Just wondering what you guys thought about this... Spiderman on Broadway has been announced, here's an article from the LA Times:

"It looks like Spider-Man will be swinging over to Broadway — and bringing Bono with him.

Marvel Entertainment announced Thursday that the iconic web-slinger will be the subject of a major Broadway musical that will be directed by Tony winner Julie Taymor, who famously adapted "The Lion King" to stage, and feature music and lyrics by Bono and the Edge of U2.

Readings will start this summer for the splashy project, executives at Marvel Comics said. There's no official word on a premiere date or any hints about early casting choices to play Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson or the other characters from the popular spandex soap opera.

It won't be the first time a superhero has made it to Broadway; "It's a Bird … It's a Plane … It's Superman" took flight in 1966 but didn't click with the public. Spidey is the first Marvel Comics character to leap to the stage.

The spindly wall-crawler, created in 1962 by the team of artist Steve Ditko and writer Stan Lee, has already proved to be titan on the silver screen. The first two films in the popular Sony franchise have grossed $777 million in the U.S. alone while the third installment is poised to hit theaters on May 4, with the hero tussling this time with two shape-shifting foes (the gritty Sandman and the oily Venom), as well as the vengeful son of the late Green Goblin.

Spider-Man has his hands full as a cross-media property too. He will be a linchpin presence in the recently announced $1-billion Marvel Comics theme park in Dubai, set to open in 2011, and he will be the star of new animated television series for the Kids WB, which is scheduled to launch next year. There's also the "Spider-Man 3" video game from Activision due in stores May 4.

Spider-Man has some of the most visually interesting villains in all of comics, and it would be a challenge for Taymor to deliver a viable stage adaptation of the mechanical tentacles of Doctor Octopus or the flying glider of the Green Goblin. But the director did win Tonys for direction and costume design for the wildly popular adaptation of "The Lion King," which used puppetry, stilts, mechanically enhanced costumes and other tactics to create its complex vision of the jungle fable.

"The move to Broadway is something that we have had in mind at Marvel for a long time, but we had to find just the perfect team and we think that, absolutely, Julie Taymor has proven to be a world-class talent for realizing a difficult vision," said David Maisel, chairman of Marvel Studios.

Maisel is the former president of Livent Inc., the Broadway production company behind the Tony-winning show "Fosse."

The Spider-Man musical is being produced by Hello Entertainment/David Garfinkle, Martin McCallum, Marvel Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The return to Broadway for Taymor will follow a turbulent Hollywood experience as director of "Across the Universe." She has clashed with producer Joe Roth, an executive at Revolution Studios based at Sony, over the final cut of the offbeat film built around Beatles songs. Their differing visions of the movie are still being resolved.

Bono and the Edge, meanwhile, have done movie soundtrack work, but the rock heroes are newcomers to Broadway. They do have some super-hero résumé lines however: Edge wrote and played the slinky theme song for "The Batman," the stylized Kids WB cartoon series that premiered in 2004; U2 also contributed "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" to the "Batman Forever" film soundtrack in 1995".

Julie Taymor? U2? Thoughts please!

"Batman: The Musical" should be happening, NOT this.

WOW Spiderman on Broadway.

I don't have a clue how they would stage it. Spiderman should be flying through the air attached to stringy stuff during some of the production.

I did go and see "Trazan". And they do swing through the air unto the stage, however, the theatre is smaller then most and they could do it. They would need to have spiderman fly over the audience, so I would think they need to have it in a smaller theatre.

I still would like to see Batman on Broadway too. I was a Bateman and Robin fan when I was young. :D

I think any property can work if you have the "know-how". I'd be excited if only Bono & The Edge weren't composing. Why couldn't they get someone like Elton John or Jim Steinman? Stephen Schwartz or Frank Wildhorn? Alan Menken??

WHY BONO???

I completely agree with you Rockfenris, practically anyone but him. I really hate U2 and Bono, more Bono.

Honestly, I CANNOT see Spiderman working as a musical. I'd imagine that whoever plays Spiderman may have some difficulty singing in a full face mask.

Another troubling bit of news I've heard is that Legally Blonde: The Musical will land on Broadway sometime in December. My school is auctioning off some tickets to it. :blink:

Is the end near?

I thought it had just (and I mean just) opened on Broadway, am I wrong? :s