In October 08, Post reported that the play would cost $40 million (which they were trying to bring down to $35m), and would have a weekly running cost of $1 million. They estimated that it would have to run for 8,000 years in a Broadway theater just for it to break even—which would be three years shy of Cats’ run. More recent estimates put the cost even higher, at $50 million, though it doesn’t say whether that includes the weekly cost. Luckily, they’ve got some big stars to headline the bill. Hold on, I’m receiving an update…
Jennifer Damiano will fill the role of Mary Jane Watson, and Patrick Page will play both Norman Osborn and the villain Green Goblin. The actors join Reeve Carney, playing Peter Parker. Because of the delays and the uncertain nature of the production, both actress Evan Rachel Wood, who was to star as Mary Jane, and Alan Cumming, in the Green Goblin role, quit. [Rollingstone]
Director Julie Taymor originally wanted Jim Sturgess for Peter Parker, but apparently that didn’t work out either. It could have something to do with Jim Sturgess being an actor who gets offered real film roles and this being a Broadway musical about Spider-Man soundtrack-ed by U2.
Bono and the Edge, who wrote both the lyrics and music for the show,
remain firmly in place. Last year the Edge said that the music “touches on
opera, it touches on rock & roll. There are some real character-driven
songs as well, very unusual song types for us.”
By “character driven,” do you mean talk-singing numbers sung from the perspective of the Green Goblin? Because our Spidey Sense tells us this will be great.
