LogFAQs > #930034956

As bad as you'd expect, although apparently not as bad as the zany version they had originally gone with (and I kinda wish I'd seen instead). Some of the Green Goblin numbers were great ("Freak like Me" and "Pull the Trigger") and they had some cool effects. However, they also rewrote character origins (Cletus Kassady (aka Carnage), Kraven, and the rest were Norman's old research team who he forces to transform via the same process that created him) and introduced a completely new minor villainness (Swiss Miss) for absolutely no fucking reason instead of using an established villainness (and somebody like Black Cat would have been an easy one)

Oh, and the OBC Recording is a fucking mess. The songs are out of order, they're missing some (notably "Bullying by Numbers", which was kinda catchy; the opening numbers "The Myth of Arachne" and "Behold and Wonder" were also cut but that was a *little* more understandable whereas there was no reason not to include some of the others), and Bono's involvement can be distracting since we get a few songs that are just background stuff instead of the characters singing. (Which aren't necessarily bad, just a little distracting.) I've *never* seen a recording this bad. That song order by itself is fucking insane.

And in general, the rewrite of the play felt almost like a remake of the first Spidey film. Granted, Green Goblin had his Sinister Six, but I think that was because they'd already made the costumes (since they had a larger role in the original) so it was a sunk cost and made for good filler (and the best song in the damn show). Actually, that was kind of a running theme with the musical. Pretty much *all* of the Arachne shit they had already created and planned out in the first version -- where she served as the Act 2 villain -- but then they cut back her role while leaving her in because... well, they had made the costumes, etc. So in the version I saw she was introduced when Peter tells her myth and then pops up in a minor capacity now and again.

The effects were more superfluous than cool (except maybe when the other parts of the set came swinging out as well) and the choreography was... interesting. Some of the scenes were kinda neat, others were kinda just there.
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There are precious few at ease / With moral ambiguities / So we act as though they don't exist.