I’ve heard of wacky Broadway projects before, but Julie Taymor collaborating with Bono and The Edge on a musical version of Spider-Man? Playbill swears it’s true, though, and has notes on the casting call for a two-day staged reading scheduled for July. Unsurprisingly, the roles of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson call for actors in their late teens or early twenties with “a great pop/rock voice,” and producers are also looking for a fifty-something man to play the Green Goblin. Personally, I vote John Lithgow, but since that probably strains the budget, call Dwight Schultz‘s agent!
Comic book fans are already scratching their heads trying to figure out if this is for real, and if so how the heck it’s supposed to work—and these are just the elements that adhere to the traditional Marvel Comics concept of the character. There’s also—and, for me, this is what makes it sound like a plausible Taymor project—”a ‘Geek Chorus’ consisting of ‘three teenage boys and one girl’ [who] ‘meet to ritualistically retell the greatest Spider-Man stories.'” And they do that U2-style, don’t forget: “He has to do good deeds with his enhanced ability / He knows with great power comes great responsibility…”*
*OK, so Ben Greenman I’m not.