Their press release follows. Note there's additional content on the web.
November 23, 2010
U2'S BONO AND THE EDGE SAY WORKING ON
"SPIDER-MAN" WAS THE SOME OF MOST FUN
THEY'VE EVER HAD – "60 MINUTES" SUNDAY
Lesley Stahl Gets the First Look at "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark"and its Aerial Effects and Also Talks to Director Julie Taymor as She Works to Complete the Most Expensive Musical Ever
U2 band-mates Bono and The Edge have been having fun helping to create what will be the most ambitious and expensive musical ever staged on Broadway. Lesley Stahl and 60 MINUTES cameras have been following the production for more than a year and a half and will offer the first look at the much vaunted aerial effects and the U2 stars' music sessions on 60 MINUTES, Sunday, Nov. 28 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
"It has been one of the funest (sic), more joyful rides of our artistic life, for sure," says Bono. "We've moved out of the rock 'n' roll idiom in places, into some very new territory for us," he tells Stahl. "There's big show tunes and dance songs." The Edge said working with Julie Taymor was "like being a student in a master class of musical theater and opera." Watch a clip.
"Julie Taymor is definitely a magician. I think that's what you call a person, who, even though they put the rabbit in the hat, is really surprised when it comes out," Bono tells Stahl.
The show's first preview is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 28, after delays due to money woes, the complicated staging and flying effects that injured two actors. The show cost more than $60 million to make, and critics wondered if it would ever open. But Taymor, with a string of stage and film successes, tells Lesley Stahl danger and risk make for a creative success. "I love it when people say 'What a horrible, lousy idea.' I think that's great," Taymor says with a laugh. "I hate the comfort zone…I don't think that anything that's really creative can be done without danger and risk," says the two-time Tony winner, whose spectacular staging of "Lion King" is still playing in theaters after 13 years.
On Sunday, 60MinutesOvertime.com will feature a special, in-depth look at how Bono and The Edge collaborated with Taymor to write and play the music that defines the show's villains and heroes and drives its stunning special effects.
