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David Cote, Time Out New York

THEN: "One of the saddest things about Spider-Man, in fact, is how dehumanized and humorless the whole affair feels. ... The production is a deeply confused, ugly, ultimately boring example of artistic hubris enabled by financial excess." 2/11/11 NEGATIVE (1/5) Full Review NOW: "It's a hell of a lot better. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is now a coherent and mostly enjoyable entertainment for children and adults, albeit one still saddled with Taymor's vestigial nuttiness and freshly dug plot holes all its own." 6/14/11 MIXED (3/5) Full Review



Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News

THEN: "A big production going in too many directions and in need of a lot of work to make it entertaining, satisfying and understandable. ... The show reportedly cost $65 million and that's clearly gone into mechanics, hydraulics and aerial rigging. It seems only 10 cents has gone into the confusing story and humorless dialogue." 2/7/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "Spidey 2.0 is more cohesive, streamlined and funnier than before, and its thrills are still intact - though it is still weighed down by so-so songs. ... The reason to see 'Turn Off the Dark' remains. The acrobatic aerial stunts and flying, particularly the 11 o'clock showdown, are dazzling. " 6/14/11 POSITIVE (3/5) Full Review



Robert Feldberg, Bergen Record

THEN: "Lifeless and incoherent. ... Overall, the show, with its tepid action scenes, entirely flubs what should be the core good-guy, bad-guy melodrama." 3/13/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "The new version of the show has been streamlined and simplified — you can now follow what's going on — into an adventure story, with an accompaniment of wisecracks. ... It all adds up to the theatrical equivalent of a meal of cotton candy." 6/15/11 NEGATIVE Full Review



Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

THEN: "The much-told woes of 'Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark' boil down to a problem that has similarly ensnared far humbler new musicals: an incoherent story." 2/7/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "Given the limited amount of fix-'er-up time, and the depths of incoherence from which this show had to rise, 2.0 is a remarkable achievement for those who have toiled for coherence and a measure of absolution in this dangerously tangled web." 6/14/11 MIXED Full Review



Jonathan Mandell, The Faster Times

THEN: "Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark works best as a slide show." 4/3/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "There is no question that the musical ... is improved, vastly so. ... But, while Spider-Man is no longer a catastrophe, neither did I find it the thrill that the hype would have you believe." 6/13/11 NEGATIVE Full Review



Peter Marks, Washington Post

THEN: "Story-wise, 'Spider-Man' is a shrill, insipid mess, a musical aimed squarely at a Cub Scout demographic. Looking at the sad results, you're compelled to wonder: Where did all those tens of millions go?" 2/7/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "What swings from the rafters, springs from the wings and bursts from the stage floor of the Foxwoods Theatre is a definite upgrade from the flailing behemoth on view in February ... You can’t go so far as to declare that 'Spider-Man' has found its voice, but at least now you can understand what it’s saying." 6/14/11 NEGATIVE Full Review



David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

THEN: "An ungainly mess of a show that smacks of out-of-control auteurial arrogance ... Spider-Man is chaotic, dull and a little silly. And there’s nothing here half as catchy as the 1967 ABC cartoon theme tune." 2/7/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "In terms of narrative clarity and character definition, the show is sharper. But while the emergency surgical team has injected fanboy humor and self-conscious acknowledgments of the production's rocky gestation, they have not located a heart in this bloated monster." 6/14/11 NEGATIVE Full Review



Howard Shapiro, Philadelphia Inquirer

THEN: "I wasn't looking for great musical theater from Spider-Man. I wanted a live comic book. I'm not saying you should lower your standards at a show like this one, just that the standards are different. And that is why Spider-Man, in its current preview state, fails. Theatrically, when the ropes all work, it grabs you. As a live comic book, it does not." 2/13/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "The new Spider-Man is all for fun, a live-on-stage comic book, pure and simple - precisely what the last version wasn't, and what its team, on hiatus for several weeks of rewrites and rehearsals, reimagined. It will by no means assume a spot in the pantheon of great Broadway musicals, but it's now far more than a tortured curiosity. It has humor, and winks gamely at itself. It has flight sequences that make sense, are not repetitively tiresome, and, most of all, work technically." 6/15/11 POSITIVE Full Review



David Sheward, Backstage

THEN: "The story supporting these imaginative images is flimsier than a strand of filament. Taymor and her book collaborator, Glen Berger, have taken threads from the comic book and all three of the 'Spider-Man' movies, spun a few of their own, and weaved them into an incomprehensible web that feels more like a sticky trap than a fun playhouse." 2/8/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "What an improvement. The tangled plot threads that made the new musical 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark' a sticky mess during its record-breaking preview period have been unraveled and woven into an exciting web of wonder." 6/14/11 POSITIVE Full Review



Charles Spencer, The Telegraph [UK]

THEN: "Never mind turning off the dark. I spent much of this dreadful new musical muttering Please, Lord, make it stop. ... There's a leaden lack of humour about most of the script, and though the flying sequences are exciting when they work (and even more fun when they don't) there is nothing here to match the thrills, skills and sheer imagination of Cirque du Soleil at its best. But perhaps the biggest bummer of all is the score" 2/6/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "Though now slicker and more comprehensible than it was in February ... this remains a stubbornly unlovable show that never comes close to matching the thrills, the humour or the emotional depth of the Spider-Man movies. ... Despite the undoubted improvements, the show never soars into greatness, or leaves the audience in a state of disbelieving wonder. Indeed, despite all the time and money that have been lavished on it, Spidey actually turns out to be a bit of a bore." 6/15/11 NEGATIVE Full Review



Steven Suskin, Variety

THEN: "Weaknesses lie with the book, music and lyrics ... [The] story ... is sketchy and ill-formed. Some of the dialogue, by Taymor and Glen Berger, seems ad-libbed on the spot and there are a couple of big holes in the story." 2/7/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "The finished version is reasonably improved but somewhat less spectacular. ... Several much-discussed flaws -- the 'Geek Chorus' framing device, extensive stage-time for the Taymor-created spider-woman Arachne, a jaw-droppingly misguided musical number about shoes -- are gone, certainly for the better. But they tended to give distinct flavor to the show, and flavor is what 'Spider-Man' now lacks. " 6/15/11 MIXED Full Review



Matt Windman, Theater News Online/AM New York

THEN: "Spider-Man, as it now stands, is truly awful, misguided and boring. So bad, in fact, that I wish its producers would just put the damn thing out of its misery and close it." 3/13/11 NEGATIVE Full Review NOW: "Spider-Man 2.0 is no longer an embarrassing train wreck, painful bore, utter laughingstock or source of serious physical injuries. But at the same time, it remains little more than a kid-friendly stunt spectacular with glitzy superhero costumes, bad songs and a few cheesy laughs. It’s just an oversized, overpriced, longer version of what you’d find at a theme park." 6/14/11 MIXED Full Review



Linda Winer, Newsday