Glen Berger News

Reeve Carney performs songs by one iconic rock group every night with SPIDER-MAN, Turn Off the Dark's score being written by U2's Bono and The Edge, but he recently sang another famed group's song when he performed Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' for Rolling Stone. View Carney's performance below!

So what does the SPIDER-MAN cast think of the harsh reviews the show received earlier this week? Click below to hear what Green Goblin Patrick Page had to say on MSNBC's Morning Joe earlier today.

In the New York Times, Ben Brantley writes that 'You are of course entitled to disagree with our decision. But from what I saw on Saturday night, 'Spider-Man' is so grievously broken in every respect that it is beyond repair. Fans of Ms. Taymor's work on the long-running musical 'The Lion King,' adapted from the animated Walt Disney feature, will have to squint charitably to see evidence of her talent. True, signature Taymor touches like airborne puppets, elaborate masks and perspective-skewing sets (George Tsypin is the scenic designer) are all on hand. But they never connect into a comprehensible story with any momentum. Often you feel as if you were watching the installation of Christmas windows at a fancy department store. At other times the impression is of being on a soundstage where a music video is being filmed in the early 1980s. (Daniel Ezralow's choreography is pure vintage MTV.)

In USA Today, Elysa Gardner bucks the trend thus far and writes that 'And while the state-of-the-art visuals can be stunning - not just the aerial sequences, but Kyle Cooper's blazing projection design - some of the most affecting touches are low-tech. Before Spider-Man first takes flight, the dancers doing his stunts leap and twitch like giddy children perfecting a new trick. Bono and Edge's songs aspire to the same emotional sweep. In a USA TODAY interview in November, Bono described the 'operatic' scope of U2's music. There are tunes here, melodic and undeniably theatrical, that confirm that determination to transcend sentimentality that links them to tunesmiths from Bruce Springsteen to Rodgers and Hammerstein. For more, tune in again in March. But know this for now: Spider-Man's creative team is trying to bring musical theater back to the future. And that's a mission worth rooting for.'

In the Hollywood Reporter David Rooney writes that 'But mostly, Spider-Man is chaotic, dull and a little silly. And there's nothing here half as catchy as the 1967 ABC cartoon theme tune. The absence of the word 'musical' from Taymor's definition of the show seems key. The songs by Bono and The Edge display minimal grasp of music's function in goosing narrative or illuminating character. And despite all the wailing-guitar attitude, they only squeak by as atmospheric enhancement. Aside from one or two stirring anthems in familiar messianic U2 mode, this is strictly album filler, with echoes of everyone from T. Rex to Alice Cooper, plus an occasional nod to The Who's Tommy. The lyrics - when you can decipher them - are either too vague or too literal. But an underwhelming score is the least of the show's worries. What really sinks it is the borderline incoherence of its storytelling. ' Click Here for His Full Report.

Here's what Charles McNulty had to say for the LA Times: But the time has come to assess the work, not the hullabaloo surrounding it. So much emphasis has been placed on the technological hurdles, the notion that 'Spider-Man' is trying things that have never been attempted before in a Broadway house. What sinks the show, however, has nothing to do with glitches in the special effects. To revise a handy little political catch phrase, 'It's the storytelling, stupid.' And on that front, the failure rests squarely on Taymor's run-amok direction. This is, after all, her vision, and it's a vision that has been indulged with too many resources, artistic and financial. The production, lacking the clarity that's born out of tough choices, adds when it should subtract, accelerates when it should slow down. Taymor's inventive staging of 'The Lion King' was a victory for the craft and commerce of theater alike. But the investors of 'Spider-Man' have inadvertently bankrolled an artistic form of megalomania.

Here's what Chris Jones had to say for the Chicago Tribune:'After the $65 million spent, the endless delays, the injuries, the cast changes, the incessant spinning of stories on the Web, Julie Taymor's 'Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark' now has to be willing to stand in the light. Deck chairs can be rearranged forever.

Here's what Jeremy Gerard had to say for Bloomberg:'Preview number 65 was no improvement over number 30. In fact, it was worse. After all this expenditure of talent and money, 'Spider- Man' is probably unfixable because too much has gone into making humans fly, which is not what they are good at. It imitates poorly what the 'Spider-Man' movies do brilliantly with computer graphics -- and without putting live actors in jeopardy.

Here's what the Washington Post had to say:If you're going to spend $65 million and not end up with the best musical of all time, I suppose there's a perverse distinction in being one of the worst. What's apparent after 170 spirit-snuffing minutes in the Foxwoods Theatre - interrupted by the occasional burst of aerial distraction - is that director Julie Taymor, of 'The Lion King' fame, left a few essential items off her lavish shopping list:

BroadwayWorld.com was the first to report that multiple critics from major newspapers have indeed purchased tickets in recent days to SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark, and they have come out in force. All but a few papers have filed reviews timed to tonight's performance which was, until the most recent delay, scheduled to be the show's opening night. Here are all the reviews for SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark to date and we'll keep updating as new ones come in.

BroadwayWorld.com has learned that multiple critics from major newspapers have indeed purchased tickets in recent days to SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark, and amongst those expected to publish reviews in tomorrow's newspapers will be The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The New York Post. Early word is that the reviews are expected to be negative. These reviews will be timed to hit after tonight's performance which was, until the most recent delay, scheduled to be the show's opening night.

Well, the major Broadway critics haven't gone in (yet) but now the UK Telegraph is the latest paper to break the gentleman's agreement of holding reviews until after the official opening, an agreement which generally assumes a typical amount of previews. Well-known UK Critic Charles Spencer writes that 'Never mind turning off the dark. I spent much of this dreadful new musical muttering Please, Lord, make it stop.'

On Twitter Watch, Nikki Hayden wrote 'iam_nikkihayden At Spiderman on B'way and Spiderman is stuck at 30 feet. Show is delayed - not impressed. 19 minutes ago iam_nikkihayden @BroadwaySpotted I'm at Spidey right now and Peter is stuck 30 feet and the show is stopped. 20 minutes ago '

The New York Times reports that the Syfy network will be treating the participants of its Upfront Presentation ('what ratings statistics it touts or who drinks the most cocktails at the bar') to a performance of SPIDER-MAN at the Foxwoods Theatre on March 22. Syfy is SPIDEY's main media partner for commercials, promotions etc.

Adam Feldman, head of the New York Drama Critics' Circle, an organization comprised of many, but not all New York critics has just blogged about the result of their meeting tonight. On the agenda was whether they'd be able to reach a consensus about whether to wait for SPIDER-MAN's opening night to review the show. The end result? No consensus.

Carney, the band that plays onstage for SPIDER-MAN Turn Off the Dark and whose lead singer, Reeve Carney, is the show's star, will open for U2 this summer. As per the band's website, 'Carney will be joining U2 for the last date of their epic 360° Tour alongside Arcade Fire at Magnetic Hill in Moncton, New Brunswick on July 30th 2011'. Tickets, updates, and more information are forthcoming.

In a recent AP video, Patrick Page talks about playing the Green Goblin in Broadway's SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark as well as the controversy that has been surrounding the show.

Well, the major critics haven't gone in (yet) but now the Toronto Star is the latest paper to break the gentleman's agreement of holding reviews until after the official opening, an agreement which generally assumes a typical amount of previews. Critic Richard Ouzounian writes that 'The only truly amazing thing about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, is how unequivocally awful it is...'

A recent article from Variety asks the question: When will SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark rehearse the changes to the show that have been promised? By the time she show is set to open on March 15, the musical will have set the record for most preview performances. And after returning to a full eight-preview weekly schedule, there isn't much time to do more than perform the show as it is.

In an interview with the UK Guardian out this morning, former Green Goblin Alan Cumming (who departed the production before rehearsals began last year due to the numerous delays), speaks openly about his decision to depart the production, and what it was like to continue to work with Julie Taymor on The Tempest film thereafter.