Every time I think that a Spider-Man rock musical on Broadway, directed by Julie Taymor and with music by Bono and The Edge, couldn’t get any weirder, I read a new story about it. Today’s weirdness: The show, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, will feature a brand new villain named… Swiss Miss.
Explains New York Post writer Michael Riedel, who snuck into a presentation for sales executives:
As Spider-Man, Peter clashes with a parade of Marvel villains — Green Goblin, Carnage, Electro, Rhino, Swarm and Lizard.
Berger and Taymor have invented a new baddie for the show — Swiss
Miss, whose costume, designed by Oscar winner Eiko Ishioka (“Bram
Stoker’s Dracula”), consists of rotating knives and swirling
corkscrews.
Wait, it got weirder! I just realized that one of the villains listed is Swarm, a dude who was created in a fucking issue of THE CHAMPIONS (!!!) back in the 70s. My man is made up of bees. Kind of a cool idea.
Anyway, Riedel is pretty positive about the show, but I’ve read that it’s so expensive that modern Broadway economics doom it to failure. I couldn’t tell you either way – I’m just going to try to get back to New York to catch it soon after it opens in January of next year.
Thanks to Will for the link.