Wednesday, October 08, 2014

When U2’s Bono Went to Broadway


 Off the Shelf - By Kevin Myers | Tuesday, October 07, 2014 

 Sure, I work in publishing, but my first love is theatre. I’m a BIG theatre nerd. I’ll see anything, from mainstream Broadway to edgy emerging artists. Heck, I’ve even produced a few shows myself and boy oh boy, have I got some good stories. But nothing I’ve got holds a candle to Glen Berger’s tale of a show gone wrong. Berger wrote Song of Spider-Man, which is his tell-all about his time as a co-writer on SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK, the infamous musical of the superhero which turned into the most expensive Broadway show ($60+ million budget!) in history. And oh, my friends: this book is a doozy. It’s glorious in so many awfully wonderful ways. 

 Did you miss this whole debacle? I’ll bring you up to speed: 

Berger was hired to co-write the spoken dialogue portion of the show, also known as “the book” of the musical. His collaborators were Julie Taymor (Tony-award-winning director/designer of THE LION KING on Broadway) and U2’s Bono and The Edge. Bono, you guys. BONO ON BROADWAY! And Berger was there, working and writing with all three of them. The music, lyrics and dialogue were honed and changed, edited, added and cut for years. The show finally started rehearsals in 2010. After several postponed opening nights and nearly six months of preview performances (most shows perform previews for 4-6 weeks at the most), the show opened in June 2011 and played Broadway until January 2014. - More

No comments: