Spider-Man has “Super” friend in Bono
Meredith Lucio
Bono, the lead singer of U2, saves the day for Spidey musical.
Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark may indeed live to see the light of Broadway by getting by with a little help from its friend’s friends. While “modest construction work” has resumed on the mammoth production at the Hilton theatre as of September 2, the show is nowhere near reaching its capital goals and its fate is still in limbo. However, the latest whispers about the webbed crusader’s Broadway bow intimate that Bono and his financially savvy friends may step in to rescue the troubled musical.
Though nothing official or specific has been announced, insiders hope that Bono can recruit some of his pals to invest in the show or at the least arrange for financing that would allow the show to move forward and hit its target opening of February 25. Bono’s financial assistance seems like an obvious fix. Having raised what by now must amount to billions (with a capital B) of dollars for various charitable industries like Join Red one would think that raising money for a high-risk financial investment would be a relatively simple task. Why wouldn’t he help his show get through this rough patch? Bono is one of the few people on the planet who has the power and reputation to sweep in and save the day on such a grand scale as this. While no one likes to fail, Bono is in a unique position to approach (and be one of ) a select group of people who could actually afford any potential failure of this scale. Big Reward comes from Big Risks often times and Bono’s rolodex is full of people who can stand the burden of any potential Big Failure.
On the other hand, Bono may be falling into the time honored trap that ensnares many “self-producing artists”- he’s not seeing the forest for all of the beautiful trees he’s created. It’s hard to be objective about the business side of a production when one is also creating the art. It’s even more difficult to reign in the costs of that production when the artist-self wants to see the vision fully and completely realized, again, no matter what the cost.
Spider-Man: Turn off the dark has proven to be a difficult sell on the financial prospectus alone. If Bono succeeds in recruiting financing can this show overcome the stigma of “vanity project”? While the self-appointed nemesis of the production, the NY Post’s Michael Riedel, asserts that Bono is “too smart to put his own money in the show”, this examiner isn’t so sure that precept is either the real story or the smart thing to do. A financial contribution from Bono in this instance wouldn’t just be a vote of confidence on his part, it would be a crucial statement of his willingness to “live or die” by the financial results of the product he’s creating (as well as asking friends to financially support). You can bet that Bono’s friends who might be willing to risk losing money in the show will be looking to Bono’s actions as a business-person as well as to the show’s merit on a financial and artistic level.
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September 6th, 2009 on 9:22 am
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