Bono and the Edge talk about ‘Spider-Man’ musical on Broadway
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Our friends over at the Hero Complex blog have alerted us to a new online video of Bono and the Edge (of the rock band U2) discussing their collaboration on ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,’ a new musical coming to Broadway in early 2010.
‘We were open to the idea of musical theater, but Spider-Man -- that’s a different thing because that’s comic books,’ said Bono. ‘There’s a whole series of relationships between punk rock and comic books that goes back years.’
He added that he was interested in using different aspects of pop culture and putting them in a blender to ‘see what would come out at the other end.’
‘Spider-Man’ will be directed by Julie Taymor, the experimental stage artist who was trained in Asian puppetry before hitting it big in the U.S. with productions such as ‘The Lion King.’ Earlier this year, Culture Monster reported that the musical has an official Broadway opening day of Feb. 18, 2010, at the Hilton Theatre. Taymor has co-written the book with Glen Berger. No official word on casting, though Evan Rachel Wood has said that she will star as Mary Jane.
The show costs $40 million, which would make it the most expensive musical in history.
Bono and the Edge are writing the songs and score for the show. ‘In many ways the audience for comic books and rock ‘n’ roll bands are the same,’ said the Edge. ‘It’s kids like ourselves... out in the suburbs... It seems at that moment in your life that there’s this world out there that you just want access to and the only way you can connect with it is through music or comic books or movies.’
The guitarist said that the character of Peter Parker represents a normal human being. ‘He’s a kid who came up through a regular high school and got bitten by a spider. It could happen to anyone,’ he said.
‘He’s like every rock ‘n’ roll star’s story in a weird way. Every rock ‘n’ roll star started out as the geek who was bullied in school, and eventually their form of revenge was to write songs or to learn to play guitar or to sing or play drums, and some of us ended up in a big band.’
Bono added: ‘I’m more of a Green Goblin. Edge is the nerdy guy.’
-- David Ng
Related coverage: Adam Lambert = Spider-Man on Broadway?
