On last nights 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl performed an extended infomercial for Bono, The Edge and Julie Taymor’s eagerly something or othered Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark.
And it looks… beyond spectacular: as though Cirque de Soleil finally getting it right and the Lion King had a baby. I have never seen anything like it, with actors swooping through the theatre at speeds reaching 50 Miles per Hour for what looks like flight.
Everything we see about the set is amazing and director Julie Taymor, who is morphing into the Ken Russel of theatre, is out to give you your money’s worth.
The problem is, of course, the music. I’ve heard snatches of it here and there and it is a dowdy overblown frump of a godawful mess. It is so bad that while nothing will sink Spidey to my mind -it has immediately gone from a must see to a must see now, it sure is a sticking point.
Bono and he Edge have added their branded big band boom for rock band to orchestration. It is so over the top as to do irreparable harm. Every time somebody sang I tuned out.
Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out when I can see it…