U2

U2

U2 rockers The Edge and Bono are set to infuriate comic book fans with their new Spider-Man musical - they have completely reworked the traditional superhero story in the upcoming stage show.

Frontman Bono predicts theatregoers will be stunned by Turn Off The Dark, the upcoming production he and The Edge have written music and lyrics for - because it's completely different to the well-known Spider-Man tale which appeared in the comics and film adaptations.
 
They even decided to make Peter Parker, Spider-Man's alter ego, into a "slacker" and introduce a female villain.
 
Bono explains, "Our Peter Parker is much more…not (Nirvana rocker) Kurt Cobain, but a kind of slacker, a more kind of shy sort of guy. (And) we've got a new villain, it's a girl. It's a very extraordinary role.
 
"We've taken it to a much more dizzy place than you'd expect. We've got big tunes. We're very proud of it."
 
And The Edge maintains U2 fans who come to see the show on Broadway after it debuts next year (10) will be more than happy with the songs the duo have written.
 
He adds, "It touches on opera, it touches on rock 'n' roll. There are some real character driven songs as well, very unusual song types for us."
 
And he insists the pair wouldn't have taken part in the production if it had been a straightforward, song-and-dance show: "It is a new challenge. The thing is we don't really like musicals. Most musicals are really pants (awful). They're really not very cool."
 
"It is much more like opera than a straight musical. We're actually not calling it a musical for that reason because we don't want to put people off.
 
"We just thought, 'Well if we're going to do this we should do something that knocks it out of the park and hits on every level with great tunes.'"


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