A "seriously depressing disaster"

New York Times

 "...a tangled mess"

Newsday

Critics Trash Spiderman Musical!

Do you care what they have to say? At $140 a pop, will you go see it anyway?

Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark  has been the top grossing Broadway show for weeks and it hasn't even officially opened yet. Protocol dictates that critics don't review a show during previews, because it's still a work in progress, but after all the media attention the show has garnered and the fact that the opening has been delayed for a fifth time a number of papers published reviews today, and they are beyond lousy.

Here are some choice quotes from Ben Brantley in the New York Times: "Spider-Man" is not only the most expensive musical ever to hit Broadway; it may also rank among the worst.

What I saw is a big production going in too many directions and in need of a lot of work to make it entertaining, satisfying and understandable.

"Spider-Man" is so grievously broken in every respect that it is beyond repair.

A "seriously depressing disaster"

Newsday's Linda Winer says: 'Spider-Man' is a tangled mess.

Daily News theater critic Joe Dziemianowicz says: The show reportedly cost $65 million and that's clearly gone into mechanics, hydraulics and aerial rigging. It seems only 10 cents has gone into the confusing story and humorless dialogue.

The music by U2's Bono and The Edge didn't fare much better with the scribes.

Newsday: ... the music (is) shockingly mediocre.

Daily News: Except for the anthem "Rise Above," songs by Broadway rookies Bono and The Edge of U2 lack hooks to make them stand out. As if written in invisible ink, tunes are there and then slip from your mind.

NY Times:  The songs by Bono and the Edge are rarely allowed to take full, attention-capturing form. Mostly they blur into a sustained electronic twang of varying volume, increasing and decreasing in intensity, like a persistent headache.