With a budget estimated to be somewhere in the region of $50 million already, and a weekly running cost that may be in the budget of $1 million a week, Julie Taymor's musical version of Marvel's superhero may be too expensive to be allowed to fail. That might explain the addition of Michael Cohl as new lead producer. Cohl, a music industry veteran and former chairman of Live Nation, brings with him experience with ridiculous demands for stage sets and dealing with budgets out of control. Although it likely had nothing to do with him, the announcement on the same day that the show has found its Peter Parker in Reeve Carney, who has previously worked with Taymor on her movie version of The Tempest, does at least give the impression of the show slowly coming together.

Sadly, it's looking increasingly unlikely to come together quickly enough to make the projected February 2010 opening date; rumors are now that people should expect a midyear premiere.

'Spider-Man' lands producer, Peter Parker [Variety]

Talking to the LA Times, Cumming said that he expects the musical to open on or around the original date of February 18th next year ("I think they're being very cautious in announcing things," he apparently said), adding that the show may not be exactly what you'd expect from the people involved:

I love the book for the musical — the structure is fascinating; you see how it's all going to work. And I love the songs. You think of Bono and Edge as arena-style rockers, but the songs for 'Spider-Man' are quite dignified. Quite operatic, actually.

As if current worries about the production weren't enough, the idea of Bono and the Edge writing opera makes us worry that this production may make Rock Reflections Of A Superhero seem subtle and understated by comparison.

Alan Cumming is keeping his fingers crossed about 'Spider-Man' musical [LA Times Culture Monster]

Variety reports that the work stoppage is down to "cash flow obstacles" that Marvel Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment and other producers are already trying to resolve, and offers the possible explanation that the problem is simply mobilizing money already committed to the show, which has already cost more than $40 million (Alan Cummings' Green Goblin doesn't come cheap). This current work stoppage would appear to be the second in as many months; the New York Post reported last month that a work stoppage due to a problem with permits had been resolved. That story, however, also talked about rumors that the production was looking for additional funds from existing investors after a bank loan for the show hadn't come through. One unnamed producer was quoted as being pessimistic about the show's financial success:

By the time they're done building the show and the theater, they could easily be spending $50 million. They'll have to run at capacity for five years just to break even. That is impossible.

Officially, a rep for the show told Variety that the current problems won't affect the show's February 25th 2010 opening date, but we're more than a little unconvinced... and curious about just what's going on over there. Should we cancel our plans for a big Broadway night out already?

'Spider-Man' musical halted? [Variety]

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark will, as rumored for months, star Evan Rachel Wood as Peter Parker's long-term love interest Mary Jane, alongside X2: X-Men United's Nightcrawler, Alan Cummings, as arch-villain Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin. The actor playing the eponymous hero remains unknown, however; although Wood's co-star in Across the Universe, Jim Sturgess, has been linked with the role many times over the last few months, open auditions were also held for the part earlier this year.

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark will officially open in February next year, following previews running throughout January.

Evan Rachel Wood catches 'Spider' [Variety]

This little production of multiple Harry Potter books/movies (titled HP The Musical) is pretty adorable. I especially enjoy all the "Cedric Diggory, who's that?" jokes... Ah, those were the days. The entire non-profit production (both acts) is up on YouTube, so go nuts - just don't get caught watching it at the office.

From YouTube, about the cast.

HP the Musical was written and produced in early 2009 by a bunch of college kids/recent grads through a non-profit student-run theatre company. It was a free show that ran for three nights (five performances) and will never be done again... but luckily we taped it so everyone can get a chance to enjoy its magical silliness. The songs were written by Darren Criss (who plays Harry Potter) and AJ Holmes (who plays piano in the band). The script was written by Matt Lang (who also directed the show), Nick Lang (who assistant directed and made the dragon puppet) and Brian Holden (who was busy working at a real job while the rest of us were making a goofy play).

HP the Musical was a completely non-for-profit unofficial parody show made by Potter-fans for Potter-fans. All of us involved love the books immensely (and strongly encourage everyone to read them if you haven't) and it is with the utmost admiration that we celebrate and poke fun at them with this musical inspired by our very favorite stories.

Thanks for the tip Geekologie.

Just think: Somewhere, McG is wondering if he can get Pink to do a cover of this for T5.

"I'll Be Back" Terminator Monster Ballad [YouTube]

We've told you about the musical before, but with the show's opening just over a week away, Variety talked to those involved about what audiences can expect from the show. For his part, Coraline creator Neil Gaiman is happy with the musical:

There were people who grumbled about how faithful or otherwise the film was... Now, I can point to the stage play and say, this is completely faithful to the book. On the other hand, you have to come to terms with a world in which Coraline is played by a 50-year-old lady.

That "50-year-old lady" is actually 56-year-old Jayne Houdyshell, who plays the nine-year-old eponymous star of the story beside David Greenspan, who adapted Gaiman's novel for the stage as well as starring as Coraline's Other Mother. Director Leigh Silverman isn't worried about the age difference in casting:

It's not that she's parodying a child, but that in a way she's not playing it as a child. She's just sort of playing a character who happens to be 9.

The unexpected casting, of course, is just the norm for a show dominated by pianos of different size, shapes and even purposes. Composer Stephin Merritt explains the show's use of "prepared piano":

Prepared piano was done by John Cage in the '40s and '50s... It consists of putting erasers and screws and playing cards in between the strings of the piano, and it converts the piano into an 88-key percussion orchestra. No two notes sound alike.

Currently in previews, Coraline officially opens at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York on June 1st.

'Coraline' musical comes to life [Variety]

Taylor also does a terrific job with this image of War of the Worlds' red weed - the hideous plants that the invading aliens set loose to grow all over our planet. The Skiffy blog points out that Taylor's illustrations are just two of many by a number of artists available on a site devoted to the best concept art dealing with War of the Worlds.

UPDATE: For all the complainers in comments below (you know who you are), I will reiterate: This album is from the 1970s. That means Steve Jobs looked at it while on acid, and decided years later to create a musical device that looks like a horrendous robot trying to destroy the Earth. Make of that what you will.

Modern Fabulosity was lucky enough to snag seats at the Broadway sneak peek at the Spidey musical, starring Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane Watson, and possibly this guy as Peter Parker.

According to Fab the New York City sets are a thing of beauty. Peter Parker's ballads are a lovely (a few songs were still a little too early to judge) but they're mainly a blend of both pop-rock from U2 and Broadway singing. But the big surprise was the villains. Apparently EVERYONE is involved:

Unlike Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films (which moved from the story's comic book roots toward a more naturalistic, real-world interpretation), Taymor is, unsurprisingly, going the other way — embracing the webcrawler's inherent theatricality, and placing him inside a stylized New York City populated with heroes and (multiple) supervillains.

Oh, and each baddie looks amazing:

Ishioka's costumes were breathtaking — a rogues gallery of the villains that appear onstage in the musical received audible gasps from the audience, including the Green Goblin, Lizard, Kraven, Swarm, and a new female villain created at the behest of Taymor, Swiss Miss (dressed in immaculate white dominatrix gear and multiple knives...hot!). Fans of Dr. Octopus and Sandman should know, however, that neither made an appearance in the presentation, although Taymor hinted at a special villain yet to be identified who appears in the piece.

It all sounds great, except for the idea of a dominatrix supervillain named Swiss Miss. (What's next - the vicious St. Pauli Girl?) The full report is back at Fab, but it sounds like Taymor's vision is being handled with the utmost care, along with a few Cirque du Soleil trainers who've taught the stuntman playing Spidey how to glide over the audience.

The musical, allegedly costing $31 million, is all set to launch on February 18, 2010. Which means they have a full year to tweak the laser show and high wire flying Spidey (I'm assuming that's where the money will be spent).

Actress Evan Rachel Wood is signed on as Mary Jane and working with Across The Universe director Julie Taymor to bring this giant act to light (please get co-star Jim Sturgess for the role of Peter Parker). The score was dreamed up by U2's Bono and Edge, but we've yet to hear anything as of right now - but fingers crossed it's at least catchy.

[LA Times]

In an interview with QThe Music, U2's guitarist revealed all the details behind his hard work putting songs to Spidey's adventures, with Bono and director Julie Taymor.

The Edge talked about working with scriptwriter Glenn Berger, "He’s come up with some great dialogue. The overall story was really Julie working with Glenn, and Bono and myself riding shotgun with the odd idea here and there – as they do for the songs." So it sounds like U2 and Taymor are all in, and it's really happening.

As far as the sound goes:

"There won’t be a full orchestra – it’ll be something like 18 or 20 musicians: string players, brass, some woodwind. The core will be a rock’n’roll band. But it is going to be interesting to write for other people. We have already written a lot of songs that are for women to sing. That’s a whole other set of challenges, to write in the right key and all those technical things." Which sounds still pretty darn big if you ask me. I'm excited for a chorus to just start belting it while the Man himself swings over the audience.

It sounds like everything is lining up for the Spider-Man musical to actually take place. The music is getting refined, the cast is growing, all we need now is someone to convince Jim Sturgess to sign on for Spidey and we're set.

[QThemusic]

What first attracted me to the film was Anthony Stewart Head, also known as too-sexy-for-his-age Watcher/librarian Giles of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Head lent spectacular and commanding vocals to that series' status-quo-busting musical episode, and he's quite fit to be the lead tenor here as the eponymous Repo Man who steals organs from the poor to give to the rich.

He's also the loving yet unsettling father to sweet, sick Shilo Wallace (Alexa Vega). The drama between father and daughter is at the heart of the show, set against the backdrop of a frightening future where health care is so dire that massive conglomerate GeneCo is out to rip the bloody viscera from the chests of anyone who can't front their bills. Among the many screaming denizens of this dystopia, Vega and Head are the talented, charismatic duo that hold this bewildering movie opera together.

Repo! grew out of a ten-minute stage show in 1999, and it's picked up lots of plot along the way: Each character comes with oodles of sizzling backstory and a few racy graphic novel panels that serve as explanation. There's a lot to keep track of here, meaning that devoted fans will have excess material by the boatload to pore over when all is said and done. Appearances by Sarah Brightman and Paul Sorvino lend significant vocal cred to the ensemble, and Terrance Zdunich's creepy Graverobber is the perfect de facto narrator. These five (Vega, Head, Brightman, Sorvino, and Zdunich) are probably the only sympathetic characters here – the only ones to whom the film has time enough to lend a bit of complexity. As for Paris Hilton, if you close your eyes and think of England, she goes away soon enough.

The look of the film is pretty much what you'd expect. The cinematography is heavy with highlights and shadows – Repo!'s landscape uses light only to emphasize the dark, and its indulgent sweeps of a grimy, holographic future city will be a delight to anyone who thrilled at Blade Runner. Of course Victorian goth suffuses every costume. It's no surprise that people were ready with Repo! outfits this Halloween, before the movie even came out. Plus, it features a cool new futuristic drug – the painkilling Zydrate, which can be extracted easily from fresh corpses.

There are simplistic though mildly insightful one-liners – "Why is genetics such a bitch?" croons Vega as Shilo, the girl with the seemingly incurable blood disease. Though it might not achieve the same critical acclaim, it has the Rocky Horror geek perv vibe: Repo is an overwhelmingly odd, shockingly sexual, rocked-out celebration of all that is gory and scary and alive.

So if you've already been keeping an eye on the publicity and feeling a tingle in your throat, trust me, Repo! delivers. It may not be polished or genius, but it's fun – and Hollywood could use a bit of crazy, idea-filled fandom, if you ask me. But if the idea of watching naked women get slashed open to song in a world of corruption and despair – yeah, those parts were not so fun and idea-filled, as Fantasy Magazine pointed out. So if naked gore is a dealbreaker, stick to rewatching Chicago and The Matrix back-to-back this holiday season. For the rest, it's time to shoot some Zydrate and get ready to rock.

The musical's Toxie, played by the dashing Nick Cordero, doesn't stick too close to Lloyd Kaufman's classic portrayal, but he makes this Toxie all his own. The bumbling nerd Melvin Ferd the Third is quickly bullied into a vat of toxic goo, thus turning him into the super strong Toxic Avenger. Hell bent on two things: cleaning up pollution and winning the love of Tromatown's blind librarian Sarah (Audra Blaser). Toxie sings, romances and graphically fights pollution throughout the show. And by graphic I mean he literally rips a man's spinal column out (which was excellent). Both leads are as sweet as pie, and play off each other exceedingly well — you really did want to root for it all to work out with Toxie and Sarah.

The score was created by Bon Jovi keyborist David Bryan, and while the songs aren't particularly memorable, they still carry a beat and propel the musical forward with loads of one-liner lyrics. For example while the characters complain about the pollution of New Jersey, they can't help but stick it to Manhattan Jersey trash-style, singing, "Manhattan... your bed sheets may be satin, but Jersey's not your bitch." That kind of trash-talking humor is littered throughout Toxie, and when it works, it's hilarious. At times, though, the humor does fall a tad short.

The absolute highlight of the night was the supporting cast (David Josefberg, Demond Green and Nancy Opel). These three actors played over a dozen characters with at least 30 costume changes. Their total commitment to each ridiculous old lady with floor length boobs, homoerotic drugged out bullies, and townsfolk sold every moment they appear on stage. I nearly fell out of my seat watching the gay hairdressers with "indeterminable accents" squabble, or watching the two butch boys don ugg boots and sweater dresses to play blind Sarah's besties. The show is full of one-liner self-aware humor, and who can argue when you're watching "a wonderful musical based on a movie that most people watched while they were stoned."

All in all the show is a lot of fun, and while I wouldn't recommend bringing little kids to the musical, but I also wouldn't recommend little kids watching the original Toxie. The show is fast-paced and fun. But if you don't like watching someone get thrown around by their intestines or the occasionally dropped curse word, then this may not be the musical for you.

The show is running at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ until November 2. If you attend the Oct. 30th showing Lloyd Kaufman himself will be there to hang with fans and talk Toxic.

Listen to "Brand New Day In New Jersey."

This is actually the third musical version of The Toxic Avenger, but this one comes with the pedigree of Tony award-winning director John Rando (Urinetown), Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan, and playwright Joe DiPietro. A member of the audience took footage of last Thursday’s performance, highlighting a few of the show’s musical numbers:

Bitch, Slut, Liar, Whore

Hot Toxic Love (Reprise)

Kill the Freak

Kick Your Ass

It’s a Brand New Day In New Jersey

The Toxic Avenger Musical is playing through November 2nd at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

[The Toxic Avenger Musical]

MacAbre, a.k.a. public radio producer Doug Gordon, got the idea to create All You Need Is Brains, which he describes as “Night of the Living Dead meets Spinal Tap,” from Madison-based band The Gomers.

Recalling The Zombeatles, the Halloween-time alter ego of The Gomers complete with songs like “I Want To Eat Your Hand” and “Hard Day’s Night Of The Living Dead,” he was inspired to bring them together. Gordon thought the respective acts [his and the Zombeatles’] could easily be combined thematically to create a short mockumentary set in a “zomniverse” where the walking dead have evolved, and apparently have staged their own British Invasion.

A report from the set gives us a taste of the film’s musical zombie humor:

At one point during the scene, [Jaw Lennon portrayer Steve] Burke strummed his axe with one dead hand before dropping it to the floor, at which point the zombie audience literally ate it up.

Gordon hopes to have a rough cut of the film done in time for the October 25 Madison Horror Film Festival, but you can get a peek at the Zombeatles’ shtick with their single, “A Hard Day’s Night of the Living Dead.”

The Zombeatles and undead fans infest Frequency to shoot mockumentary [The Daily Page]

In this scene, Horrible has committed the first true crime of his career, beating Captain Hammer with his exploding Death Ray and accidentally killing Penny in the process. This isn't exactly where you might have expected this musical to go, since the tone was so light in the first two acts.

I was pleased to see the bad guy winning, especially because so-called good guy Captain Hammer was such a dick and Neil Patrick Harris has made Dr. Horrible a very sympathetic mad scientist. One of the best parts of the episode, which you should watch for yourself, is the incredible scene where Dr. Horrible beats Captain Hammer — he leaps out of hiding with his amazing Freeze Ray, interrupting a hilarious and insulting song that Hammer is singing to the homeless about how "everybody is a hero but mostly me."

It's rare to find a show that can reveal layers of character during a musical number that takes place in a satirical universe where heroes wear rubber gloves. And yet Whedon and Co. have pulled it off here. Now that Dr. Horrible has an origin story, complete with tragic death and a bunch of cool supervillain pals, the show ends just as it's really ready to begin.

Like most of the people who've flocked to this online experiment in fictional videoblogging, I am hoping to see more of Dr. Horrible. But please, don't make it a TV show. Just keep it real — keep it in blogland. We deserve a brilliant web show. Something that's as good as Homestar Runner and the Goddamn George Liquor Program, but totally different.

You can catch the whole thing online, buy it on iTunes for $4, or wait for the DVD.