At the Theatre Communications Group conference over the weekend, ousted Spider-Man director Julie Taymor blamed the Internet for some of Spider-Man’s shortcomings: “It’s a new time,” she said. “Twitter and Facebook and blogging just trump you. It’s incredibly difficult to be under a shot-glass and a microscope like that. When you’re trying to break new ground, the immediate answers that audiences give are never going to be good.” The director also challenged the idea that making artistic decisions based on test-marketing audiences is helpful: “There’s always something people don’t like. It’s very scary if people are going more towards that, to have audiences tell you how to make a show. Shakespeare would have been appalled.” She still sees the value in a Spider-Man musical, overall. “Peter Parker had everything to sing about — he had yearning, he had exuberance, he had unrequited love.” As for the show in its current incarnation? “The production today has become much simpler.” She also compared Peter Parker to Harry Potter: “Pieces that attract me have to do with outsiders,” she said. Alas, we don’t foresee her attempting a Harry Potter musical at the moment. [LAT, NYT]
