April 20, 2007
| U2: Spidey Sense Tingling |
We're still recovering from the report in Variety (via the BBC.com) that U2's Bono and The Edge have been hired to write the music and lyrics to a Broadway musical version of the Spiderman Comic books.
This could be amazing … or terrible.
Now mind you Bono and The Edge aren't first timers when it comes to music for the stage. They wrote songs for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of "A Clockwork Orange" back in the 1990s. Yeah, sure, we never heard about it again, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was bad. (maybe)
But a full musical? Broadway's recent experience with Pop Music writers has been varied. First you have the Elton John mega-bomb "Lestat" to consider, and then you have Duncan Shiek's fantastic "Spring Awakening." Now mind you, Shiek did not write the lyrics or book, leaving that to a seasoned professional playwright/lyricist.
This is where we're worried about Bono and The Edge. Showtunes 101: Writing the lyrics for a musical is not the same as writing lyrics to a song. The words have to move the story forward.
Can U2 do it? We shall see. It could be great … or not.
"Spiderman, Bloody Spidermaaaaaan!"
Why can't these idiots @ the mega medias keep their tentacles off of something? Must they taint everything they touch? They lucked out w/ the Spiderman movie because they had the intelligence to hire Sam Raimi, but even now the movies wearing thin. Find something new to explore. Seek out fresh talent; stop being so frightened of failure and cultivate the imaginations that will produce the next success. Stop cloning the same corpse.
What have these GREATS ever failed to master? Nothing. These guys are the No.1 largest selling band in musical history.From albums to concerts to politics to world dominance at everything they do. This should be a small task. You watch and see. They will captivate you with whatever the final product turns out to be. Plus, they are the only true group of people to unite the widest range of musical formats into one real sound.