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Surfing the web
Spider-Man comes to the Wang
BY LIZA WEISSTUCH

Kevin Shinick, who’s now 30, can’t remember how old he was when he started reading Spider-Man comic books. But over the years, the wall crawler hasn’t lost any of his appeal for Shinick. The way he sees it, Spidey will always be the Everyman superhero.

"Spider-Man was the first superhero who wasn’t just a superhero. Before then, Superman and everyone were invulnerable. Spidey was the first who not only was a teenager — which was new for readers — but had problems like everybody else. He had to pay rent. He had a girlfriend. Before him, everyone his age was usually a sidekick. Stan Lee, Spider-Man’s creator, thought: ‘Let’s make these kids the heroes.’ "

It makes sense, then, that Spider-Man would be ideal for his own non-age-specific show. And Shinick, who considers himself a lifelong Spider-Man aficionado (some might say "geek"), was just the person to write and direct it. The result? Spider-Man Live! A Stunt Spectacular, which will bring the crimestopping web shooter to the Wang Theatre starting this Tuesday. He won’t lack for company, either — not with an entourage of 15 actors and acrobats and a technical crew of nearly 40.

"Anything I direct after this will be a breeze," Shinick explains, "because this involves flying explosions, stunts, acrobatics, acting, trapeze, pyrotechnics. It’s got everything you can possibly imagine all fit into 90 minutes." Wow! Works, which has more than 7000 productions under its belt including Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast, takes care of special effects. ZFX takes the flying illusions to tremendous heights. "These guys created things I have never seen before. We’ve got pumpkin bombs that explode, gliders that fly through the air and shoot missiles, Spidey swinging on ropes." The Spidey you’ll see at the Wang, Collin Follenweider, is more than qualified for the role, since he comes straight from a stint with another gravity-defying troupe, Cirque du Soleil.

But the show also incorporates plenty of core material — old-school fans can rest assured that perennial nerd Peter Parker, Mary Jane, and the sinister Green Goblin are all accounted for, just as they were in the Sam Raimi film. And Spider-Man enthusiasm hasn’t exactly been overrun with cobwebs lately — since the movie’s release last summer, the crusader’s masked façade has been brandished on a Time magazine cover, a NASCAR race car, and a "Got Milk?" ad.

The good timing of this stage version, however, is largely a matter of happenstance. Last January, Shinick, who considers himself an actor first, met with producers about a one-man comedy show he had written and was performing Off Broadway. As he was leaving, they asked whether he knew anything about Spider-Man. They had acquired the rights from Marvel and needed a writer. Would he take a crack? That bit of serendipity quickly turned into a multi-million-dollar 40-city tour.

But they’d have been hard pressed to find a better fit for the project than Shinick. Beyond his stage experience, which includes Broadway roles in The Sea Gull and Timon of Athens, he’s steeped in the family-entertainment world. He hosted PBS’s Emmy-winning Where in Time Is Carmen San Diego?, and he’s done voice-overs on Nickelodeon cartoons. "A lot of shows that call themselves ‘family spectaculars’ don’t really meet the definition. I knew not only was this going to be an introduction to Spider-Man to a lot of kids, it’s also going to be an intro to theater. I wanted to embrace everything theater has to offer and show kids of all ages everything that can be done with theater."

Spider-Man Live! will be presented at the Wang Theatre November 5 through 10. Curtain is at 7 p.m.; there are also 11 a.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $17 to $37; call (800) 447-7400.


Issue Date: October 31 - November 7, 2002
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