Last week the NY Times asked readers if they had any advice for the new creative team on “Spider-man: Turn off the dark”… they did:
“Cut the geek chorus. Cut the female spider. Beef up the roles of the bad guys (currently wasted in a fashion show). Done.” — NYC Actor, New York
“Cut Arachne and everything to do with Arachne. Cut the Geek Chorus; instead of making things clear and moving things along, they confuse and slow down the show. Beef up the Green Goblin and other villains. They need to be evil and scary . . . Bono needs to steer away from ponderous ballads and give us more pop rock.” — Ryan G. Hinds
“Cut the flying scenes and people in the show by 25 percent, and fix the songs by 50 percent; reduce the abrasiveness of some of the music.” — Jewel, New York
“Stop rushing in new actors. Build safer set design with more padding and rubber. Choreography. Choreography. Choreography.” — @mikeyed
There were some less serious replies:
“I would lock Stan Lee and Sondheim in a room together for one week w/ a bottle of Scotch. That should take care of it.” — Mark K., Silver Spring, Md.
“Fire everyone. Destroy the set. Dump the music. Hire Charlie Sheen and make it a one-man show. Put him in a glow-in-the-dark red lycra straitjacket and dangle him over the stage. Upside down. Lock the audience in the theater. Turn out the lights. Release 10,000 tarantulas. Turn the sound system volume all the way up. Play a loop of ‘Terry Reilly in C.' ” — chefstig, New York
But perhaps Jay Floyd from Los Angeles hit the nail on the head:
“I'd 'save it' by taking it to Vegas, where it belongs. This is not a Broadway show.”
read lots more useful suggestions via Curtain Down, Heads Up: Advice on How to Fix ‘Spider-Man' – NYTimes.com
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
