Friday, November 4, 2011

Spider Man Tony Eligibility

Here's some news from the New York Times about the ever-buzzed about Spider-Man musical.


Original ‘Spider-Man’ Director Taymor Will Be Eligible for Tony
By PATRICK HEALY
Julie Taymor will be eligible for a 2012 Tony Award nomination as best director of a musical for “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” the committee that oversees the annual Broadway theater honors announced on Thursday, despite “Spider-Man” being overhauled considerably after she was fired from the show in March.

Her replacement, Philip William McKinley, who re-staged some numbers and several new scenes, will not be eligible for a Tony for directing “Spider-Man,” however.

The producers of “Spider-Man” had recently asked the Tony Awards Administration Committee to make both Ms. Taymor and Mr. McKinley eligible for the award, according to two people familiar with the producers’ request, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because the producers did not want the information made public. But the committee voted for only Ms. Taymor; no reason was given, and a spokeswoman for the Tony Awards said that, per custom, the rationale for the committee’s decision-making would not be disclosed.

The producers gave Ms. Taymor the credit of “original direction” when the musical opened in June. Mr. McKinley was billed as “creative consultant,” though it was well publicized that he had taken over the direction of the show from Ms. Taymor. The producers are now billing him in “Spider-Man” publicity materials as “director.”

With its ruling at a closed-door meeting on Thursday, the committee sought to end one of the mini-dramas in the saga of “Spider-Man,” a show that cost more than twice as much as any in Broadway history and which became a national punch line for its exorbitant expenses, its string of cast injuries, and its seemingly endless period of preview performances. (The musical opened in June after more than six months of previews; most shows have a single month of previews.)

Ms. Taymor, a Tony winner as director of “The Lion King,” began working on “Spider-Man” a decade ago after being recruited by the show’s composers, Bono and the Edge of U2, and its original producer, Tony Adams, who died in 2005. Early reviews for the musical in February were so negative, and the artistic disagreements between Ms. Taymor and her fellow creators and new producers were so sharp, that she was soon ousted from the show.

She did attend the show’s opening night in June and put on a friendly face with Bono and Edge (as well as hugging Mr. McKinley), but her friends said she remained furious at her treatment. Ms. Taymor, who has never given an interview about the falling out, is now pursuing an arbitration claim against the producers through the stage directors’ union, saying that she is owed more than $500,000 in royalties.

The committee also announced that the two stars of “Spider-Man,” Reeve Carney (who plays Peter Parker) and Jennifer Damiano (Mary Jane Watson), will be eligible for Tonys for lead actor and actress, respectively. Because their names are not listed above the “Spider-Man” title in materials, the producers had to ask the administration committee to vote for their eligibility in the lead acting categories.

Even though “Spider-Man” began preview performances in November 2010, it was not eligible for Tonys for the 2010-11 theater season because the musical did not open by the award eligibility cut-off in late April 2011.

Rick Miramontez, a spokesman for the “Spider-Man” producers, said they would have no comment about the Tony committee’s decision-making.

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