The New York Times gave up waiting for Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark to open. Quoth Ben Brantley: ““Spider-Man” is not only the most expensive musical ever to hit Broadway; it may also rank among the worst.” In fact, it has gotten so bad that “Spiderman: The Music” has become the punch line of many a joke.
ETA: The LA Times also ripped Spidey a new one:
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.
ETAA: Here’s a nice summary of all the reviews from the LA Times:
To give you a sense of the general critical reaction, here’s a list of some of the words that reviewers are using to describe the much-delayed, $65 million Broadway production: “incoherent,” “a mess,” “endless,” “a turkey,” “sheer ineptitude” and “contender for worst musical ever.”
Of course, the reviews won’t stop the audience. But hopefully they will actually allow the producers to do some repairs before the show officially opens.