Julie Taymor Discusses SPIDER-MAN's 'Trial by Fire' at the TED 2011 Conference

With all the news surrounding the $65 million spectacle SPIDER-MAN, Turn Off the Dark, the public's attention is firmly fixed on the show's driving force, Julie Taymor. The co-writer and director of the production spoke today at the TED 2011 conference, and while she didn't directly address any of the show's main questions (the possibility of a sixth opening night delay, for example, or the disparaging reviews from many major news sources), she did admit that SPIDER-MAN is not where she would ideally like it to be.

"Anyone who creates knows - when it's not quite there, where it hasn't quite become the phoenix or the burnt char," Taymor said, according to the New York Times. "And I am right there."

She then compared her journey with SPIDER-MAN and the flurry of attention surrounding it to a trip she once took in Indonesia, saying, "[While climbing a volcano], I realize I can't go back the way I have come...I look at the line straight in front of me. And I got down on all fours like a cat. And I held with my knees to either side of this line in front of me - 30 yards or 30 feet, I don't know. The wind was massively blowing and the only way I could get to the either side was to look at the line straight in front of me."

Taymor won't, however, be taking that journey alone: "It's right there in the palm of my hands. In all of my company's hands. I have beautiful collaborators. We as collaborators only get there all together. I know you understand that. You stay there going forward and you see this extraordinary thing right in front of your eyes."

Featuring music and lyrics by 22-time Grammy Award-winners Bono and The Edge, a book co-written by Taymor and Glen Berger (Underneath The Lintel) and one of the most iconic title characters of all time, SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark is the most ambitious production ever undertaken on Broadway and certainly the most expensive and most heavily watched productions in Broadway history. 

According to Taymor, audiences can expect to see the production "Rise Above", to quote a song title, saying "It is my company's trial by fire. We have survived because our theme song is 'Rise Above'. 'Boy falls from the sky.' 'Rise Above.'"

For more information on SPIDER-MAN, visit spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com, and for Broadway World's latest Spidey headlines, click here!