Last week what seems like every major paper and critical body in the theatre world got together and decided to print early reviews of Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. Frustrated that the production's opening night has been regularly postponed, the critics broke with convention by publishing reviews while the show is still in previews.
After seeing Spider-Man myself in early January, I can't help but feel that there's something disappointing and inadequate about the conversation surrounding the production.
The New York Times review was particularly harsh and ends up sounding like its chief theatre critic, Ben Brantley, primarily has an axe to grind. He has almost nothing positive, or even constructive, to say about the production. Across the board, reviews of the show go after Taymor in a remarkably personal way. After expressing dismay over the visibility of the harnesses used to make the actors fly, Brantley condescendingly continues:
Scott Brown at New York Magazine is the one guy I've read and thought maybe he's onto something. He says:
There is something about Spider-Man in its current (imperfect) state that makes you consider where it could go without (and I think this is important) making you feel that you've been robbed blind.
After seeing Spider-Man myself in early January, I can't help but feel that there's something disappointing and inadequate about the conversation surrounding the production.
The New York Times review was particularly harsh and ends up sounding like its chief theatre critic, Ben Brantley, primarily has an axe to grind. He has almost nothing positive, or even constructive, to say about the production. Across the board, reviews of the show go after Taymor in a remarkably personal way. After expressing dismay over the visibility of the harnesses used to make the actors fly, Brantley condescendingly continues:
Ms. Taymor and her collaborators have spoken frequently about blazing new frontiers with “Spider-Man,” of venturing where no theater artist (pardon me, I mean artiste) has dared to venture before.I feel stuck because the show is flawed and there is no question about that. But I also have too much respect for Taymor and her creative team to accept the barrage of criticism. Brantley and others make it seem like there is little worth seeing here and I can't agree. Frankly, I haven't seen these guys lodge any real, original criticism that we haven't already heard. I think they are caught in their own echo chamber here.
Scott Brown at New York Magazine is the one guy I've read and thought maybe he's onto something. He says:
Some of my colleagues have wondered aloud whether Spider-man will ever be finished - whether it is, in fact, finishable. I think they're onto something: I saw the show on Saturday night, and found it predictably unfinished, but unpredictably entertaining, perhaps on account of this very quality of Death Star-under-construction inchoateness. Conceptually speaking, it's closer to a theme-park stunt spectacular than "circus art," closer to a comic than a musical, closer to The Cremaster Cycle than a rock concert. But "closer" implies proximity to some fixed point, and Spider-man is faaaar out, man. It's by turns hyperstimulated, vivid, lurid, overeducated, underbaked, terrifying, confusing, distracted, ridiculously slick, shockingly clumsy, unmistakably monomaniacal and clinically bipolar.It isn't as precise, commanding, and certainly not as quotable as Brantley's zingers but his jumble of thoughts feels more in line with my experience of the production. There is something frustrating but also uniquely alluring about the fact that Spider-Man is so clearly unfinished and something captivating about the image of what it could be. Taymor is reaching for things that she may not always get at fully formed but you see where she's going and what she could accomplish with some more time and, dare I say, money. It is a production that I really don't want to see 'frozen', which is what the critics and Broadway keep asking for. Taymor hasn't arrived yet -- and I wish that we could let her throw out the rule book governing previews and openings and keep exploring.
There is something about Spider-Man in its current (imperfect) state that makes you consider where it could go without (and I think this is important) making you feel that you've been robbed blind.
