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Spidey set for the stage!
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July 31, 2009
 By Billy Suter
London - Scottish-born Alan Cumming, who played Nightcrawler in the film X-Men 2: X-Men United, has been cast as Norman Osborn, also known as The Green Goblin, in the upcoming Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
Julie Taymor, who gave us the film Across the Universe, an impressive musical using songs by The Beatles, and the award-winning stage production of The Lion King, is directing the stage musical, for which U2's Bono and The Edge are writing the music.
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is scheduled to open on Broadway on February 25, at the Hilton Theatre.
The project's budget is reportedly $40-million (about R320-million) and is being described as a large-scale extravaganza, " a circus rock 'n' roll drama", with Spider-Man set to swing between skyscrapers on stage.
The storyline, reports Wikipedia, will more closely follow that of the comic book than the film franchise and will introduce a new villain, Swiss Miss.
The tale revolves around how bullied science geek Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered spider and becomes endowed with super powers.
He soon learns, however, that with great power comes great responsibility, and his interactions with villains, his aunt and Mary Jane test his physical strength and his strength of character.
Cumming is no stranger to the stage, having appeared in London in such productions as Hamlet and Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist (for which he received an Olivier Award), and as the lead in Martin Sherman's Bent and as Dionysus in The National Theatre of Scotland's The Bacchae.
On Broadway, Cumming has appeared as Mac the Knife in The Threepenny Opera and the Emcee in Cabaret, for which he won a Tony Award in 1998.
In Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, he will share the stage with Evan Rachel Wood as Spider-Man's love interest, Mary Jane.
Wood, the former girlfriend of weirdo rocker Marilyn Manson, starred in the movies Across the Universe, Thirteen and Running With Scissors.
No names have been mentioned yet for the musical's title role, although whispers have it that American Idol runner-up, the flamboyant Adam Lambert, could be considered to fill the red, black and blue tights.
Former American Idol contestants who have progressed to the Broadway stage include Clay Aiken (Monty Python's Spamalot), Constantine Maroulis (Rock of Ages), Fantasia (The Color Purple) and Taylor Hicks (Grease).
Jay Binder, a veteran Broadway casting director who helped American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson win an Academy Award by casting her in the movie version of Dreamgirls, is on record as having said many American Idol veterans have succeeded on Broadway because they have shown the work ethic needed to perform eight shows a week.
They also attract fans at a time when box-office takings are not at their peak and few new major musical theatre stars are being produced.
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is to feature choreography by Daniel Ezralow, sets by George Tsypin, costumes by Eiko Ishioka, lighting by Donald Holder and sound by Jonathan Deans.
Tickets are expected to go on sale from September.
Sticking with news from the world of theatre, it has been reported that a stage production of the hit film, The Shawshank Redemption, is to hit London's West End soon.
Set to open at the Wyndhams Theatre on September 4 and run until February 14, the show is directed by Peter Sheridan and based on the short novel, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King.
It tells of Andy Dufresne, a man convicted of murdering his wife and his lover and sent to the notorious Shawshank Prison to serve two life sentences.
Andy is forced to endure a spirit-crushing routine, but with his quiet strength and inner courage, there is one thing that he loses - hope.
A story of courage, friendship and daring to hope, the stage drama will star Kevin Anderson (star of Sleeping with the Enemy and a member of the acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company) and Reg E Cathey, of television's The Wire.
Good news for theatre fans who love television's Little Britain - rotund Matt Lucas is set to star as Kenneth Halliwell, alongside Chris New as playwright Joe Orton, in Daniel Kramer's production of Prick Up Your Ears, a new play by Simon Bent.
It is scheduled to run at London's Comedy Theatre from September 17 to December 6.
Inspired by the John Lahr biography and the diaries of Joe Orton, Prick Up Your Ears opens in 1962.
Halliwell and Orton - aspiring playwrights and sometime lovers - plot their rightful place at the centre of London's literary scene while engaged in a secret crusade to "improve" the local library books, all in the worst possible taste of course, and acting out their own versions of popular radio dramas - with an extra dash of innuendo.
But after a short interlude at Her Majesty's pleasure, Orton is about to become the greatest, and most notorious comic playwright since Oscar Wilde, while Halliwell stays indoors redecorating, reduced to sharing Joe's success with their neighbour, Mrs Corden, over tea.
Fans of Lucas are also sure to be pleased that he has been cast in Tim Burton's new film version of Alice in Wonderland, due for a global release on March 5.
Burton's film, in 3D, will star Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen and Anne Hathaway as The White Queen, while Lucas will play chubby brothers Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Aussie newcomer Mia Wasikowska has been cast as Alice.
The film is reportedly a sequel to Lewis Carroll's original story, and is said to follow Alice, now 17, as she escapes from a posh party and follows a white rabbit down a hole, back to Wonderland.
The White Rabbit is convinced he has the right girl, the one who had visited the magical land a decade earlier.
Alice, however, doesn't recall her past visit to Wonderland.
She discovers that the creatures of Wonderland are ready to revolt and are hoping Alice will help them.
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