Julie Taymor

Forbidden Broadway Is Alive And Kicking!

If you really love Broadway like I do, you'll adore the show that reams it a new one, then kicks it in the pants. It's Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking!, the latest installation of the spoofy revue that mocks the truly annoying things about Broadway because deep down, you have to know and love ... More >>

Broadway Musicals I Never Want To See

And yet I can smell them coming... Bluesies: A scaled-down version of Newsies starring the Blue Man Group, this show won't have any singing (the guys never make a sound) and zero dancing (they're always carrying large, cumbersome tubes), but oh, those facial expressions!

BeBe Zahara Benet Is Quite A Creature

Last night at xl, BeBe Zahara Benet--the very first winner of RuPaul's Drag Race--proved she truly earned her crown. The Cameroon-born drag star put on her elaborately entertaining Beto Sutter-produced show called Creature, which mixes bits of Grace Jones, Kevin Aviance, Julie Taymor, Leigh Bowery, ... More >>

Celebrities' New Year Resolutions For 2012!

I've exclusively gotten these resolutions from famous people who are hoping to stay famous in the new year. *Justin Bieber "I'll smile for the first time! Even when people say I impregnated them!"

Musicals Based On Movies: What's Next?

​Billy Elliot, Priscilla, and Sister Act have carried on the time-honored tradition of turning popular movies into musicals. What next? I'll tell you: *Fatal Attraction The adaptation--titled Crazy Bitch, The Musical--will feature a well-chosen bunch of Sondheim chestnuts. ("You said you l ... More >>

Revised Porgy and Bess. What Next?

The movie version​The Gershwin landmark opera Porgy and Bess is coming to Broadway in a revised version with the characters supposedly more fully rounded and relevant for modern audiences, and the crippled beggar Porgy walking with just a cane, not trapped in a moving cart. Plus with a happie ... More >>

Law & Order Does Spider-Man Musical Episode

​We usually ignore Law & Order: Criminal Intent because it's the creepy Vincent D'Onofrio Law & Order that got banished to USA Network, but their Sunday episode just sounds too good to resist. In one of the franchise's standard "ripped from the headlines" plots the detectives investigate a cas ... More >>

'Spider-Man' Review: I'm Buggin'!

Musto's verdict on the retooled musical

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark--The Tangled Web They Wove

It's not a musicalamity, just an ordinary bad musical

Julie Taymor Wants Her Spider-Man Money

​As Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark prepares to reopen Tuesday in a -- as the promos boast -- "re-imagined" fashion, former director Julie Taymor is gone, but not forgotten. Or at least she doesn't want to be forgotten since she's apparently owed $300,000 in royalties. The Stage Directors and Ch ... More >>

Robin Williams' Broadway Debut As a Tiger: How Is He?

​No, it's not The Book of Muslim--or The Book of Mork and Mindy either. Nor is it Julie Taymor's long awaited return to vertebrae. It's a play about "a tiger that haunts the streets of present day Baghdad seeking the meaning of life." And Robin--who's a bit of a bear--is the tiger. Got it?

What's Wrong With Broadway? It's Not Just Spider-Man!

Bono's Peter Parker isn't the only thing that's crashing and boring

Spider-Man Musical Delayed for Sixth Time

​The beleaguered "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" has had its opening delayed yet again, this time to June 14th. And it'll be closed between April 19 and May 12 so that the cast can become accustomed to the myriad changes being implemented, among them director Julie Taymor's departure. If the ... More >>

An Imagined Review of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

​The Voice's own theatre critic, Michael Feingold, refused to jump the gun and see the Spider-Man musical before its official opening date. Many of his peers wrote scathing reviews based on preview shows, which he argues isn't exactly fair. We're going to be far more unfair; what follows is ou ... More >>

All of the Mean Words in the New York Times Review of the Spider-Man Musical

​Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark sounds like a disaster. Practically a national tragedy at this point, the new, super-expensive musical has yet to be officially released, trapped in the purgatory of "previews," in which a Broadway show works out all of its kinks. This one might be hopeless, if early ... More >>

'Spider-Man' Dish From Its Biggest Hater

Chatting with the Post's Michael Riedel about the show he loves to hate

How Did I Do As The Lion?

​Last night was my big performance in Project Shaw's all-critics reading of Androcles and the Lion at the Players Club, performed after one rehearsal. Instantly, I could tell why they cast me as the king of the jungle--they needed someone with sharp claws! And I thought I did pretty well in ... More >>

Who Hacked Broadway's "All That Chat"?

​All That Chat, the breathlessly readable site known for dissecting shows in previews, critiquing writers who actually get bylines and salaries, and posing questions like "Are there gunshots during Long Day's Journey Into Night?" was recently hacked and is now asking readers to chip in for a s ... More >>

Anyone Have a Lion Costume?

​I'm playing the part of the Lion in a Project Shaw reading of Androcles and the Lion, and I need something scary and animalistic to wear (aside from my usual ensembles, that is). This could be my big break. I'm hoping Julie Taymor catches me in all my lionine glory and casts me in her show- ... More >>

The Biggest Box Office Disappointments of The Year!

​According to boxofficemojo.com, the following 2010 films have so far made way less than they cost--i.e., they ain't smash hits.

Julie Taymor's Other Tempest

Will Spider-Man Fly?

​It sounded good on paper: Julie Taymor. Bono and The Edge. A Marvel comic classic. But the reality is that superheroes generally don't fly on Broadway, unless you count Thoroughly Modern Millie, ba-dum-pum. And when a show is so elaborately technologically based, there are bound to be majo ... More >>

Metamorphosis Does Kafka by Way of Iceland

Things get buggy at BAM

The Best Shakespeare Movie Ever

​With Julie Taymor's The Tempest on the horizon, starring Helen Mirren as a vengeful lady magician, one is tempted to look back at all the classic filmed versions of the bard's plays and magically pick one's faves, forsooth. To see or not to see? Some of the best in my highbrow memory bank h ... More >>

Jerry Lewis Won't Bang Ladies in Chicago!

Liza! The gayest night since Stonewall! Some plays are already dead.

Does The Lion King Deserve Its Long Run?

​Broadway's The Lion King has played over 5300 performances, the team of producers no doubt counting the cash while they hum "Can You Feel The Love Tonight?" And in a new book about hits and flops called Broadway Musicals, author Peter Filichia concedes that the show's opening sequence--a pag ... More >>

New York Film Festival: The Hype and the Substance

This year's NYFF manages both. Plus: Our best of the fest

Spider Man: The Musical Sounds Like This (Video)

​The U2-scored, Julie Taymor-directed Spider Man musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, debuted some set stuff, some costume stuff, some interviews, and some other stuff today on Good Morning America. They also debuted their lead actor singing a song from the forthcoming musical. And how does ... More >>

The Spider Man Broadway Musical is Finally On The Way

​After way too many delays and hold-ups and people not believing this thing is going to work at all, the Spider Man musical (entitled Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark) with music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge of U2 and with a book by Julie Taymor (who did The Lion King which is AMAZING) finally ... More >>

Athlete+Carney

How Can They Save The Spider-Man Musical?

​A blockbuster franchise. A Broadway visionary at the helm. (Julie Taymor). Two of the best known songwriters of our time. (Bono and The Edge). How could it fail? And yet, SpiderMan: Turn Off The Dark recently pulled the plug--temporarily, mind you--as the reported $45 million production sear ... More >>

Spider-Man Broadway Musical Budgeted at $40 Million

iVoice: Julie Taymor Makes a Bob Seger American History Homage

Disney Sinks The Little Mermaid

Live onstage, this version is longer, louder, more garish, and a lot worse.

Help!

Run for your life if you can, little girl: Julie Taymor's '60s-set musical is a bust

Monstrously Uncentered

Like its set, Grendel's big and rocky, with an empty core

'The Sisters'

1988

Julie Taymor Blows a Breath of Fresh Air Into The Magic Flute

Deconstructing Hairy

Moses in the Desert

NY Mirror

Fling Time in a Quiet Town

'8 Mile' Lines and On-the-Job Bondage in Toronto

Frida Icon

The Return of the Kahlo Cult

Ways and Meanings

End Games

End Games

The Outer Limits

Tina Landau’s 'Space' Invaders

Bother From Another Planet

Aliens Invade New York

Lion's Share

Black Concert Dancers Storm Broadway