Back in nineteen ninety nine, I was living in Seattle Washington. In Seattle was a glorious old theater that had recently been renovated called the Cinerama. It only had one screen, but oh man, what a screen. It was as tall as the side of a building. This thing had been originally conceived and built back in a time well before anyone had ever thought of, let alone heard of Imax.
It was at the Cinerama that I saw several showings of George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode One: The Phantom Menace. I loved seeing that movie at that theater so much that I made a point of looking out for what the next movie showing was, once Star Wars had ended its very long run.
It was a movie starring Anthony Hopkins called "Titus". I knew nothing of the movie's source material, one of Shakespeare's lesser plays, called "Titus Andronicus", and knew less than nothing about the films director, a woman named Julie Taymor.
I went and watched the movie and was in awe. It was one of the most amazing, most visually arresting movies I had ever seen. I became an instant fan of Ms. Taymor's work and resolved to learn all I could about her.
I quickly found out that while Titus was her first movie ever, she had long been active in the theater, and that she was best known for adapting Disney's "The Lion King" for the stage.
Throughout the following years, any time I learned of a new movie by her I made a point of seeing it. While there have not been anywhere near as many as I'd like I have treasured each one.
It was not long after the release of "Across The Universe", her incredible musical about the wonder and turmoil of the sixties, featuring the music of the Beatles, that I heard about a new stage musical she was mounting along with Bono, and the Edge of U2. It was called "Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark".
Even though I knew I'd most likely never get to see it, I followed the shows development quite closely. Unfortunately it would turn out to be a very troubled development. It went through multiple setbacks, ranging from technical difficulties involving on stage wire work, to test audiences who didn't seem to really understand, or quite care for Ms. Taymor's very grand, almost mythic approach to Spiderman and his world.
After several delays the production and Ms. Taymor parted company. She was for all intents and purposes let go, the show was retooled to be simpler in terms of both story and technical production.
By most any reasonable estimation Ms. Taymor's efforts on Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark were a failure.
I think that is the most wonderful thing in the world.
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