A Little Happy: Spiderbono and the Green Edge

Fans of Peter Park and U2 will get a little tease Friday morning when the first song from the long-awaited musical collaboration between director Julie Taymor and Bono and the Edge is unveiled on “Good Morning America.”

Geoff Boucher at the LATimes blog, Hero Complex, has this report:

Peter Parker has always been a hard-luck character so maybe it’s appropriate that his wobbly  ”Spider-Man:  Turn Off the Dark,” has been under a nasty black cloud as the most expensive Broadway production ever planned. On Friday, though, the creative team behind the venture hopes to spin a new success story as  Bono, the Edge, director Julie Taymor and star Reeve Carney bring a one-song preview to “Good Morning America.”… Carney, who portrays the nerd-turned-hero Parker, will sing a song from the show in front of a live audience at the Hudson Theatre (145 West 44th St.) and, with fans invited to show up at the venue for free access to the performance, there should be a high level of excitement in the room. For television viewers, the Tony-winning Taymor will be interviewed back at the “GMA” studio and the two famed members of U2 — who have created the music and lyrics for “Turn Off the Dark” — will beam in by satellite.

Elysa Gardner at USAToday spoke with Bono and the Edge (via email) and had this to report:

This fall’s Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark marks the first time that U2 frontman Bono and guitarist The Edge have written a score for the stage. But the rock stars’ love affair with musical theater predates their involvement in the show, which begins previews Nov. 14 and opens Dec. 21.

“A school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was where I first found my voice,” Bono says via e-mail from Europe, where the band is on tour. His father, moreover, “was a fine tenor and sang in many musicals.” Bono recalls him “dressed as a cowboy in Oklahoma!”

Edge singles out West Side Story and The Music Man as “truly inspiring. The ambition for us was to write a score that matched the imagination of the best of contemporary music and the best of musical theater combined.”

Bono and Edge’s music and lyrics accompany a book co-written by playwright Glen Berger and Julie Taymor, who also directs. Taymor sought to spin an original tale that retained the “essence of this myth” adored by comic-book and movie fans.

“The basic story,” she says, “is this geeky boy (Peter Parker, who acquires a superhero alter-ego when bitten by a genetically altered spider), who could be anybody, acquires this great power. And with great power comes great responsibility.”

Bono agrees that “what’s special is the very ordinariness of Peter Parker. It sounds odd to say, but Spider-Man is as important to the 21st century as the story of Ulysses was to the ancient Greeks. These are morality plays, where luminous characters duke it out in ways very revealing of the nature of who we are.”

READ THE REST HERE: LINK

Rumored to be the most expensive Broadway musical ever produced, Bono and the Edge and Taymor’s “Spiderman” began full-cast rehearsals in mid-August. The musical is set to begin previews at the Foxwoods Theater in Manhattan on Nov. 14, and is scheduled to open officially on Dec. 21.

According to the Ticketmaster.com Web site, Tickets go on sale THIS SUNDAY (SEPT. 12) AT 9 A.M. EST.

CLICK HERE TO (HOPEFULLY) FIND TIX: LINK