Julie Taymor Breaks Her Silence Over 'Spider-Man' Musical

Ousted Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark director Julie Taymor has finally started speaking out about her experience and expectations with the troubled musical. In her recent statement, Taymor criticizes the instant review process that has been seized upon in the theater industy, citing blogs and Twitter as the instigators for generating bad buzz for the show before the production was frozen.

Taymor was critical of her former collaborators using audience focus groups to shape their musical, stating

“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. Forget about it. It would be impossible to have these works come out because there’s always something that people don’t like.”

She remarked that if focus groups had a say in her Broadway triumph The Lion King, "there would be no death of Mufasa,” because focus groups would have reacted negatively to the death of a character so early in the show.

Her recent return from seclusion seems to be an attempt to reclaim her public image and artistic reputation, after being repeatedly been mocked on late night television programs.

On the topic of 'Spider-Man' Taymor said:

“When you’re trying to create new work, and you’re trying to break new ground and experiment, which seems an incredibly crazy thing to do in a Broadway environment, the immediate answers that audiences give are never going to be good. It’s just in the nature of things that when you’re doing something very new, audiences don’t know how necessarily to talk about it immediately. Which in my world, and in your world, is a good thing. You want people to absorb, they should be entertained, they should have a great time, but they should also be stimulated enough that when they go home or talk to their kids, they are actually digesting, thinking, talking about it.”

Comments

[dtcash17]

10:49 AM on 06/25/2011

It's a pretty cold director who complains about reviews when the safety of her actors was the issue that provoked public concern.

[nib44]

08:19 AM on 06/22/2011

For a show that was in previews FOREVER, can you really call it an "Instant Review" process. I've read numerous critics who went to see the show right before it was Supposed to open, only to be delayed. After this happening numerous times, many said Forget It, and wrote the review anyway...

[timbeaux]

07:09 PM on 06/21/2011

I'm always a little nervous when an artist blames the audience for a project's failure. Especially in a medium in which two tickets cost a week's pay. People will go to see what they want to go to see, and if you want to educate them or something, you still need to give them something they enjoy.

[ThinkGlobal]

04:56 PM on 06/21/2011

Taymor's various other theater projects were great sucesses because she really studied other theater cultures all over the world and (copied?) then put her spin on them...in Spider Man maybe she was trying to create and it wasn't enough...just a thought.

BTW loved her film version of Titus...a must see for Shakespeare fans. As far as her Shakespeare remark pretty ridiculous. They just caught her on a bad day.

[hypnotoad72]

02:45 PM on 06/21/2011

I won't speak for Shakespeare since a 395 year-old corpse can't defend what other people might hypothesize as to what he would respond with, but experimentation and research cost money.  By design, they are not profitable.  "Spider-man" the musical came about because of the popular, profitable movies.

It's that simple. 

Still, I'd rather see original drivel than regurgitated pablum any day of the week. 

Still, when "Cats" becomes "Cats on Ice", I'm sure that'll run for 25 years too...

[ladyangelnyc]

01:14 PM on 06/21/2011

She needs to better understand her role as a Broadway Musical Director. Does she have creative license? Yes. However, that only goes so far. Her duty is to put out a production that will make audiences happy. If she wants to do something artistic, rent a theater and put together a play with your own money and acting troupe. As someone who saw Spiderman as a Christmas present, I felt like they cheated my friend out of her money. The show was in shambles, and when she bought them it was suppose to be open, not still in previews. She should be ashamed she let her ego cost so many people so much money. And comparing herself to Shakespeare? Give me a break.

[Art Franklin]

01:38 PM on 06/21/2011

Now, this opinion is worded much better and is far more logical than sonofsarek's assertions.

[sonofsarek]

12:10 PM on 06/21/2011

“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. Forget about it. It would be impossible to have these works come out because there’s always something that people don’t like.” - Julie Taymor
------------
That's why Shakespeare plays have 50 members in the audience and summer blockbusters fill the stands. Not listening to focus groups = refusing to give people what they want = poor business decision. Nobody cares about Taymor's elitist, artistic opinion. Only one thing matters - the bottom line. That's the ultimate judge of success.

[Hellosameness]

01:15 PM on 06/21/2011

This isn't true, obviously you have not seen Shakespeare performed well, and yes far more then 50 people go to see his work.

No money is not the ultimate judge of success, maybe in your narrow framework of what life is about. Many of our great artists, authors etc were poor. Many died in poverty, but their contributions live on. They are remembered and their works are read. That's success.
There are plenty of people who were rich who contributed nothing and we don't know anything about them.

You are the example of exactly what's wrong with the world.

I will say though, Taymor shouldn't have worked on a corporate level with so much money, if she wanted to make art. Art can only be made with there aren't any pressures on it to make tons of money back for the investors who threw tons of money into it.

[S Pesticide]

04:52 AM on 06/27/2011

yeah like Warhol..... errrr nevermind

[Art Franklin]

01:16 PM on 06/21/2011

"Only one thing matters - the bottom line. That's the ultimate judge of success. "

What a disgusting opinion. I guess Van Gogh was both an utter failure and a smashing success then? How can you quantify art that way?

Now, if there are zero artistic goals in the first place, then you can bean count butts in seats all you want, but this is not a worthy goal.

[jackdaniel58]

07:50 AM on 06/21/2011

What are we talking about here- a cure for cancer? Shut up!

[hollace]

07:21 AM on 06/21/2011

She`s comparing herself to Shakespeare now...and I compare myself to Napolean as we have the same flair for belts..

[Chuck Walker]

08:18 PM on 06/21/2011

And it's such a cute belt too!!!!! lol!!!!!!!

[MattPatrick]

06:47 AM on 06/21/2011

From an actor's point of view, Julie Taymor is a dangerous director. Throughout her career she has endangered and injured actors in the service of spectacle.

[v eyepete]

06:11 AM on 06/21/2011

I am always amazed that there are enough people who can shell out the ticket price for a Broadway show to support the medium. Show business is cruel at best and they often eat their own. I hope this is only a small blip for Ms Taymor who was forced to work for a couple of trash-clash rock and rollers (the U2 member producers) who are working way out of their element, and probably don't have the educational background to understand anything she has to say about the theatrical creative process.

[hypnotoad72]

02:50 PM on 06/21/2011

Agreed

[PrimoPablo]

05:43 AM on 06/21/2011

...and we've all been waiting for her to "break silence"?

[S Pesticide]

04:55 AM on 06/27/2011

lol

[sean from boise]

04:34 AM on 06/21/2011

I am sure I will sound old fashioned but please bring back contemporary musicals that are character driven and not driven by the spectacle. Yes, I am talking about shows similiar to Sondheim. I understand why the change in musical theatre happened. The spectacle revived broadway and got people back into the seats. I fear that current trends in musical theatre will push splashiness and the spectacle over substance. 70 million dollars does not necessarily make a musical relevant and good.

[hypnotoad72]

02:54 PM on 06/21/2011

That requires people to pay attention.  It's more profitable to be glitzy and to get people to go "ooh and aah" over flashing lights.

What you say can equally be attributed to television and the movies as well. 

It's also easier on the writers - more glitz makes it easier to hide gaping lapses of logic within the scripts being written, which is another reason "reality shows" were foisted upon everybody.  People having to write means more staff and *gasp* more expense when compared to getting a bunch of people, malleable to be molded, and have them jump through hoops in front of a camera.  Especially if the hoop is flaming and the people get burned in the process.  Humiliation-for-cash* is ever so entertaining nowadays...

* really more a pittance, but it's money so why have standards?

[trweste144]

04:30 AM on 06/21/2011

To which Shakespeare replied:

When the cue comes, call out, and hear the
answer: my next is, 'Most fair Spiderman.' Heigh-ho!
Methougt Julie Taymore had a most rare
vision. She has had a dream, past the wit of man to
say what dream it was: man is but a spider.
O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!
O night, which ever art when not turned off!
O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,
I fear my Julie's promise is forgot!
She hit, O wall, O funding, O wall of excuses,
That stand'st between her play's success and mine!
Thou wall, O wall, Of sour and odious focus groups,
Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!
Thanks, courteous wall: Julie shield thee well for this!

[S Forrest Mallard]

04:46 AM on 06/21/2011

That comments needs some kind of award for effort.

[trweste144]

12:27 PM on 06/21/2011

Insomnia and boredom and five minutes of procrastination, really, but thanks.

[mamapower]

03:12 AM on 06/21/2011

A Spiderman play? LOL smh!