Full Cast Set for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Variety is reporting that the final casting is set for the much anticipated Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark musical hitting Broadway in November.

Among Main Stem vets are Isabel Keating, who appeared as Judy Garland in “The Boy From Oz,” Michael Mulheren (“Looped,” “Kiss Me Kate”) and Gideon Glick (“Spring Awakening”).

Also on board are Brit actress Natalie Mendoza (“The Descent”), U.K. TV actor Matthew James Thomas (“Britannia High”), and dance vets including Ayo Janeen Jackson and Dollar Tan.

Performers join lead thesps Reeve Carney (as Spidey), Patrick Page (as nemesis Green Goblin) and Jennifer Damiano (as paramour Mary Jane). Although roles for the rest of the cast were not confirmed, Keating seems a likely Aunt May, with Mulheren probably tapped as J. Jonah Jameson.

Previews begin November 14 and opening night is December 21. Tickets are now available through Ticketmaster.

Why U2 Doesn’t Play 3-Hour Concerts

Here’s Willie Williams writing in one of his recent diary entries on U2.com about how U2 puts together its show. This is from production rehearsals in Turin, when the band was considering three different openings to the show:

The band rolled in during the late afternoon and we tried each of these several times over. All three approaches worked, though in very different ways so, depending on what happens with the rest of the set list, we can keep them all in the can for the time being.

Given that we’re in Italy it also seemed like a no-brainer to put Miss Sarajevo in the show, at least for opening night. The biggest challenge we have now is that the show is as long as it can comfortably be – beyond 2hrs 15mins it starts to become a bit of a marathon for both band and audience, plus the reality of noise curfews means that a longer show has to start earlier rather than end later. Consequently, for every new song that goes in, something has to come out and this has proved to be exceptionally difficult. There are other factors too, like the production elements and how they hang together. The opening of the screen is obviously the biggest production moment and it was strangely tough to find a song that could hold its own in the presence of such a jaw-dropping physical event. Unforgettable Fire has proven to be perfect for this moment, though we have tried it with other songs. I’d thought that the end of Until the End of the World would be a suitably cataclysmic moment to open the screen but in reality it just didn’t feel right. Tonight we tried playing Miss Sarajevo with screen opening but again (to my mind) it felt wrong as the ‘gag’ for this song is Bono’s extraordinary operatic moment. To do it whilst a great big machine is opening overhead just looked a bit silly. Tonight ended up being a little inconclusive, but we’ll keep experimenting.

So that pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?

“…beyond 2hrs 15mins it starts to become a bit of a marathon for both band and audience…”

And then curfews come into play, because U2 doesn’t want to take the stage at 8:00 pm and play a show in broad daylight when all of the lighting and production won’t be visible.

And then songs have to be matched to production elements, like the mere act of unfurling the video screen.

The length of U2’s concerts comes up regularly in our forum (and others, I’m sure) as a discussion topic. And the discussion inevitably goes dead when someone brings up other artists, like “Bruce Springsteen plays for three hours, so U2 should, too.”

Well, you know, U2 isn’t Bruce Springsteen. It’s apples and oranges. Bruce is amazing at what he does, but what he does is 180-degrees different from U2.

I think we’d all love for U2 to play unending concerts. I’d gladly stand through a 4-hour U2 marathon (to borrow Willie’s word), wouldn’t you? But if you’ve been following this band for more than a couple years, you should know by now that it’s never gonna happen. Time to accept it and enjoy the shows while we still can, y’know?

Quick Tip, From One Fan to Another

Do this:

1.) Put on the best pair of headphones you own. Not little earbuds. Real, honest-to-goodness headphones.

2.) Cue up the live version of “Ultraviolet” from the Pasadena DVD/concert.

3.) Turn up the volume as high as your ears will let you.

4.) Turn off the lights. Put yourself in complete darkness.

5.) Hit PLAY.

6.) Close your eyes and soak it all in.

Awesome, isn’t it? I’ll bet you can feel the desperation in Bono’s voice. In the song itself.

7.) Repeat as necessary/desired.

(PS – I hope “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” has the same feeling on the current tour.)

New U2 360 Encore Video: Che Cavolo, Indeed

There’s a new video playing in the short break before the first and second encores on the current 2010 U2 360 tour in Europe. It features the same “space baby” that we’re all familiar with from the Zoo TV tour, as well as from last year’s U2 360 tour (including the Pasadena DVD). But it begins with two characters zooming through space in a red spaceship, talking to one another while one of them whistles the chorus of “Where the Streets Have No Name.” (And this happens, of course, right after U2 has played “Streets” in the concert.)

U2gigs.com captured the video from Turin last Friday; you can watch it on YouTube.

Ever curious, and always believing that there’s a reason and meaning for everything U2 puts into its shows, I transcribed and translated the text. Here’s how the video plays out in Italian:

Person 1 (left): [whistles the tune of "Streets"]

Person 2 (right): Si svolta a sinistra all’ Orsa Maggiore?

Person 1: Forse e meglio a quest’ora di notte.

Person 1: [whistles more of "Streets"]

Person 1: Che spettacolo stasera, vero?

Person 2: Sbalorditivo. Ho I piedi distrutti.

Person 1: [whistles more of "Streets"]

(claw/spaceship approaches from behind)

Person 2: E quello che cavolo e?

Person 1: Fa niente, ora se n’e andato.

(claw/spaceship pushes them offscreen/crushes them from above)

And here’s the Google translation of that:

Person 1 (left): [whistles the tune of "Streets"]

Person 2 (right): Turn left at the Big Dipper?

Person 1: It is probably best at this time of night.

Person 1: [whistles more of "Streets"]

Person 1: What a show tonight, right?

Person 2: Stunning. My feet are destroyed.

Person 1: [whistles more of "Streets"]

(claw / spaceship approaches from behind)

Person 2: WTF?* (see below)

Person 1: Never mind, now is gone.

(claw/spaceship pushes them offscreen/crushes them from above)

*In Italian, “che cavolo” literally means “what the cabbage?” … but is actually Italian slang for WTF? (Thx to BM for help with that.)

The subtitles change from one language to another as the show goes from country to country; I’ve transcribed and translated the text that was shown at the two shows in Germany this week, and it’s the same story as the Italian.

The question is … What on earth does it mean? I suspect it might be hard to sort out any meaning without seeing it in the context of a full show, but if you want to take a stab at explaining it, the comments are open.

Hewson’s Heroes

Today on Nowness, Ali Hewson discusses five of her personal heroes.

On her list: the owner of  the ethical accessories line Made; Edun’s creative director; a member of the Conservation Cotton Intiative; a 94-year-old painter; and an African jazz singer.

Inspired choices from a woman who I consider to be a hero, and someone who is also married to someone often given that compliment.

Read her full entry (and see a larger version of this stunning photo of her) here.

Opening Thoughts – *Spoilers*

I’m now about a day or so removed from opening night of the U2 360 Tour in Turin, and after the shock and awe of the new songs, I have to say that it’s been a long time since we saw an opening like we did yesterday.

To the best of my knowledge (and please correct me if I am wrong here), this is the first time since the Zooropa ‘93 tour where U2 began a concert to a song that wasn’t on their most recent album. “The Return of the Stingray” is the first unreleased opening song to be performed live on the stage in any formal tour since the pre-Boy days. Then to put “Beautiful Day” in as the second song made me question if they are touring to support the songs off their current album or if they’re looking to slowly retire No Line on the Horizon.

Looking back, the War Tour had “Gloria” or “Out of Control” as their opener. The Unforgettable Fire Tour opener was “11 O’Clock Tick Tock.” It wasn’t until The Joshua Tree tour where a song from the new album was the opening song. Technically speaking, The LoveTown Tour was after Rattle and Hum, so this could be debated as some nights opened with “Hawkmoon 269″ or “God Part II,” and others had “Bullet the Blue Sky” or “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Zoo TV was pretty consistent with “Zoo Station.” While the Zooropa ‘93 and Zoomerang ‘93 legs of Zoo TV are lumped together as being part of the Zoo TV experience, those tours saw the Zooropa album being the most recent release. They did perform some songs off of Zooropa as a part of set, but they didn’t open with a song from that release.

Popmart was consistent with “Mofo” and the Elevation tour had “Elevation,” with “Beautiful Day” thrown in as a surprise in South Bend, Indiana. The Vertigo Tour had rotated “Love and Peace or Else” and “City of Blinding Lights” in the opening slot. Up until yesterday, the opening song on the U2 360 Tour came from No Line on the Horizon (“Breathe” or “Magnificent”). They also came out as they did on the Elevation Tour with full house lights up for the first song.

What does it all mean? Heck if I know, but looking at the band’s history one would think that they either wanted to make a huge statement like “Honey, we’re home!” or that they’re looking in a forward direction. The tour was supposed to be called “Kiss the Future,” after all!