Serious Injuries and Final Reflections

Hello and welcome. I am Josh Whittdakomb. For today I amm the curator of a place of incredible artifacts and exhibitions, a place that stores the greatest thing on Eth. This is my archive of pop culture. Someone else has walken up and s me or something. It's just a nvel l of me. after the first those are every man sin on the spot again I think it wouldd be good to start this episode before we go into the absolute height of the carnage of Spider Man the Musical. By putting it in perspective, Spider Man the film has been a great success, right? So why not because an you name any disastrous? Superhero films, so I take you through them actually. Please do. Yeah. Do you remember Catwoman two thousand four? Halleberurry Hy Berry we've already mentioned her once, haven't we? She was Storm She got the Golden Razy Award of Worst Actress You know the Razzies? Yeah, that's tough. I don't like them do you? Oh God, no, but I hate all of that You know what, full credit to her, she turned up to collect her own golden Razzie. Oh, S no, I really respect that. That is a classy move, isn't it? So if you don't know the Razies are the anti Oscars for the worst of the year And she accepts the award and she says, than you for putting me in a piece of shit, God awful movie. There you go. G'veotta respect that, haven't you? You've gota respect? respect it. Is she slightly shifting the blame on the movie? No no, I think to turn up, would you turn up if you w a goolden Rasy? No, I'd probably be very low indeed I'd have to have a lot else going on that I felt successful about That was the only awards do I was invited to all ye. I think I'd probably swear of it, but if I was had a sniff of the Bafterters. Yeah yeah. the AREas, the RTS Awards, if I'd had a couple of other things. Would you feel confident now if you will vote the worst comic on the circuit? wouldould you turn up to that? No, I don't think I'm there. I don't think I'm there. No I don't think I'll ever be there. The bit I'd hate the most, Susie would be the reference to me still being on the circuit U You couldn't cope in a club. I would be the worst com come the circuit were I hon it. Don't worry about. Batman and Robin. You aware of Batman and Robin. So this was the fourth Batman movie of that. They started with the Tim Burtam films with Michael Keaton Do you know who Batman was in Batan and Robin? George Clooney. It was George Clooney, yeah. Who was Robin I don't know who Robin is I haven't seen it actually, because everyone said it's shit. Shit yeah. George Clean says, When I say Batman and Robin is a terrible film, I always go, I was terrible in it because I was. number one. Also because that allows you the ability to say, having said I sucked in it, can I also say that none of the other elements worked either? Yeah. You know, lines like freeze freeze So this is Baddy, Do you know who the Baddy was No, I don't. It was Mr. Freeze played by Arnold Schwarzegger. Sure. Why not? He did a string of awful freeze basaced puns. Oh no. When he's in a physical confrontation with Batman, he says, You're not sending me to the cooler That was my semi impression. I would say either go for ord'. Yeah ye. That was Rzy worthy. Okay, I'm not going go from. You're not sending me to the cooler. He also says at one point, My condition has left me cold to your please of mercy I'm not sure if that's punle just a bad line High onds is there? I just think it's terrible writing He walks in to a load of party goers He could say freeze, but he doesn't. He says, Allright, everyone chill Come on, it's there on a fucking place.. before attacking some prison guards He says something. Allow me to break the ice? Yeah. I mean, I don't mind that one, I've got to be honest Sometimes ps okay. What does he say in the National History Museum U What's the main thing you think of when you walk into the National History Museum in that first hallway? Like a mammoth. A dinosaur, yeah. A dinosaur. He says, What killed the dinosaurs the ice age? U, yeah Again, don't love that one. No, but I don't mind breaking the ice. You don't mind breaking. But listen, before I slnug off that film anymore, I want to say I was terrible in that movie. Yeah you were terrible I was really bad at it. so allow me to say so was everything else. There was also a lot of controversy because Batman's outf forad nipples. It was like unbelievably sexy, wasn't it Yeah well, I wouldn't go that far looking at it now but I suppose it's George Cloononey. But I who the aim was for it to be unbelievably sexy. Well you all know, Little Nipples is incredibly sexy. And also Joshie's nickname at school. I did have a friend at school called Tiny Tipz and was a boy just to be clear I gonna say that's how we met Now, we join them They've just had the casting issues. I can't even remember whether Evan Rachel Wood is still in it. I think she's back in. I think it was the Okoki. I think she was out and now she's back in. Okay, brief spoiler. She isn't for long, right? Sure. But now they hit money problems fucking how So I've got the terrible theatre That guy The cast that don't really want to do it. now they've got the money problems And they've got obviously eighteen weeks with delays August sixth, two thousand nine variety report. It's very much like the kind of Showbiz magazine, is that what it is? It does TV and films as well. It's kind of a business insider bad magazine, isn't it? Yeahah? Yeah, but it's the kind of thing that like Uber fans would also read, I think. Right. So it says, shouldh Broadway Spidey Sense be tingling Rumors have spread Among legiters that the production for incoming mega musical Spider Man Turn offff the Dark may be threatened The extensive work being done to prep for the technically demanding show, both in the shop constructing the physical production and in the theatre where Spider Man is due to bow is said to have stopped The holt is attributed to cash flow obstacles. So there's some sort of issue with the shop as well. What is that at the front? No, no, no, that's not the gift shop. What do they mean in the shop? I think the shop is where you construct the physical production. I think that's the workshop Sure. That makes you s. They should have just said workhop because I think Susie, you're not a reader of variety. If you read variety, you know of course. So you had one of the vain issues was the construction of the gift shop. But that's the thing. Americans love mer mer as much as the next gal, okay? We can't open because the shop, the thing you move up to open it every night, that's stuck. so we're not gonna to be able to sell t shirts or programes. I didn't know if it meant. You know, haveave you seen the Harry Potter plays? No, I haven't no. So when you go in The theater is dressed So it's not just on stage. The whole there is dressed. changes between one show and another And I didn't know if it meant that, like the front of it I'm trying to work out what they're doingough because The thing is is that have none of them ever been to the theatre because there is only so much you can do. I know, it's mental. There's only so much you can do. People can fly, sure. You would just said that about the frozen dress, you know what I mean? I think a quick change can be expected. Yeah yeah Do' know how bad the cash flow problems are, they're not that bad They are twenty million dollars short at this. to earn too much money amm I right with? I was joking. I was joking So the first thing they do because they're basically putting a halt to production so that they can get more money in. instead everyone to bring their own lunch Better than that tellell everyone not to show up. The actors are released. so Evan Rachel would, she's our again. Oh yeah. And she's basically have to go back to the films that she's turned down to do MJ. Oh no. Can I get back in please? So she tells Julie that she will still do Spider Man when it happens So that she's back on again Despite reports to the contrary, Julie asks Evan to put out like a press release, and she does saying that she will do it when it happens. Spoiler alert She ain't doing it. I guess there is that fear though, isn't there? A all the ups and downs that It would be a huge hit. Well, that's the problem, isn't it? It's like when do you walk away from the table. You've put so much money down You're like, imagine if I walked away and I was the problem. It would be Is it going to be like a cautionary tale Or is it going to be a great story? about people persisting with an idea and pulling it off. Yeah, exactly, because there's loads of those. There's four weddings and a funeral I remember reading that In the edit, they were like, this is the shittest film ever made. Really? And then it's like changes everything for people in it and people have written it and all that kind of stuff. But it's the same with Iard, isn't it? In Standup, people say, Ohh, it took seven years. to find their void. The problem with that was, right is when we're on the open mic circuit There'd be people who you knew were terrible and you knew were always going to be terrible. Yeah. And they'd say But this is what happened with Eddie Eard and you wanted to go, ye But she's Edie Isard. Totally. That's the worst thing. You can't step away from the table. Is that what Evan Rachel Wood was thinking, Is this going to be a huge hit that I've really stupidly walked out on, or am I sort of saving my bacon? I don't know how big a deal And you'll know this better than me, is being in a Broadway hit I get it if it's a play, but if it's the Spider Man musical. Well, I mean, she's already a big star, isn't she ever Rachel Wood? Yeah. I don't know. I guess it could move you into doing like a big filmed musical. Yes. People know that you can do musicals. Yeah. The thing is with Broadway, and I know this because I've had a couple of friends that have done it, but if you're in a hit on Broadway Everyone goes So my friend was in a play on Broadway, and one night Sarah J K Parker knocked on her door to say, Well done. That's very presumptuous.' like, Well, I don't know you. why are you back here it's just a given. like Francis McDormott came back and I've got a few friends that have been in stuff in the stage. It's that whole craft thing of going, I'm really about my craft. I'm really interested. I really want to do there, I really want to be on stage. I really want to be in the moment. And then lots of theatory people come and watch you and film people and you maybe get shifted into interesteresting category as an actor because people go, o, well they did three months in Spider Man, turn off the dark. S I mean, I'm not sure the Sid Man Tan off the dark could be that thing But I guess if it won a Tony It shows the difference in level. of the act, doesn't it? The Sarah Jessica Parker is like, Well, I go back and I say I anoint the quQeen. Do you know what I mean Weareras like If I go to a gig, I think Should I text them or will that be a bit too presumptive? Is it weirder if I say I'm going? Who Like another comedian. But like who? whoo are you going to see that's not a friend Yeah, no, but if I go and see a friend, I think, should I tell them unc comf? I always text. What about if you went to see someone you didn't know? I probablybably wouldn't. I'll see enough commenties. And too be honest, when I'm going to see a friend, I don't want to go, I just feel I have to No, when I went to Dn French, I DMed her saying I'm really looking forward to the show tonight. and then she invited me backstage I had the opposite Dorm French. I did Cnall on Tor years ago And then she just turned up backstage. And I was like Wow, it's Daorn French. Did you say her name three times in the mirror? 'cause I think she turns up in call.. No, but do you know what she didn't do? She didn't say I'm Dawn I think even if I was Barack Obama I'd still say I'm barack I think if you start saying I'm barack. I think people are going to ask questions. Yeah, I think so. But it was great honour when she came back. Anyway, we digressed. So The show is basically estimated to cost thirty seven point five million dollars. So you see why they spent a million dollars on the net? They're just like, fuck it. Th good money after bad. Sure. And separate to this, they need extra money to convert the theatater as well to appropriate space for production and to turn it back afterwards. So it's basically They've raised half of this. likeike they haven't got there And that's combined with the renovations. So they're basically in six million dollars of debt, these Hello entntertainment, which remember other compies the guy they brought in who died. So yeah. Lion King came in at thirty million Shrek thirty four million, but they've got Disney. Yeah and Shrek respectively, backing them. Marvel have put in no money. Marvel have just said you can do this But they haven't invested any money in it It's completely back to our investors. And whose idea was it again? Tony, who's no longer with us? I think it was Marvel's idea, yeah So they need to bring in a new person to run this, right And by august two thousand nine, Bono ropes in a guy called Michael Cole who is basically gonna do the job part time. 'acause that's what it needs. It needs someone that's fifty percent there Do do it as a side project? Yeahah, of course yeah So here is an impressario. Basically he is the guy that's revolutionized bands touring.ight. So he did Rolling Stones to you two the hoo, Pink Floyd He's known as the Howard Hughes of roock ' and Rll By December, he's got all the money, it gets restarted, right And seven months later After the theater has just been dark for seven months build starts again. It's mad. The theatater just sat there for seven months with nothing going on. That must cost loads. So march the eighth Seven months after they start the build again Do want ever guess what also happened on march eighth Evan Rachel Wood severs ties with the production And is that it now for Ean Rachel? Thank the Lord. That's the last time we will be talking about whether Evan Rachel was going to play MJ because it does feel like quite a saga. It really does. There is nice aside on this, which is Glen and Julie the writers. They find the new MJ's a nineteen year old Broadway veteran. What a phrase. Yeah. Chen Damiano Bono almost misses her audition. because he was trying to get a chury back from somewhere No, nearly Glenn's like, why whyy was he not there? And then he finds out later when he sees a picture of him at the White House a couple of weeks later with Barack Obama at the same time. Sure. I think you've got to have your priorities. You've got to put Obama above an audition. They could send a tape, couldn't they? Yeah, for sure. Let's just give you some more info, Michael Colk, because he's quite a fun figure So he was the producer of like all the Rolling Stones, Megatours, the nineteen eighty nine on steel wheels, which was like The one that invented stadium touring as you see it today. Wow. He did that one all the way through. that was eighty nine all the way through to the five hundred fifty eight million dollars grosscing t or a bigger bang. Oh wow. So steel wheels, I actually went steel wheels because my family went It was like a really famous tour. In eighty nine. We went in nineteen ninety. So you would have been what eight? Seven. Oh, seven. Yeah, prettyretty cool, am I right? Sure. I'm not in the key chorus And there is profitability, it gross nearly a hundred million dollars. No one thought Ts could do that. And he basically came up with that and changed the whole thing, right And he does this thing where he ends it with a paper view and he wants to it in Vegas So where it be televised and payer view. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I payer view. But he can't do it in Vegas. No one wants to do it. So he does it in Atlantic City in a sixteen thousand Cater convention center Who do you think of in Atlantic City, who owns it Your friend of mine. onald Trum He has to do it through Dond Trump. He's like how the hell am I going to tell the band about this? They go, lookook, this is all great But we don't want to be affiliated with Donald Trump. Yeah happen in nineteen eighty nine, nineteen ninety. yeah, I get that They go. don't want to be affiliated with Donald Trump at all screw you And he says, look, I'll control him. Don't worry. He won't be on site. So they sign the contract Donald agrees, he won't be on any either promotion except in Atlantic City The stones have such power those days, right? that they're basically They've got a slot on the evening news at six hundred forty to promote it, right? And at about five PM wh they're doing it in the press room Coll gets brought throat and Donald Trump is in there giving a press conference in the press room. And he basically tries to get rid of him fails. This happens like a few times. He says, go, Donald Trump says, yes, he leaves, he comes back. He's still there, right? A which point Keith Richards, when he goes to tell him, pulls out his knife, slams it on the table. and says, What the hell do I have you for? I have to go over there and fire himself. One of us is leaving the building, either him or us Now I'll go do it. don't worry says Cole. So he goes over And he says, you and Marla, who's his wife at the time, you've got to go. You're fired. Great line to give to Donald Trump. Yeah, great. He looks at me, goes berserk And he says You don't know anything, You guys suck. I promote Mike Tyson, I promote heavyweight fights And then three like heavies in trench coats, he says, twowo of them putting on gloves. the other one with brass knuckles on. Come and stand next to Donald Trump And he goes on the walkie talkie and he calls for someone, his head of security and goes, I think I'm in a bit of trouble. the head of Scurity he says, just turn around and he turns around And there's forty of the Rolling Stones' crew with Tre irons, hockey sticks and screwdrivers. And they say, and now are you going to go, Donald, and Donald Trump leaves Isn't that an incredible story? So when they say they fired him, does that mean they weren't going to do it at his place in Atlanta? No, they were Atlantic City, but they just didn't want him. Want him involved Oh my gosh, that guy, he's always been absolutely dreadful. He's always been an absolute dad? I know, he's just a terrible guy. I love that he's basically got three heavies, one of whom's got like knuckle dusters. Oh, there must be so much we don't know. There must be so much we don't know. Allegedly. I think we can say there must be so much we don't know. I'm kidding. I just love that people say allegedly thinking that it somehow clears them for any sort of legal wrongding. So there's these problems now The main problem is the flying situation of sppidermania So Scott Roggers is the man who's in charge of programming the flying. so you have to program all the moves onn a computer and it all has to move and all that kind of stuff, right? It's an intensive task, right? So it takes hours and hours for Spider Rangers to do like one arc of swinging. It's mad to me that it would be that hard. I know that's Thege is only so big. Yeah, but they're going out over the audience as well and stuff. Okay, well, I would maybe bring it back to the Pcinia March. If you want to open this show, just make him fly on the stage. Al, there's ropes everywhere guys. I've seen it. It's backstage at the theatre Grab one of them So at the end of A one, he's programmed the rigging moves for the fight between the Green Gobin and the Spidw. because he's doing a fight in the room, right? Yeah, that's hard. And he's talking Glenn the writer through the idea programming process is happening As they're talking, one of the sandbags that's representing one of the bodies just crashes into the Prosemian arch Basically, that's to give you an idea of how difficult it is Later, Glen returns to the rehearsal and Bodies are being used instead of sandbags by this point and Glare notices that the ring piece Or careful? Yeah, I know. God he must have really hur himself If he's lost that just on the stage. What's that? someone lots of ring. Is elastic band? So he fires it back up to him like an elastic bag The ring piece for the Web, which is for finishing the show Yeah, which is the million pound thing that they've bought. yeah. Yes. Glen's like, Oh, that's not in then. Why haven't you put that in Addie explains it doesn't work. So they've just lost a million pounds, Do it? Oh my go. So' just like, well, that doesn't work, takeake it down and they spent a million quid on it. The thing that I don't understand and I know I want to be clear for what I was saying before. is that you have to work within the perimeters of what is achievable. Yeah. you know, just make him swing Yeah. you know, don't worry about too much else. Yeah. Get some acrobatics in there. Yeah, yeah yeah. Do something cool with the lighting. But you've got to say you're not the kind of person that would sleep without water on a dirt floor for four years to make a there. This is the painting. No I would When you went to see the Lion King, you said it's amazing. Yeah, but nothing in it is There's nothing that you go and have no idea how they do that. Yeah You just go, Oh, there's some really cool puppets. Yeah yeah. And you're using your imagination for part of it. So you would go in and go Guys the audience should choose a bit more imaginic I imagine he's really flying around this there What' you think You have to create theatre or art, whatever you want within Yeah within the parameters. Something that's achievable. You know, I could say, well, I can't do my new stand upp show because I want to fly in it. Yeah. And you go, Well, you're not gonna to do it then because you're a stand upp. So or I'd like to be invisible. Yeah. Well, that's imp possible Except the possibilities. The problem is you're trying to imagine Spider Man's realel in a theatater and that's the problem The whole point of Spider Man is you couldn't do it in real life. Yeah, you're trying to imagine that he's a real person. Yeah. He's an actor. So basically, as Scott says, the ring went up It was clear that it wasn't going to put out a web like they wanted it to And also it was going to get in the way of the cables so there was no way they could do it. It's mad, isn't it? It's just insane. Spending all that money and not buying cable ties Oh, come on guys Sptember seventeenth, three weeks after the first stumble through of A one team Stumble through again They said it's underwhelming and childish the next day. Glen and Julie see each other on a train platform, the two riders They they're discussing the read through and she says This is just, I mean, you've been saying this yourself, Susie, but imagine hearing this Maybe the whole idea of a Spider My musical is just ridiculous. Yeah, maybe it is. Jie? You're in too deep at this stage. You're gonna to have to believe this hard. We then get to the tech rehearsals, right Julie's vision was that the first four dancers would start swinging out as soon as the wall is lifted, yeah? Well like the safety curtain? Presumably, yeah, yeah. Stage manager says you can't allow it because if there was any issues with the chords, And one was to release before the wall was lifted A daner would hit the wall at fifty miles an hour They're brown bread Sure, he's got an incredible amount of experience this guy. he's called Randall. Spider Man uses his ten minute breaks to go out onto forty third street and just scream Oh my God Wow, America is another place, isn't it? It's so awful the sppider Man production that he's just like I'm just gonna have to nip outside and scream. So they're doing this tech rehearsal blockthrow, right After four days of the tech blockthrough For each hour of tech, they realize they are getting through forty two seconds of the show. Can you imagine that experience? And then the injuries begin? So Brandon Rubindle was one of the dancers, right? So obviously they have dancers for the flying sppider Men because it doesn't you can have proper dancers doing that. You don't need to have the the main actor because he's in a face covered situation. Yeah, of course. He's the one that's achieved the big jump, which is the show's signature moment and it involves him kneeling being elevated on top of a twenty foot high ramp of forty five degree angle with two cables attached to his hips. He then does a flip from this height and lands in the crouching position at the front of the stage. That is incredible, right? Yeah. He's then hoisted backwards and does a backwards somersault onto the ramp, which by this point has been lowered from forty five degrees to twenty degrees. Okay. So that's the Big moment, right On the morning Of the September of the twenty six, he does the first part of the jump as expected. He goes to the second part of the jump. and the ramp hasn't lowered. quite enough to twenty degrees And he swung backwards and slammed into it. And he breaks his toe, causing a hairline fracture in his foot I mean, I thought you're going to say much worse then Yeah, it could have been worse, couldn't it? Yeah same week, dancer, Gerald Avery does a flip lands on his head. He's knocked out cold byy october the fifth October fifth is like two weeks later after this None of the scenes have been perfected And in fifteen days of tech rehearsal They'd run through the first thirty seven minutes of the show. Oh my God, you would be losing your mind. No wonder, the man is going out into the street to scream. He's the only person whose perspective I get It's absolutely catastrophic, isn't it So on october nineteenth, two week layers sales agents and ticket bookkers are brouought in to be wooed again. because basically they've been unimpressed with reports of what's been going on, right opens with Kevin Orbin, who's a different person doing the big jump. and he seems to land with force All the guests are impressed though and they love it. They don't notice that he has in fact broken both of his wrists doing this Isn't that wild. So even the success in front of the ticket people A man breaks both his wrists and now incredibly We come to the first preview. They haven't even done the first preview and this is happening. You look ashion, Susie. Well, I mean, it just I'm thinking of the actors, like it would be just so stressful. It'd be so frightening to be on a show where people keep injuring themselves. Yeah, it's like being on the jump during one Channel fource. Yeah, and everyone got really injured. So, Susie, they approached the first performance because they haven't got the one million pound ring thing they still don't have an ending for the preview. So With two hours of the rehearsal left, a makeshift ending is decided upon. No, no has this been in pre production? It's been in pre production so long. You can't decide an ending with two hours. So they decide that netting would be dragged onto the pit lift whilst it was down. The crew would hook it onto the cables and the cables would haul it up into the air to make a makeshift Upstage wall for Peter Parker to scuttle ono, right? However, there's not much time left, no shit, right? So a decision has to be made whether to teck the netting without knowing whether it would work. I know Or the other option is to open the show to one thousand nine hundred and thirty people, many of whom are bloggers, celebrities, et cetera Without an ending and just do it with no ending. You do it with no ending. You have to. But Julie decides to tack it. 'a they've got the time. Yeah, exactly. because we're doing thirty seven seconds an hour. We're fine So the Department of Labor signs off on the stunts Just before the preview starts, Michael Cole, who's the promoter who've discussed He has to go on and warn the audience not to hitch a ride on any of the actors. Imagine. What? So the actors are flying over the audience around the audience. He has to warn the audience not to donon't touch them It gets to bit called bouncing off the wall in this preview, it's all going well. And then there's a glitch. So for Reeve, the actor, to fall on his bed from the ceiling. cables from the back of the auditorium have to be taught, right. But one has escaped the stage handand's grip. And it falls onto the head of some audience members. Oh no. It gets worse. The first awful moment happens in Rise abbove, which is one of the songs The emotions of the audience are lifted, they're buying it. And then the big jump is about to happen And then They have to pause the show. Randall The guy that goes outside to scream, he has to pause the show and Natalie Mendoza who plays Arachney was supposed to ascend at the end of the song Instead, she is suspended in midair and she can't move and she's just suspended there for eight minutes. And they just have to wait while she's suspended there. And then in the final scene Patrick Page, who's one of the actors has to make up additional lyrics to the song whilst playing the piano. so the crew could untangle some of the cables on stage And then once the show resumes, there's an aerial fight between the Green Goblin and Spider Man and it goes smoothly and the Croud love it, and then Spider Man's poignant scene wayay seems to almost reveal his identity to MJ. He' meant to play out and he's meant to sling a web and soar into the sky exxcept he stops with a jolt midfight someone had accidentally Lent on one of the emergency buttons. place bagstage So this is just the end of act one. Spider Man is just left dangling at the end of act one. The thing is, okay, when they do the previews of these sorts of shows, there can be like a five minute pause. Yeah ye these things do happen, but someone leaning on a button I mean guys get your shit together. How long have you been in pre production? You're gonna have to start being able to do it with an audience. So after the interval, I mean, this is only to the interval the show gets through to act two. And then there's another pause and a frustrated member of the audience shouts out I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel like a guinea pig tonight And she's drowned out by booze. whichich then turn out to have started by Michael Matthew James Thomas, who is the alternate to Spider Man. I'm presuming the boos are booing her rather than booing the show. If you've taken a free ticket to a Pie, you are kind of a guinea pig. They're paying. Like that's the audience are paying. Oh Well, you are kind't. if you bought tickets for freeview, you're lucky it didn't get cancelled So eventually the issues get resolved, they get to the end Glen and the team are genuinely pleased They consider it a victory that has only taken three and a half hours. And they've got six more weeks of previews to get the show where they need it to be. Six weeks of previews, okay? A Puff Piece goes on CBS. they sell seven hundred thousand dollars worth of tickets And there's a party that night and everyone feels relief and things are finally getting. better And then there become some issues with the plot the next day. It turns out that when Arachny is flying People can't hear what she's saying So no one knows what her character is or what's going on with her. And so Julie shuts this conversation down because she doesn't want. She doesn't want to lose A acne? Yeah, exactly. And Glen goes to talk toat Natalie Mendoza, who's playing acachney in her dressing room, she's feeling a bit woosy. And that's because she's got concussion from the first preview fucking. Also surely people are mked You'd think, but I suppose if you're swinging, I don't know. You just put it in your hairline, surely. Yeah, you'd think, wouldn't you? I don't know. She's got concussion because during the first preview she was in the pit and something metal hit her on the head. And it turns out, I don't know what a carabina is or a carabina is. It's like a clippy thing that you'd use to. someone just threw it into the pit and it hit her on the head She does the second preview. But then her doctor advised her that she could be seriously if she continued, so she stops. Oh my go. There's another injury, Susie. It's fucking mad, isn't it? Yeah, G what happens now? Chris Heierney, he was the lead dancer. He started his slow motion runner as Spider Man And then he falls off at the elevated bridge, which is a thirty foot drop onto the concrete floor of the pair So basically something's going onong with the cabling, the crew memberan charge is me to hook him up So what's meant to happen is he goes to the back of the stage get Chris's safety cable then takes his headband torch from his pocket so you can see in the dark take the end of the safy cable, click it onto the ring embedded in the floor. By the time Chris appears, the crew member is supposed to clipick the other end of the cable onto the back of his harness, right. Then the floor rises Chris starts running and in slow motion to the edge of the floor, which is now fifteen feet in the air, plus the fifteen feet below the stage for the pit. is it meant to fall in front of Spider Man's eyes and Spider Man is supposed to lunge on the toarque rope is meant to hold in freeze frrame like a comic book panel, right? Uh o. Step two doesn't happen. He's been clipped onto his back but he hasn't been clipped onto the back of the stage. By the time he realizes it's too late, he tries to grab the stage but couldn't So he twists his body to avoid landing on his head, which would have killed him And he instead learns on his back. It's fucking wild, isn't it Natalie Memoza's back from her head injury concussion. She's in the pit getting changed next to the costume and Chris lands next to her. So the emergency team basically ripp through his costume, aly brace crew brace themselves to the worst At that point, there's this voiceover going. That's our show this evening. Thank you for coming is announced the very confused audience Within an hour, an audience member has uploaded the incident to YouTube. Oh no. The clips on the local news's on the national stations Chris never loses consciousness, but he does have a fractured skull punctured lung, internalised bleeding Four broken ribs and three cracked vertebrae I mean, that's lifelong injuries, potentially. So they visit him in hospital the next day And he's upbeat in Austria. You know what? you've gott to love a job and actually get in work. It's just someone that has done some auditions Yeah I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm f. He's upbeat. He's just got off the phone to Bono on the edge and said, I don't feel angry at all. It's just one of those things. I can't wait to come back You fucking I'm joking. Wow. Fair play. He's mad, isn't it? I wonder if he did go back Well, Susie. in part four, we will find out whether he does go back. We will also find out how this all ends. I'm going to say it They don't get victory from the jaws of defeat and they all end up absolutely hating each other. Oh, I can't wait. You can find out about that in the next episode, which is in a few days are available now to fan cllub members. See you then, Susie. See you then, Josh So . it S you're silence in a crowded room. Yeah D you never say It was too fast traveling Sake you in. Silence is no cry I wish you could hear a feel little time is I know what you say to me just say St hang on