Toronto Star Reviews SPIDER-MAN: '$65 million disaster'

Well, the major critics haven't gone in (yet) but now the Toronto Star is the latest paper to break the gentleman's agreement of holding reviews until after the official opening, an agreement which generally assumes a typical amount of previews. 

Critic Richard Ouzounian writes that "The only truly amazing thing about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, is how unequivocally awful it is.

This $65 million musical, with its years of postponements and months of previews, lies there on the stage of the Foxwoods Theatre like the biggest beached whale in existence.

In fact, the quality of the show is so bad that the cynical part of me wonders if all the sound and fury about its technical troubles might have been nothing more than strategic cover."

He goes on to write that "Only the bad guys, like Patrick Page's sardonic Green Goblin, or Michael Mulheren's unctuous editor, J. Jonah Jameson, really register with us.

Who is to blame for this disaster? Ultimately, the fingers must all point to director/co-author Taymor, whose vision this is and whose failure to tap into the grander myth inherent in a comic book hero makes the whole thing so disappointing."

Click Here to Read the Full Review

After the show's last delay, BroadwayWorld.com reached out to multiple major critics after the announcement that the opening was being delayed (again) who have told us that they were talking to their editors and expect that given that the show will now have been seen by potentially 200,000 audience members before its opening night, that they will NOT wait until opening night to review the show and were instead looking at seeing the show near to the February 7th previously scheduled opening night.

 Rick Miramontez, Spokesman for SPIDER-MAN Turn Off the Dark told us that "The official position of the Spider-Man team is that critics should not review the production until invited by the production. We deem critics to be theater lovers, and to review the show before it is frozen is not, in any way, in the spirit of Broadway and all it represents."

Lead producers Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris announced that SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark has delayed its opening night (previously set for February 7, 2011) to Tuesday, March 15th to allow for more time to fine-tune aspects of the show, including the new ending. Directed by Julie Taymor and featuring a book by Julie Taymor and Glen Berger, and new music and lyrics by U2's Bono and The Edge, SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark is now in previews at Broadway's Foxwoods Theatre (213 West 42nd Street).