Spiderman.
OMG! NO DON’T DO IT! I’M TIRED OF THIS!
Julie Taymor just walked away from the project. She’s getting KILLED all over the place for bailing on a play that she was getting KILLED for in the first place. Now I’m no expert of her work, but it seems that the product of which has suffered since The Lion King made her a top billing type of name.
(For example: Across The Universe, for all it’s nostalgia and excellent musical direction, has a horribly inconsistent storyline… but she removed her name from some of that as well.)
I just can’t lay blame on her for this debacle of a production. The fact is, somebody hired Ms. Taymor in the first place. Somebody also hired Bono and The Edge (come on, man what’s “edgy” about your guitar riffs besides their repetition?) to do something that they had zero experience with. Somebody bought out a theater and said yes to every flying stunt imaginable.
And somebody didn’t take control of the situation when the first draft came in looking like a third grader wrote it.
(Someone go look at my viking : play metaphor: “Present Musing no. 15” and a follow up, “Regarding Previous Present Musing no. 15”)
If someone looked at it and said, “this is great!” then, well, shame on them, but it’s more likely someone looked at the script and thought, “this is rough.” It is then their responsibility to make sure that it’s fixed. If Ms. Taymor said “no, it’s perfect” then explain to her that it’s not and why, or bring someone in who has the vocabulary to do so. If, after that, she still won’t fix it then figure out why and if it’s ego and she won’t let go then fire her.
Now it’s been speculated that a “firing” did more or less take place today. But I suggest that this action and the actions leading up to it are about 80 million dollars and a year too late.
I am by no means informed on the inner workings of this project, rather I am only basing these opinions off of my own limited experience (failures & successes) as a director of stories acted in front of a live audience. Similarly I am not trying to absolve anyone (Ms. Taymor included) of blame. Rather I’m positing that the people at the top of the food chain here are ultimately responsible for this mess. A play requires a team to have clarity of focus; a shared vision and it’s up to the leader of that team to protect that sentiment. It’s clear that not everyone is/was on board with whatever vision Spiderman, Turn Off The Dark was flying towards.
Someone should be getting more of the negative press… but someone clearly has a lot of money to throw around.
Thoughts?
backpocket musings 