There’s No “Spider Man” Without Julie Taymor; It’s Her Vision
No one wants to stand up for Julie Taymor. “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” has played 100 previews, and mostly received poor reviews for its book– or lack of one. But if Taymor exits the show–as has been suggested today–it would be a terrible mistake. “Spider Man” is her show. Anyone who comes in will have to face that fact. The flying, the costumes. the sets, the 3D comic book life of the show-all belong to her. The tragedy in this is that Taymor, like most creative geniuses, may have gotten lost along the way. She needs a collaborator–an editor, really– to shorten the first act, create a cliffhanger, and rearrange TV Carpio’s wonderful Arachne so she joins the plot organically and isn’t a speed bump in Act One. Can “Spider Man” be saved? Yes, easily. But in its transformation I wouldn’t want to lose the flying, the breezy fun of Green Goblin, or the Sinister Six beauty pageant. The best of the latter is the scientist who turns himself into a giant lizard. The great fun of “Spider Man” is still in Taymor’s vision. Lose that now and the show’s main purpose will be gone too. One more thing: I am a big U2 fan and have great respect for Bono and The Edge. But let’s not forget, when “Spider Man” debuted in November, they were on tour. It’s almost not fair to come in at this late date and blame Taymor for the show’s inefficiencies.
And U2 still are on tour!
And will have a new album to promote soon (hopefully).
Spider-man is no ones show, that’s her problem. She thinks she’s bigger than the mythos and didn’t respect it. She deserves everything she’s getting. As someone who has collected Spider-man comics since he was 4 years old I hate her. It was written for her already countless times…(not to mention that The Night Gwen Stacy Died is already set up as a theatrical type story) She took a shit on Spider-man and she can leave with whatever money and fame she got from it, but you could tell there was no love there from her except for herself.
[…] Showbiz411′s Roger Friedman, a longtime friend of Taymor and a vocal defender of the production, writes that her departure “would be a terrible mistake”: “Spider Man is her show. Anyone who comes in will have to face that fact. The flying, the costumes. the sets, the 3D comic book life of the show — all belong to her. The tragedy in this is that Taymor, like most creative geniuses, may have gotten lost along the way. She needs a collaborator — an editor, really — to shorten the first act, create a cliffhanger, and rearrange TV Carpio’s wonderful Arachne so she joins the plot organically and isn’t a speed bump in Act One. […] The great fun of Spider Man is still in Taymor’s vision. Lose that now and the show’s main purpose will be gone too.” […]