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'Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark' Can't Escape Web of Flaws

By DNAinfo Staff on June 14, 2011 3:48pm  | Updated on June 15, 2011 6:58am

By Michael Avila

Special to DNAinfo

MIDTOWN — After more than a half-dozen false starts, injuries to cast members, the ouster of director and creative mastermind Julie Taymor and a last-minute overhaul, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" finally has its official Broadway opening Tuesday night at the Foxwoods Theatre on 42nd Street.

There's no question that the new show is an improvement on the earlier incarnations of the web-swinging musical. But still, Spider-Man's Broadway debut remains a great big, spectacularly tangled failure. 

It'll be up to the ticket sales in the upcoming weeks to reveal whether audiences will keep flocking to the show despite its rocky start.

As someone who has now seen "Turn Off The Dark" three times, the improvements made during the show’s emergency three-week hiatus in May are apparent. The story is more linear, the characters more clearly defined, the aerial spectacles more dramatic. Even better, the Green Goblin is now the primary villain, instead of incomprehensibly sidelined after Act 1, as he was in the original iteration. We also get a clear explanation for why famous Spidey baddies like Kraven, Electro and Carnage suddenly appear.

Gone also are useless elements such as the much-maligned "Geek Chorus." The musicians that proved a distracting onstage presence have also been banished to the orchestra pit. It plays a lot better to the casual theater crowd and is notably family-friendly.

But all the changes and tinkering are akin to using cologne to disguise the fact you didn’t bathe; the stink doesn’t go away.

While parts of the story are improved, many of the weaknesses of the show remain exposed. The character of Arachne, played by T.V. Carpio, has been reduced to a glorified cameo as a sort-of guardian angel for Peter Parker, Spider-Man's alter ego. Arachne was the primary villain of Act 2 of the show’s earlier incarnation, and her current standing in the show makes little sense. It would have served the show better to just cut the character completely. It seems the producers kept her in just because she sings the title song.

The actors do their best, but are constantly betrayed by the banality of Bono and The Edge’s songs. Reeve Carney captures the angst and insecurity that makes Peter Parker such a relatable character; in this version of the show, which Carney refers to as "Spidey 2.0," he also gets a chance to show off Spidey’s trademark quips. Carney has rock star charisma – makes sense, since he fronts his own eponymous band – and a voice to match. But weak, lite-rock numbers like "Rise Above" and "Picture This" do little to show off those pipes.

One of the chief complaints from the earlier version of "Turn Off The Dark" was the lack of attention given to the three most important people in Peter Parker's life: Aunt May, Uncle Ben and Mary Jane Watson. This time around, Jennifer Damiano gets much more to do as Peter’s love interest, Mary Jane. Their relationship is the focal point of the rewritten book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

Aguirre-Sacasa was brought in to revamp the script after Taymor was forced out. A playwright with experience writing for TV ("Big Love") and comics (including "Spider-Man"), his influence on "Turn Off The Dark" is apparent. The dialogue is snappier and almost sitcom-like in its delivery and cadence. There are several jokes aimed at the Fanboy crowd, and even a few aimed at the show itself.

During "Freak Like Me," the only new song added during the hiatus, Patrick Page, playing the Green Goblin, sings that he's "a $65 million tragedy" – before pausing and adding "or is it $75 million?" as if to laugh at the musical's record-setting budget.

Aside from the Act 2 aerial fight scenes, Page is the most watchable aspect of "Turn Off The Dark." His Goblin is gleefully over the top, reveling in his own ridiculousness. It's as if Page knows the show is doomed, so he figures he may as well go down swinging.

A mountain of blame was laid at Taymor's feet for the musical's disastrous reception when it finally played to audiences. Much of that is justified; the story made little sense, and unnecessarily complicated one of the great – and straightforward – hero's tales in modern pop culture.

But it's time to throw Bono and The Edge under the same bus. These songs sound like the worst outtakes from "Pop," perhaps the nadir of U2’s illustrious recording career. Each time Peter or Mary Jane start singing another ballad, you could hear the audience groan. And "Bullying by Numbers" is one of the worst songs in recent musical history.

The true mark of success for any musical must come from its songs.

There are certain hooks that grab you – "Spider-Man Rising" and "Bouncing off the Walls" are two that come to mind – but there isn't one entire song memorable enough to warrant a spot on your playlist, let alone carry a mega-sized production like this.

If the audience can't leave the theatre humming at least one of the tunes they just heard, what was the point?

Michael Avila is a writer based in Manhattan; follow him on Twitter, @mikeavila.