BREAKING: SCRIPT DOCTOR FOR SPIDERMAN: TOTD

[Idiot]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/02/breaking-roberto-aguirre-sacasa-hired-to-rework-spider-man-turn-off-the-dark/

[SueleenGay]

Do I smell another postponement of opening? And what is this going to add to salary and his cut? What about the score?

[CATSNYrevival]

Like his book for Superman was so great? He's just gonna fu*k it up even more.

[Katurian2]

The new book for Superman! was actually pretty good. But that was kind of quality source material to work with in the first place. At least someone is coming in to reign in the ego trip script of Queen Taymor. Yeah, opening will probably be pushed. Again. It's nice to see they haven't given up hope though. It's kind of adorable in a pathetic malnourished puppy dog kind of way.

[Mr Roxy]

Bring in Superman instead of letting this continue.

[luvtheEmcee]

Roberto is the perfect person to do this.

[Mr Roxy]

Ah but you still have the score.

[Katurian2]

Wicked worked with a mediocre score because it has a pretty clever book and concept. I think Spider-man is comparable on that level. Wicked's score may be a bit better, but Spider-man could compensate with its 'effects' draw.

[TheatreDiva90016]

"It's kind of adorable in a pathetic malnourished puppy dog kind of way."

That made me laugh.

[Sauja]

Oh, Katurian, I'm not a big Wicked fan, especially of its score. But I'd still say that score is leaps and bounds better than Spider-Man's. But I do agree that the book has always been the weakest of this show's many pieces. Do I think someone will be able to make it a good musical? No. But I think they have a chance to make it a hell of a lot better! I'm over mocking this show. At this point, I'm just glad that someone involved is acknowledgint that the trouble isn't the flying. It's the material. This should have been done months ago, but better late than never! Right?

[Scarywarhol]

I guess those reviews might really have had an effect. Shame it's so late. It's a very good thing that they've finally taken this step, but the show opens in under a month and there is no way they can delay again. And god knows if anything will really be able to change with the technical aspect of the show to consider.

[Katurian2]

idk- I think that Spider-man has a few good songs that get lost in a the large jumble of really awful ones. Wicked only has maybe 2 songs that really bring down the whole show. Spider-man has about 4 or 5 and they ruin all the others. Someone suggested previously parring the show down to 120 minutes. I think that's about the best thing to be done at this point. If more attention and gravity were given to the decent songs like ' Rise Above,' 'No More,' 'If the World Should End' and 'Boy Falls From the Sky,' I do believe that the score as a whole would seem stronger.

Wicked really only has two songs- 'Popular' and 'Defying Gravity' that really stick out. But they are staged so well that they elevate everything else. Songs are the company they keep, and a good song in a bad show is going to sound bad too.

I do wish freakin' Bono would come back and write ONE DANG SONG for Uncle Ben and Peter to sing together. I'm still pissed they haven't done anything with Ben's character.

[TheatreDiva90016]

"I guess those reviews might really have had an effect."

Which ones? The ones that the production said were not fair?

If the reviews are the reason this is being done, then Julie Taymor should be fired. If anyone else working on this show couldn't see the massive problems with it before the reviews came out, they shouldn't be working in theatre either.

[Scarywarhol]

Katurian--I agree COMPLETELY about Uncle Ben. I actually think it is one of the biggest problems in the entire show. He comes onstage, acts like a jerk for twenty seconds, then dies in a ridiculous manner. Peter's entire journey suffers because of it.

TheatreDiva--I hear what you're saying, but at this point, anything that forces the creative team to face the music a little bit has to be a good thing.

[East Village]

I'm not saying its just a publicity stunt -- well maybe I am. But it makes perfect sense from a PR perspective after you've been savaged by the critics. Its a little shuffle and dance to keep hope afloat.

[Jordan Catalano]

But we all know these changes can't possibly be put in place by March 15th.

[fingerlakessinger]

If WICKED's score was so bad I don't think it would have sold over 2 million copies...I'm sorry, I don't think you can compare the two.

But besides that, they need to work not just on the book, but the score too. That's one of the big problems also.

[Jordan Catalano]

When a 65 million dollar musicals two main problems are a horrible book and a horrible score, it's going to take more than 4 weeks than fix. Lord have mercy.

[fingerlakessinger]

They are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

If they do not extend, that means in 4 weeks they have to revamp the book almost entirely, and have a major overhaul of the score..which means they will rush and that will result in errors most likely.

However, I have no doubt they will announce another extension, which will piss off the audience even more, create much more negative publicity which at this point is now doing more harm then good, and that will result in a possible loss of ticket sales.

[Katurian2]

Do people- excluding critics even care if it opens right now? It's pretty obvious a large amount of people are seeing this just because it's a train wreck.

[fingerlakessinger]

Yea but I think the whole "wanting to see a wreck" thing is wearing off. It's had a steady decline in ticket price and attendance over the past few weeks.

[Katurian2]

Yeah- which is unfortunate, because other than that they have nothing going for them. It's really sink so dramatically people will want to watch, or shape it however they can into a product people will actually want to see over a long time span in the future.

[tazber]

I'm pretty sure they'll have to extend again. And I don't think anyone will care after the initial blast from press.

I mean, how many times is it going to be considered news? By now it's like a broken record that's greeted with shrugs. It will just be lumped in with all the rest of the negative press and lose any sort of distinction.

Spider-Man is a disaster. Everyone knows it. And worst of all it's quickly becoming yesterday's news.

Even Riedel has moved on.

But hey, at least they are finally taking steps to deal with the flaws. Theoretically they could just not open until the whole show is completely revamped. The critics already had their say so who's stopping them?

[fingerlakessinger]

either way I dont see this show running for long. Even if by some chance they make a diamond out of coal, the nut is well over $1.3 million now, so they would have to run for years and years (I heard upwards of a decade) to just make a profit...and thats if they sell out EVERY show, every week. I doubt the investors, producers, and the theater owners are going to keep holding out each week if they are constantly losing money.

[Brick]

It took them 3 months to bring in a script doctor?

They certainly seem to be intent on working on the show now, after being trashed in the press and beginning to lose money with falling ave ticket prices. If they ahd shown this level of intent before, I have a feeling critics may have waited.

And yes, expect another delay.