I think the Arts Beat blog is enjoying this debacle more than anyone.
Taymor Feeling the Heat Over ‘Spider-Man’
By JENNIFER 8. LEE and PATRICK HEALY
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Julie Taymor, the director of the new Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” said on Wednesday that she was currently “in the crucible and the fire of transformation” as she and her collaborators continue to work on improving the show.
Addressing a live audience of more than 1,000 people at the TED2011 conference here, and many more through streaming video, Ms. Taymor was humble as she acknowledged the turbulence surrounding the “Spider-Man” project, the most expensive in Broadway history (at $65 million and counting) and technically ambitious. And she graciously praised her cast and collaborators for sticking with the show in spite of the intense media spotlight and the steady negative jabs, particularly from theater critics.
“Anyone who creates knows - when it’s not quite there,” Ms. Taymor, a Tony Award winner for the blockbuster musical “The Lion King,” said. “Where it hasn’t quite become the phoenix or the burnt char. And I am right there.” The producers of “Spider-Man,” along with Ms. Taymor and her co-creators, U2’s Bono and the Edge, are now deciding whether to open the musical as scheduled on March 15, or delay the opening for a sixth time to continue making changes to the script, music, direction, and other elements of the show. Bono attended Tuesday night’s performance of “Spider-Man,” his first viewing since mid-January, to inform his opinion about opening or delaying. Ms. Taymor is to fly back to New York shortly. The production is expected to announce this week that opening night is confirmed for March 15 or will be delayed.
While Ms. Taymor did not directly address the issue of delaying opening night, her remarks left the impression that that she was still hard at work on “Spider-Man” and that she would continue to be.
Ms. Taymor chose a story about a trip to Indonesia when she was much younger to serve as a sort of metaphor for her journey with “Spider-Man,” which began eight years ago as she began working on the script with the playwright Glen Berger and Bono and the Edge, who wrote the music and lyrics. In Indonesia, Ms. Taymor recalled, she and a friend decided to scale the side of twin volcanoes, but her friend then disappeared into the sulfurous smoke, leaving her behind perched between a dead and live volcano.
“It’s very easy to climb up, is it not?” she said. “I am on the precipice looking down into a dead volcano on my left, on the right it is sheer shale. I am in thongs and sarong and no hiking boots. I realize I can’t go back the way I have come. I can’t. So I throw away my camera. I throw away my thongs and I looked at the line straight in front of me. And I got down on all fours like a cat. And I held with my knees to either side of this line in front of me - 30 yards or 30 feet, I don’t know. The wind was massively blowing and the only way I could get to the other side was to look at the line straight in front of me.”
She added: “I know you have been there. I am in the crucible right now. It is my trial by fire. It’s my company’s trial by fire. We have survived because our theme song is ‘Rise Above.” She then referred to another song from the show as she continued: “‘Boy falls from the sky.’ ‘Rise Above.’”
“It’s right there in the palm of my hands,” she said. “In all of my company’s hands. I have beautiful collaborators. We as collaborators only get there all together. I know you understand that. You stay there going forward and you see this extraordinary thing right in front of your eyes.”
Ms. Taymor also talked about her life as a creative artist, saying she had been in theater since she was 11 years old. “You must be true to what you believe as an artist all the way through,” she said, “but you almost have to be aware that the audience is out there in our lives at this time and they also need the light. And it’s this incredible balance that I think we walk when we are breaking ground, that’s trying to do something that you’ve never seen before, that the imaginary worlds, where you actually don’t know where you are going to end up. That’s the fine line at the edge of the crater as I have done my whole life.”
Source
By JENNIFER 8. LEE and PATRICK HEALY
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Julie Taymor, the director of the new Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” said on Wednesday that she was currently “in the crucible and the fire of transformation” as she and her collaborators continue to work on improving the show.
Addressing a live audience of more than 1,000 people at the TED2011 conference here, and many more through streaming video, Ms. Taymor was humble as she acknowledged the turbulence surrounding the “Spider-Man” project, the most expensive in Broadway history (at $65 million and counting) and technically ambitious. And she graciously praised her cast and collaborators for sticking with the show in spite of the intense media spotlight and the steady negative jabs, particularly from theater critics.
“Anyone who creates knows - when it’s not quite there,” Ms. Taymor, a Tony Award winner for the blockbuster musical “The Lion King,” said. “Where it hasn’t quite become the phoenix or the burnt char. And I am right there.” The producers of “Spider-Man,” along with Ms. Taymor and her co-creators, U2’s Bono and the Edge, are now deciding whether to open the musical as scheduled on March 15, or delay the opening for a sixth time to continue making changes to the script, music, direction, and other elements of the show. Bono attended Tuesday night’s performance of “Spider-Man,” his first viewing since mid-January, to inform his opinion about opening or delaying. Ms. Taymor is to fly back to New York shortly. The production is expected to announce this week that opening night is confirmed for March 15 or will be delayed.
While Ms. Taymor did not directly address the issue of delaying opening night, her remarks left the impression that that she was still hard at work on “Spider-Man” and that she would continue to be.
Ms. Taymor chose a story about a trip to Indonesia when she was much younger to serve as a sort of metaphor for her journey with “Spider-Man,” which began eight years ago as she began working on the script with the playwright Glen Berger and Bono and the Edge, who wrote the music and lyrics. In Indonesia, Ms. Taymor recalled, she and a friend decided to scale the side of twin volcanoes, but her friend then disappeared into the sulfurous smoke, leaving her behind perched between a dead and live volcano.
“It’s very easy to climb up, is it not?” she said. “I am on the precipice looking down into a dead volcano on my left, on the right it is sheer shale. I am in thongs and sarong and no hiking boots. I realize I can’t go back the way I have come. I can’t. So I throw away my camera. I throw away my thongs and I looked at the line straight in front of me. And I got down on all fours like a cat. And I held with my knees to either side of this line in front of me - 30 yards or 30 feet, I don’t know. The wind was massively blowing and the only way I could get to the other side was to look at the line straight in front of me.”
She added: “I know you have been there. I am in the crucible right now. It is my trial by fire. It’s my company’s trial by fire. We have survived because our theme song is ‘Rise Above.” She then referred to another song from the show as she continued: “‘Boy falls from the sky.’ ‘Rise Above.’”
“It’s right there in the palm of my hands,” she said. “In all of my company’s hands. I have beautiful collaborators. We as collaborators only get there all together. I know you understand that. You stay there going forward and you see this extraordinary thing right in front of your eyes.”
Ms. Taymor also talked about her life as a creative artist, saying she had been in theater since she was 11 years old. “You must be true to what you believe as an artist all the way through,” she said, “but you almost have to be aware that the audience is out there in our lives at this time and they also need the light. And it’s this incredible balance that I think we walk when we are breaking ground, that’s trying to do something that you’ve never seen before, that the imaginary worlds, where you actually don’t know where you are going to end up. That’s the fine line at the edge of the crater as I have done my whole life.”
Source