Spider-Man Did Turn Off Some of the Dark – Part 1
The Horrors of Suburbia!
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behind him. It is nothing that can’t be fixed with more strategic lighting, but it was pretty funny none-the-less.
The wrestling scene was the same, except that instead of having poor Reeve Carney (who I should have already commended for really selling the Peter role, man did he work his ass off, once again) manipulate the inflatable wrestling-buddy (see Part 2 of the previous review) there was someone else moving it around. The puppeteer, if you could call him that, doubled as the coach of the inflatable wrestler. It was still corny, but better.
Peter returns home with his newly earned cash and we see police lights, and M.J. holding a sobbing Aunt May. Their house was burgled and Uncle Ben took off after the burglar, who, although we are not given details, obviously killed him in the struggle. Hey, at least he wasn’t mowed down in a rushed and confusing shadow puppet car-jacking! Peter is crushed and blames himself for not being there. We are treated to a semi-poignant and somewhat Magritte-esque funeral scene (lots of perfectly uniform black umbrellas ). In a million years I never would have guessed we would have gotten an emotional funeral scene.
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Peter frets over the loss and decides to become Spider-Man, explaining, in song, that the red is for the many bleeding hearts of those wronged and the blue is for the blues he has to pull himself out of. Kind of dumb, but at least it is something resembling plot. We are also graced with another Arachne appearance, who has been very much absent up until this point (this musical is actually about Spider-Man). She guides him to embrace his power and “leave the shadows.” I was thrilled that there was at least some sort of theme introduced that would attempt to explain the stupid title.
So, “the Dark”, as I had much trouble deciphering the first time around, is in fact the crushing darkness that creeps in when he loses Uncle Ben, and the depression caused by his guilt and self-loathing, as a result of that loss. Yes! We have some vague comprehension regarding the theme of this show.
Meanwhile, Norman has decided that he must be responsible for this Spider-Man guy he keeps reading about in the Daily Bugle. He recognizes it as his own science technology, specifically the research on that spider that got loose, and he wants to replicate it. Act One ends with the same Frankenstein’s monster scene, from the first version of the show, but with more dialogue and a real emotional connection between Emily and Norman. This time, you care a little when she dies. This is Norman’s transformation scene. It was very smart to move it to end the first act. Previously, they ended the first act with the big display of Goblin fighting Spidey and the problem was that this is the biggest effect in the whole show, so by the time the play ended, the biggest climax was still all the way back from the first act. This new place to take a break was a good one.
Norman becomes Goblin, is torn apart by Emily’s tragic death and swears revenge on everyone for his unhappiness. He also proclaims that he will help humanity skip years of evolution by splicing everyone with specialized genes. It is too much to dream of – even the villain has motivation.
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