The Worst Theatrical Slaughter Since Abe Walked Into Ford's

[SaintWaldo]

Love your work, Elizabeth. I also love the 'staches. I hate to be a killjoy on such a popular ride...

BUT...

Lincoln's been outdone [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis] as far as theater violence is concerned. Maybe it's time to retire that canard?

But, seriously. LOVE those moustaches!

 

[Ciarnyn]

Ah, in reference to my earlier comment:

"The intermission began at 8:19 p.m.; it was still under way 34 minutes later when some in the audience began to clap in unison, as they passed their two-hour mark inside the theater. Mr. White, the production stage manager, then said over the microphone, ?I know, guys, I know, I beg your patience,? and the clapping stopped."

Wow. Mr. White, dude, I feel for you. That is a *terrible* position to be in.

 

[Ghengis John]

Ah come on Liz, you haven't even heard Doctor Octopus's stirring continuo.

 

[matrix3509]

And once again, another thinly-veiled rant by Elizabeth Grunewald is published, instead of, you know, actual news, or at least an interesting rant. Can we get back to actual news?

You do know this is an op-ed website right? The news part of the Escapist is that little tiny piece of pixels on the right side of the main page. Seriously, do you know what website you're on? Every piece of content this site produces is op-ed. If you want news, go read Gamespot. I have a feeling you'd fit right in.

 

[theultimateend]

You know when my job tries to kill me I just get a new job.

 

[pumasuit]

Yeah, it's going to play for as long as it can sell tickets. Whether or not this was a rant, I did not know about the GM shopping around for a different show or the investor that called it a disaster, so at least I learned something.
What a bad position to be in - either stop the show now and sit on $60 million dollars worth of debt or roll the dice and watch the injuries rack up. Rough.

 

[ZephrC]

Cool, I'm glad you have a completely unbiased opinion of something you have haven't even seen.

Regardless, even if it is a giant waste of money, the only opinion I agree with of yours is that they need to take better care of their staff. But shutting down the production?

Besides, quitting now would be pointless. If they quit now they have zero chance of recouping losses.

EDIT:

A little too close to a rant for my tastes.

And once again, another thinly-veiled rant by Elizabeth Grunewald is published, instead of, you know, actual news, or at least an interesting rant. Can we get back to actual news?

My thoughts exactly. Just randomly ranting about crap is not news. At least Shamus delivers his rants in an intelligent and logical manner. This article feels like it belongs on fox "news".

Wait, since when has the Escapist ever been a news site? It's certainly had gaming news on it, and it still does, but that's never been the only thing it did. For instance reviews are not and have never been news. Are they not allowed to review games? Are they just not allowed to post things you don't like? I don't get the complaint here.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

Wait, since when has the Escapist ever been a news site? It's certainly had gaming news on it, and it still does, but that's never been the only thing it did. For instance reviews are not and have never been news. Are they not allowed to review games? Are they just not allowed to post things you don't like? I don't get the complaint here.

First off, I never said this was a news site. But if you scroll to the top of the page you'll find a button clearly labeled "news". So it does report news, amongst other things. Second, they post stuff I don't like all the time, as they should. I don't know if I like or don't like the Spider-man musical and it's fiasco, but I do know I don't like the way this article was written.

An article with the attention of ranting should be done so in a much more intelligent manner than this. Read any of Shamus Young's rants and you will be able to clearly see the difference in how information is delivered alongside the rants compared to this article. In this article all I get is a sense of "One of us..." See things my way because they are the right way because I said so. Because I am jumping on the hate bandwagon and so should you.

Don't get me wrong, I love a rant as much as the next guy. Cynicism is my oldest friend. But it should be delivered in a fashion that is less preachy. It should be delivered with the intent of the reader making up their own mind based on your solid argument.

 

[Vohn_exel]

I think the people that come to this site for news go to Yahtzee for reviews, if you get my meaning. I hadn't heard about the actor's injury. This just sounds terrible. But seriously, Spiderman, as a musical, sounds terrible.

 

[Dwarfman]

Jeez and I thought Shakespeare's MacBe.... ahhh I mean to say 'That Dark Play' was bad enough what with principle actors dying on the opening night!

I'm suprised their union hasn't stepped into this. If it's that dangerous they probably should.

 

[mr_rubino]

Let Taymor be her crazy self. As long as this finally convinces Ken Mandelbaum to release an update of his book about Broadway flops, I'll be happy. The Broadway run of Dance of the Vampires didn't, and God knows they tried.

Wait, since when has the Escapist ever been a news site? It's certainly had gaming news on it, and it still does, but that's never been the only thing it did. For instance reviews are not and have never been news. Are they not allowed to review games? Are they just not allowed to post things you don't like? I don't get the complaint here.

First off, I never said this was a news site. But if you scroll to the top of the page you'll find a button clearly labeled "news". So it does report news, amongst other things. Second, they post stuff I don't like all the time, as they should. I don't know if I like or don't like the Spider-man musical and it's fiasco, but I do know I don't like the way this article was written.

An article with the attention of ranting should be done so in a much more intelligent manner than this. Read any of Shamus Young's rants and you will be able to clearly see the difference in how information is delivered alongside the rants compared to this article. In this article all I get is a sense of "One of us..." See things my way because they are the right way because I said so. Because I am jumping on the hate bandwagon and so should you.

Don't get me wrong, I love a rant as much as the next guy. Cynicism is my oldest friend. But it should be delivered in a fashion that is less preachy. It should be delivered with the intent of the reader making up their own mind based on your solid argument.

This wasn't placed under News. It was placed under Features/Columns, along with stuff like Shamus, Yahtzee, and Dr. Mark. This is the editorial section. You're one of those "Never criticize anything because people worked hard on it" types, aren't you?

EDIT:

I understand the show's like nothing that's come before, but at what expense will you share this crazy vision with the world?

Y'know, one of the taglines for Carrie: The Musical was "There's never been a musical like her." And it was horribly accurate.

 

[Ciarnyn]

Jeez and I thought Shakespeare's MacBe.... ahhh I mean to say 'That Dark Play' was bad enough what with principle actors dying on the opening night!

I'm suprised their union hasn't stepped into this. If it's that dangerous they probably should.

Supposedly they have... the show got postponed until new safety measures could be put into place. They also said that they investigated the incident where the stuntman broke his ribs and basically said that it was the stagecrew's fault, not a mechanical error. Apparently they are going to "vigilantly monitor the production for the safety of its members".

So... yeah. We'll see how *that* goes.

 

[mr_rubino]

Jeez and I thought Shakespeare's MacBe.... ahhh I mean to say 'That Dark Play' was bad enough what with principle actors dying on the opening night!

I'm suprised their union hasn't stepped into this. If it's that dangerous they probably should.

Supposedly they have... the show got postponed until new safety measures could be put into place. They also said that they investigated the incident where the stuntman broke his ribs and basically said that it was the stagecrew's fault, not a mechanical error. Apparently they are going to "vigilantly monitor the production for the safety of its members".

So... yeah. We'll see how *that* goes.

Considering Spidey spends a lot of the first act flying over the audience, the balconies, the aisles...

 

[Canid117]

Does anyone else kind of want to see pictures of Helen of Troy in a camo bikini?

 

[ZephrC]

Wait, since when has the Escapist ever been a news site? It's certainly had gaming news on it, and it still does, but that's never been the only thing it did. For instance reviews are not and have never been news. Are they not allowed to review games? Are they just not allowed to post things you don't like? I don't get the complaint here.

First off, I never said this was a news site. But if you scroll to the top of the page you'll find a button clearly labeled "news". So it does report news, amongst other things. Second, they post stuff I don't like all the time, as they should. I don't know if I like or don't like the Spider-man musical and it's fiasco, but I do know I don't like the way this article was written.

An article with the attention of ranting should be done so in a much more intelligent manner than this. Read any of Shamus Young's rants and you will be able to clearly see the difference in how information is delivered alongside the rants compared to this article. In this article all I get is a sense of "One of us..." See things my way because they are the right way because I said so. Because I am jumping on the hate bandwagon and so should you.

Don't get me wrong, I love a rant as much as the next guy. Cynicism is my oldest friend. But it should be delivered in a fashion that is less preachy. It should be delivered with the intent of the reader making up their own mind based on your solid argument.

Look, you don't have to like the article. I don't even strongly disagree with anything you said, but every editorial, comic, review or comedy video shows up in that news list. That's not a problem with this article. If it's a problem at all, it's a problem with the way the site is organized.

You are certainly free to complain about the article. I just don't think it makes any sense to complain that it's not news. That one particular complaint makes absolutely no sense.

 

[Infernai]

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark= The Theatre equivalent of Duke Nukem Forever.

 

[Littaly]

So what if one of the actors gets badly wounded. They can just replace him and say something along the lines of "This is the real Spider Man, he's been frozen in cryo-stasis for 20 years while this guy, who is actually a clone, took over his life". Then if he gets better again they can throw out the replacement and claim that it was in fact he who was the clone.

 

[Manicotti]

First off, that is the best headline for this article/review/rant thing possible, maybe in all of journalism.

And I really, really wanted this thing to fail, hard, when I first heard it was coming out, but now I just want it to finish failing before someone dies getting that message across. It's really hard to justify any amount of money on gambling people's livelihoods on a piece of shit form of artistic expression that didn't even have the decency to be completely finished BEFORE asking its crew to make that leap of faith.

Edit: Let's also comment on the coincidence of this being posted during the week of an issue called "Learning From Failure," shall we?

 

[cynical conservative]

Another excellent article. Thanks