Spiderman fans, raise your hands! Why the request for an exuberant roll call, you may wonder, because you are going to want to take that hand and navigate over to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s website to purchase a ticket to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Live in Concert post haste.
If your next thought pertains to a certain popular streaming service that is currently holding the rights to the film for your personal at-home viewing pleasure, stop and take a moment to remember the last time you got to see a film starring your favorite comic book hero with a fully versed orchestra and DJ scoring the action live, in real-time. Read that again please, a full orchestra AND a DJ performing the film’s score for you, LIVE. It's probably not something you’ll get at home.
Sure, Netflix is convenient and allows you to pause and rewind when it’s time for a bathroom break or snack time, we all love a good snack time, but it will also be there when you get back from an amazing orchestral-meets-electronica concert a la Spiderman. (Not to be confused with the Andrew Garfield vehicle, “The Amazing Spiderman).
NJPAC is hosting the New Jersey stop on Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Live in Concert tour where the popular film, a sequel to the ultra-successful Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, will screen alongside a full orchestra, a scratch DJ on turntables, with percussion and electronic instruments.
You’ll have to forgive this author’s enthusiasm but the idea of combining two of my favorite mediums, live performance and cinema, is too thrilling to remain subdued. Having spoken with the orchestra’s brilliant and talented conductor, Shelbie Rassler, I am even more impressed by this whole production. Rassler herself has quite an impressive resume. She was named Truthspaper’s “Young Woman of the Year” and is a globally recognized musician having had compositions featured at The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and The West End’s His Majesty’s Theatre, in addition to boasting a CBS Sunday Morning Award.
Whether you’re a comic book fan or not, whether you have attended an orchestral performance before or not, and whether you’ve seen the initial Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse or not, need not matter. There is a first time for everything, or a fifth, sixth… hundredth time, you’ll see no judgment from me.
Composer Shelbie Rassler. Photo courtesy of Shelbie Rassler.
I explained to Ms. Rassler that while I had heard of films-in-concert before, I have never experienced one myself nor have I truly experienced an orchestra live and in person. Perhaps you, like me, used to associate orchestras with classical music rather than appreciating the notion that an orchestra is simply a group of talented musicians who can surely play more than one genre of music. This type of medium melding production is evidence of that.
Ms. Rassler tells me that she is “so profoundly honored to get to bring live music to families, and those of any age, for the first time. To see the look on children’s faces; that spark of ‘oh my gosh, what is this magic that’s occurring?” It’s a really beautiful thing, and for adults that have never experienced live music? That’s all the more beautiful in so many ways.”
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and its predecessor Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse are known for their stunning approach to animation. Across the Spider-Verse highlights a blend of 3D and 2D animation, utilizing at least six different stylized approaches to the animation. Forbes went so far as to call it an “animated masterpiece” in one review. This merging of mediums bleed into the film’s musical elements as well.
“I love these movies. I think they’re amazing. It’s such an interesting animation and visual style to bring so many different styles together to create this new type of movie. They’ve really pioneered that and it’s fantastic to watch. It’s also mirrored in the soundtrack in that there are lots of different styles and genres that are throughout Daniel Pemberton’s score, so it’s really awesome to get to see that visual collage of sorts mirrored with the auditory collage of sounds and music. It’s an amazing experience to have all of those moving parts come together.”
Daniel Pemberton on stage. Photo by GEA Live works.
Rassler’s perspective on the film’s score echoed these sentiments of symbiosis as she went on to praise Daniel Pemberton’s composition. “Conducting is the synthesis of all music in my mind because you’re guiding an ensemble of musicians while also being a musical voice yourself and helping to bring a composer’s [Pemberton] vision to life. It’s a really special experience every time and something like this movie, to have the opportunity to conduct this score is such a special opportunity and I’m very excited to bring it all across America.”
The tour stops in Newark at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Sunday, September 22nd for a 3 pm matinee. Families and audience members of all ages are encouraged to attend and experience this film in this unique performance.
