By now, you don't need to live in New York City to know about the massive, over-budget, accident-prone, much-delayed, multi-million-dollar Spider-Man musical on Broadway called Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. With direction by Julie Taymor, music from U2, it has been stalled in previews for weeks, and an "official" "Opening Night" delayed now until March 15.
So what if you don't have a few hundred dollars to spend on a ticket, especially when you're not sure if the show will be any good?
Enter Justin Moran. Earlier this month, he decided to launch his own "Spiderman Smackdown" by announcing his intention to write, rehearse and stage his own musical based on Spidey, all with a budget of $0. And he'll open a day before the Broadway musical does. Let him explain it in his first video:
“How important is $65 million in making good theatre?” jokes Moran. “We’re going to develop a story, write a complete musical score and script, design sets and costumes, cast, rehearse, advertise and ultimately mount the production on March 14, 2011 at the The People’s Improv Theatre in NYC.”
Moran has found not only a space in The PIT, but also collaborators: Jon Roufaeal on the story and book; composers Adam Podd (Pope! The Musical!, ImgineOcean) and Doug Katsaros (Broadway's Aida; Grammy nominated Footloose; TV's The Tick) to write and arrange the score. Moran himself is a writer/performer with two groups at the Magnet Theatre, and his Fringe Festival NYC 2010 winning musical "Pope! The Musical!" had an off-Broadway run.
You can follow his progress via The Spidey Project blog.
Here's his latest video update from Monday:
Tickets for Moran's free Spider-Man musical go on sale at midnight Thursday.