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Lawsuit: Drunk Bono, Distracted By Supermodels, Held Up <em>Spider-Man</em>
By
Garth Johnston
Published Mar 5, 2012
Modified Mar 5, 2012
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Joan Marcus
By
Garth Johnston
Published Mar 5, 2012
Modified Mar 5, 2012
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Wait, wait, wait. Famous rockers may have a thing for drinking and beautiful women? You don't say! That shocking (but still potentially embarrassing) revelation is the latest bit of news to come out of the ongoing Spider-Man: This Is The Song That Never Ends Turn Off The Dark legal mess. And if the teases in a a 46-page filing submitted Friday on behalf of Spidey's original director Julie Taymor are any indication, the show's producers (and U2's Bono and The Edge) probably don't want this case to go to trial next January.
The document works its sources (including e-mails and a taped meeting) hard to paint Taymor as a hard working artist who was pushed out of her show by greedy producers eager to support their superstar musical team, even when they weren't pulling their weight. In one example the filing goes over the time that the team was supposed to meet to tell Taymor about their plan to completely rethink the show's second act amidst terrible reviews and lots of cast bloodshed. But it never happened:
[T]he meeting was postponed til 11 p.m., when Bono was going to show up—except he showed up in our room with Christy Turlington and a couple other supermodels, and he had already had a few beers, rendering him useless—so the producers postponed the meeting til the next afternoon—but that meeting never happened.
The very carefully chosen e-mails go on to paint everyone on the team in an unflattering light, not just Bono. They
make Ms. Taymor’s writing partner on “Spider-Man,” Glen Berger, appear conniving as he sought to draft new scenes in cahoots with the producers, Bono and the Edge. ("Best not to mention anything to J.," he wrote at one point, according to the court papers.) And the celebrated “Spider-Man” set designer George Tsypin is portrayed as two-faced and incapable.
What may help Taymor's reputation out the most—even if this doesn't go to trial—is the section in the document referring to a two-hour taped meeting in January 2011 in which Taymor seems willing to make the changes that many felt necessary to fix the show. The problem was that her co-creatives weren't any help (if they were there at all). "We need you," she also wrote in another revealing nugget to Bono and the Edge on Dec. 19, 2010, as they were finishing a U2 tour in Australia. "It is not easy to change anything, but now I think it is a matter of lyrical and musical changes—and perhaps cutting a scene or two from the second act."
Who exactly is responsible for Spider-Man is increasingly relavent financially as the show, despite being critically panned, has become one of the biggest hits on Broadway. It currently grosses $1.5 million a week on average, is expected to start appearing internationally soon, and has a documentary on its creation currently being wrapped up.
Tagged
bono
broadway
julie taymor
spider-man
spider-man the musical
spider man turn off the dark
the edge
u2
Garth Johnston
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