacasa removed the Arachne subplot that dominated the show's second act, instead opting to lengthen the more-or-less unrelated story of the first into the show's entirety. Gone are her eight-legged furies and her maniacal quest to steal shoes better than MJ's (...I, uh, I think that's what was in the old version. I'm still trying to work out what the hell was going on). Sacasa's plot is considerably more streamlined, cohesive, and rewarding to the audience; Sacasa gives Spidey and the Green Goblin much-needed breathing space to develop. In Taymor's crammed book, the first act ended with Gobby's death; in the new version, it ends with his origin.
Many of the songs were reworked, some were cut, and a new one was added: "A Freak Like Me Needs Company." It's an 80s-style dance-romp pastiche at the beginning of Act II, and probably the best song in the whole damn show. "I'm a 65 million dollar circus tragedy -- well maybe more like 75 million!" Osborn sneers as he mutates his two-faced colleagues in the same accident that birthed his villainous alter ego. It's a clever way to introduce the Sinister Six, who before were created on the half-baked whims of the Geek Chorus. God what a fucking lazy narrative device.
For what it's worth, I chuckled at the self-reference, too. Meta is handled pretty sloppily in musical theatre these days, so I appreciate when it can elicit an emotion other than facepalm.
The best part about Sacasa's new song is that, unlike the Bono-penned tunes in the rest of the show, "A Freak Like Me" actually advances the plot, which is kind of what a song in a musical is supposed to do. And speaking of the insufferable Irishman, you'll all be happy to know that "Vertigo" was removed from the club scene, replaced by generic untz-untz rave music. Unfortunately, "Bullying By Numbers" remains. Ears bled. I just wish "bullying by numbers" was an actual phrase so the song would at least make a nugget of fucking sense.
A number of other additions and changes were made to the production. True Believers will be happy to know that, through the magic of prerecorded lines blasted through speakers (TRULY WE ARE IN THE FUTURE), Spider-Man now cracks jokes as he swings through the Foxwoods Theater. I squealed at that a bit, not gonna lie. Also that scene early in Act I where Peter's home life - where he whines and angsts because he gets bullied at school and his parents who aren't his actual parents just don't know what it's like to be a teenager, maaaan - is juxtaposed with Mary Jane's - where she's verbally and physically abused by her alcoholic father - is made a little less appallingly awful. Now the father is a drunk of the sad, pathetic, harmless variety, the kind you simultaneously pity and root for. In other words, Tony Stark circa 1979. COME ON MJ'S DAD YOU CAN GET OFFA THE STUFF IF YOU JUST TRY. Anyway the implication that Peter and Mary Jane's lives are equally tragic works a bit better. A bit.
Of course, Turn Off the Dark is not without its problems, namely its inability to completely reconcile the new, less fantastical narrative with Taymor's astronomically expensive vision. This was inevitable; they spent all that fucking money creating vaguely racist masks, blow-up doll Bonesaws and LED screens for shitty Sinister Six music videos, of course they can't afford to scrap any of that stuff. Sacasa does the best he - or anyone, I imagine - can integrating all the overpriced incoherence into the story, but the dissonance is jarring. Arachne is the most obvious casualty; there's really no reason for the character to remain in the show, besides her spider suit probably costing a few hundred thousand dollars. As a "guardian angel" that confers with Peter in two dream sequences, the role serves little purpose, existing only to belt out "Rise Above" and for some cool Cirque du Soleil stuff (itself another out-of-place Taymor remnant irrelevant to the plot) at the beginning of the musical. I almost wish Arachne had more stage time, if only to better integrate her into the story. Y'know, give her a reason to be in that list of characters or something.
One final thing I noticed was that Sacasa's book contains a lot more insider references to life in New York City, which is another really interesting and well done metafictional element to Spidey 2.0. The show has, after all, become part and particle of the city, the talk of the town in virtually every circle. Turn Off the Dark reached fruition during my first year living in Manhattan, and the notorious production was always in the headlines, always THE topic of conversation. This "65 million dollar circus tragedy" may have had a much larger influence on NYC than people currently acknowledge, one that may have lasting effects on its culture, economy, and society. Only time will tell.
God I can't wait to leave boring, touristy D.C. and get back there. I'll be able to bow my head in embarrassment as I admit to all my elitist drama major friends that I kinda liked how Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark 2.0 turned out.
And Reeve Carney still rocks that ballin' Spider-Man jacket. In these trying times that's all anyone can really ask for.
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