New York Magazine caught up with Julie Taymor at the Monday, September 21st opening of the Metropolitan Opera season and the visionary director declared that SPIDERMAN, TURN OFF THE DARK is still set to swing to Broadway.
Taymor exclaimed, "We had funding and now there's more funding. It's all good. Tutto è bene!" She also revealed that announced stars Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming are also onboard,"as long as everyone's excited." To read the full scoop click here.
The New York Times reported last week that tickets for Spider-Man will go on sale on October 31, 2009.
Directed by Tony Award-winner Julie Taymor with 22-time Grammy® Award-winning Bono and The Edge creating new music and lyrics, SPIDER-MAN will be written by Julie Taymor and Glen Berger.
Julie Taymor is best known as director of one of the most successful musicals in Broadway history, Disney's The Lion King and the film Across The Universe. Bono and The Edge are half of one of the most popular rock bands of all time, U2, who will be making their Broadway debut with SPIDER-MAN.
Drawing from over forty years of Marvel comic books for inspiration, SPIDER-MAN spins a new take on the mythic tale of a young man propelled from a modest rowhouse in Queens to the sky-scraping spire of the Chrysler Building, the bustling offices of the Daily Bugle, through the dizzying canyons of Manhattan, to new vistas never before seen. The musical follows the story of teenager Peter Parker, whose unremarkable life is turned upside-down-literally-when he's bitten by a genetically altered spider and wakes up the next morning clinging to his bedroom ceiling. This bullied science-geek-suddenly endowed with astonishing powers-soon learns, however, that with great power comes great responsibility as villains test not only his physical strength but also his strength of character. Spider-Man's battles will hurtle the audience through an origin story both recognizable and unexpected--yielding new characters as well as familiar faces--until a final surprising confrontation casts a startling new light on this hero's journey.
The principal creative and design team for SPIDER-MAN includes Daniel Ezralow, Choreographer (Across the Universe, The Green Bird); George Tsypin, Sets (The Magic Flute, The Little Mermaid); Eiko Ishioka, Costumes (Academy Award® for Bram Stoker's Dracula, Tony Award® nomination for M. Butterfly, the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics); Donald Holder, Lighting (Tony® Awards for The Lion King, South Pacific); Jonathan Deans, Sound (Fosse, The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil, Young Frankenstein, Ragtime); and Teese Gohl, Musical Supervisor (Across the Universe, Frida). Additional members of the SPIDER-MAN creative team will be announced at a later date.
Julie Taymor (Co-Book Writer, Director). Julie Taymor's latest film, Across The Universe, received a Golden Globe® nomination for Best Musical/Comedy in 2008. Her first film Fool's Fire, an adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe short story, aired on PBS in 1992. She directed her first feature, Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange in 1999. Frida, about the Mexican painter, starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina, received five Academy Award® nominations including a nomination for Taymor for Best Original Song for "Burn it Blue," and two Oscars® in 2002. Taymor's next film is The Tempest staring Dame Helen Mirren, Djimon Honsou and Russell Brand. Taymor has received numerous awards for The Lion King, which opened on Broadway in 1997, including two Tony® Awards-one for best direction and one for her original costume designs. The Lion King has been seen on eleven stages worldwide. She also earned a Tony Award ® nomination for Best Direction and Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Juan Darien. Recent opera productions include an original opera, Grendel, composed by Elliot Goldenthal, which premiered at the Los Angeles Opera and subsequently at the Lincoln Center Festival (2006). Her direction of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2004 and is now in repertoire there. Taymor has received a MacArthur "genius" grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, the first Annual Dorothy B. Chandler Award in Theater, and the 1990 Brandeis Creative Arts Award among many others. A book spanning her career, Julie Taymor: Playing With Fire, is in its third edition from Abrams.
