Spider-Man Hits All the Wrong Notes with Guy Branum & Jessica McKenna | 3

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Marvel’s attempt at bringing Spider-Man to Broadway didn’t go as planned. With high-flying action and music by U2, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, was one of the most-hyped Broadway musicals of all-time... but by the time the final curtain closed, bones would be broken, lawsuits would be filed, friendships unraveled, careers destroyed, and millions of onlookers would be left wondering: “what the hell did I just watch?” On this theatrical episode of The Big Flop, comedians Guy Branum (Talk Show, the Game Show) and Jessica McKenna (Off Book) join Misha to hear the tangled tale of the Spider-Man musical, and the careers it took down in its web.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the Big Flop early and ad-free.
0:05.3	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:19.7	It's November of 2010.
0:21.6	The Foxwood's Theatre in Times Square is buzzing with 1,900 people anticipating the first preview of the most expensive and technically advanced Broadway show ever.
0:34.6	Spider-Man! Turn off the dark!
0:38.5	The first act goes relatively smoothly,
0:41.5	until right before intermission.
0:44.4	Spider-Man is poised to leap over the audience
0:47.2	and soar up into the balcony.
0:49.9	Mary Jane, Spider-Man's love interest,
0:52.1	asks the masked hero,
0:53.8	Who are you?
0:55.5	Then he leaps, soars, and the girl.
1:00.8	And get stuck, dangling like a human pina.
1:05.7	All while the audience laughs.
1:08.1	As cringeworthy as this moment was, it was only one sticky point in a massive web of disasters.
1:15.3	By the time the final curtain closed, bones would be broken, lawsuits would be filed,
1:20.5	friendships unraveled, and millions of dollars flushed down the toilet.
1:29.7	With a tangled web of accidents and injuries making headlines week after week,
1:34.4	theater goers are left wondering. Could it also be the most dangerous?
1:38.3	All the deals were bad, the budgets were bad, there was no money.
1:42.1	The New York Times, it may rank among the worst musicals ever made.
	...

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