On friday, I saw the Julie Taymor version of Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark , which closed this weekend – visually, it was spectacular – they did extraordinary things with the set, costume, lighting, and video. The flying was also very cool. There were some technical difficulties, but it was a preview (albeit the 140th preview). The book was fine – the basic spiderman story, with a new semi-villainess, and some social commentary (re the military-industrial complex and television fear mongers). The music from Bono and The Edge, however, was very disappointing – one of the songs was good and there were some U-2ish riffs, but it was far from memorable. (The singing wasn’t all that strong either.) Some of the different concepts – the cutouts, comic-book masks, and definitely the wrestling scene – seemed a bit silly. So it’s back to the drawing board, with a Taymor-less version opening in June.