"The Lion King". Photo by Joan Marcus.

Money makes the world go round in this week’s clinking clanking round-up of theater news:

• The Lion King proved it rules the entertainment jungle as it became the highest grossing Broadway show of all-time this week with $853.8 million in tickets. Previous title holder The Phantom of the Opera stands at $853.1 million. Suddenly, I don’t feel so bad for King’s director and partaker-of-royalties Julie Taymor (Spider-Man).

• Talk about money in the bank, the casting for the Central Park Into the Woods gets better and better. Hot on the heals of Amy Adams’s addition to the cast, producers revealed that Donna Murphy (Passion) will be playing the Witch. If you’ve seen her sublime work in the animated film Tangled, you know Murphy will be one mother of an overprotective mother.

• I still can’t get the songs from Newsies out of my head and I saw it weeks ago. Just to be sure I never forget a single “bruddah,” the cast album is now available for digital download. (PS. My favorite New Yawk rhyme in the show pairs “twirl it” with a very Flushing “terlet”.)

• 

  Molly Ranson in "Carrie". Photo by Joan Marcus.

  Speaking of cast albums that will get inside your head (literally), the recent Off-Broadway production of Carrie is officially going into the studio to preserve it for all time on April 17. The CD will be released by and available for preorder from Ghostlight Records. Ghostlight and Carrie. Of course.

• In, I assume, an attempt to cash in on men who don’t want to see a musical with their wives, the guys-night-at-the-theater niche got its next entry (following the warm welcome for last year’s Lombardi) as Magic/Bird opened on Broadway Wednesday night. The reviews suggest that this tale of basketball greats is well-acted but a little lacking in big game drama.

• I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there are a LOT of shows opening on Broadway this month. That’s because they are all going for the gold, aka Tony nominations, and they’ve got to hit before the end of the month to be eligible.  Tony nominations will be announced on a live webcast at 8:30am, May 1 by Kristin Chenoweth and Jim Parsons. Join me, broadwayblogtom, on twitter that morning for some immediate reactions/analysis/grousing.

• And finally, in seriously green news, Bloomberg published an amazing article about the way profits are split on the blockbuster hit Wicked–including almost $90 million for the writers. Like my agent always says, ” In music theater, you either make nothing or millions.” And the mailman won the lottery, indeed…

Photo by Jacob Cohl.

Tonight, the comic book web slinger finally faces the music when Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark makes its long-anticipated official opening on Broadway. Since preview performances began November 28, 2010, the mega-budgeted tuner has faced technical glitches, performer injuries, unsanctioned reviews, the replacement of its marquee director, The Lion King‘s Julie Taymor, and a major script overhaul accomplished during an unprecedented three dark weeks of rehearsal. (The New York Times today featured a very revealing and humble interview with composers Bono and The Edge that is a fascinating look behind the scenes.) Now, to what must be extreme joy from the steadfast cast and crew, the show has been frozen (i.e. no more changes) and all the chatter can be about the merits of what is on stage.

What is on stage? I haven’t seen it yet but Entertainment Weekly posted a list of changes in the script and score, all new since it reopened to preview audiences under replacement director, Philip William McKinley. The big question is, when reviews hit after the performance tonight, can Spider-Man stage the kind of heroic comeback that usually only happens in action movies?

Rising above bad buzz and killer technical issues isn’t unheard of in the theater biz. For inspiration, let’s look at the top three recent Broadway comeback tales:

Read more…

Sleep No More. Photo by Yaniv Schulman.

I’ve got a witches brew of unusual theater news to send you off into the weekend:

• Two envelope-pushing theatrical imports opened this week. First up, the UK company Punchdrunk transformed the abandoned McKittrick Hotel for Sleep No More, an immersive, voyeuristic head trip inspired by Macbeth and involving masked audience members roaming freely around the site. (According to my writing partner–who loved it–if you see “the cute guy with the faux-hawk,” follow him!)
• On a slightly more family-friendly note, the British smash War Horse galloped onto the stage at Lincoln Center with the tale of a boy and his horse facing the horrors of The Great War, as told through exquisitely emotional and stunningly complex puppetry. (A nearly wordless, early sequence between the boy and foal left me a blubbering mess. More on War Horse in an upcoming “To See or Not to See” post.)
• 

  Photo by Joan Marcus.

  In a very unusual return, theatermania is reporting that the first national tour of the recent Hair revival will play a limited engagement at a Broadway theater this summer. Damn hippies always got to break the rules.

• Speaking of delightfully unorthodox, playwright Christopher Durang (Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, The Marriage of Bette and Boo) will be the guest at a free symposium following the May 1^st matinee of his play Beyond Therapy at the Westport Country Playhouse. It’s an interactive conversation so be sure to bring your best questions about Catholicism and Sigourney Weaver.
• And, what would a post about the wild and unruly be without a mention of Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark? The mega-million dollar musical enters the history books again this weekend when it closes temporarily to begin a new round of rehearsals and reopen in a few weeks, a different show. Is it appropriate to use a butterfly metaphor when talking about a spider?

Image via Google

It’s official. Producers have announced that a new creative team is being brought in to overhaul the troubled Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Philip William McKinley (The Boy from Oz) and bookwriter Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Based on a Totally True Story) will begin a major reworking of the show, delaying the show’s opening until the Summer—and after Tony eligibility for this season. There is one wrinkle in the press release from producers Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris; it doesn’t define director Julie Taymor’s position in the new team, leaving some headlines to shout that she’s out and other articles to suggest that she is still in.  Read this excerpt from the statement by Cohl and Harris (perhaps noting that magical, mythical space between the lines) and decide for yourself:

Julie Taymor is not leaving the creative team. Her vision has been at the heart of this production since its inception and will continue to be so.  Julie’s previous commitments mean that past March 15th, she cannot work the 24/7 necessary to make the changes in the production in order to be ready for our opening.  We cannot exaggerate how technically difficult it is to make such changes to a show of this complexity, so it’s with great pride that we announce that Phil McKinley is joining the creative team. Phil is hugely experienced with productions of this scale and is exactly what SPIDER-MAN Turn off the Dark needs right now.

Every first Wednesday of the month, get caught up on what’s new on stage with a review round-up. And that vaguely hollow, clinking sound you hear at the end of each segment? That’s me tossing in my two cents.

With the spring season about to ramp up, I thought I’d offer a sneak peek edition of “To See or Not to See” featuring a critical look at two shows that are up and running (or tumbling into the pit) and a tease for the three shows I’m most excited to catch in the months ahead.

Image via Google (Sara Krulwich, The New York Times)

SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK

Following multiple delays and bruised bodies (as well as egos), the bank-busting, comic book musical—directed by The Lion King‘s Julie Taymor and with music by U2′s Bono and The Edge—still hasn’t officially opened.  But that hasn’t stopped most major critics from piling on like a spandex sale at the Justice League.

“Spider-Man is not only the most expensive musical ever to hit Broadway; it may also rank among the worst.” New York Times

“An inconsistent, maddening show that’s equal parts exciting and atrocious.” New York Post

“It’s by turns hyperstimulated, vivid, lurid, overeducated, underbaked, terrifying, confusing, distracted, ridiculously slick, shockingly clumsy, unmistakably monomaniacal and clinically bipolar. But never, ever boring.” New York Magazine

“Beyond the offstage drama and lavish budget, and all the feats and flash accompanying them, lies an endearingly old-fashioned musical.” USA Today

Mizer’s Two Cents:  If you love stagecraft, go for the jaw-dropping mixture of high tech wizardry and classic theater/puppetry techniques. And now with reports spreading that major reworking is about to happen (with script and music doctors), this could be a truly fascinating chance to see a new show being built before our eyes. But, at Broadway ticket prices, this graduate level theater class won’t come cheap. All that being said, I do hope folks can take a step back from some of the more sensational talk about the working conditions. One of the guys in charge of the flying harnesses actually flew me for a year when I was on tour and he would have thrown himself in front of a two ton set piece to protect me. Whatever stories have been spread, I’d wager my life savings that the crew of this show is doing everything humanly possible to ensure the safety of the performers.

UPDATE: NY1 is reporting that Julie Taymor is out as director. What a tangled web, indeed.

Read more…