July 24, 2008

Nerdy with Understated Sex Appeal, Good Sense of Humor

No, no friends I'm not talking about myself - but I see how you could be confused - that is the description of your incognito friendly neighborhood web-slinger, Peter Parker, as imagined by the visionary director of The Lion King.  Here's how the rest of the casting call reads for Spiderman: The Musical:
Peter Parker is described as "male, 16-20's [with a] great rock voice, can be nerdy with understated sex appeal, good sense of humor." Mary Jane is "female, 16-20's, beautiful girl next door, strong pop/rock singing voice." 
The Principal Woman should be "female, 25-35 years old [with] amazing rock vocals. Think Sinead O'Connor with a Middle Eastern/Bulgarian/Greek twist. Foreign, world music types are great, foreign accents are great." All ethnicities are encouraged to audition.
I confess, I always saw Mary Jane as more of the singer-songwriter type.  But, who is this "Principal Woman" you ask?  Well, it's Arachne of course:
The character breakdowns provide some insight to plot points as the character Arachne ("female, 20-35 years old, any ethnicity") is described as "a beautiful, boastful young woman turned into a spider for her hubris and lack of respect for the gods. She subsequently appears to Peter Parker and the audience as in turn a powerful spider-woman who comes from another time to inspire Peter; an otherworldly lover; a bride; a terrifying (and sexy) dark goddess of vengeance; a dance partner in a charged and violent spiders dance of death; and, finally, a lonely, fragile young woman." Casting is seeking a "strong Celtic, Balkan style, e.g., Sinead O'Connor," noting, "outside the box ideas are welcomed. Could be someone from the music industry."
Am I the only one who didn't know that this was even happening?  Or that Bono and The Edge were writing the music?  And that they finished it all in two weeks?  

Spoiler Alert:  Scar kills Uncle Ben.

1 comment:

scott cunningham said...

Whoa. I also had no idea. Very cool and weird. I always saw Mary Jane as mostly inconsistent and malleable to whoever was writing her at the time. Sometimes she's an aspiring actress. Sometimes she's the cheerleader. Sometimes she's the girl next door type. She's either a supermodel or a plain-jane cute girl, that much I'm sure.

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