Acouple of years ago, while in San Diego checking out a new musical, I decided to take a road trip down to Baja California with Rick Miramontez, a Broadway press agent, and two of his office underlings, Jon and Andy.
Andy was the designated driver, but he was nervous. He’d read about carjackings along the coastal highway and drug-related massacres. His hands were sweating on the steering wheel when we crossed the border and he refused to go faster than 55 mph for fear of being pulled over by a corrupt guardia and shaken down.
But Rick, in the passenger seat, sporting Ray-Bans and singing songs from the Tijuana Brass Band, was undisturbed.
“What if we get pulled over?” Andy asked, his voice cracking.
“An adventure!” said Rick.
“What if they plant drugs in the car and throw us in a Mexican jail?” Andy worried.
“We can only hope!” said Rick.
We had delicious lobsters in Puerto Nuevo and spent a night at the famed Rosarito Beach Hotel, where old Hollywood used to escape for romantic weekends — Liz and Dick, Rita Hayworth and Prince Aly Khan.
The principal topic of conversation was “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” which was still in pre-
production. Rick had just signed on as press agent, and I’d been hammering away at the show’s myriad financial problems.
“Whatever happens, it’s going to be a wild ride,” Rick said. “Boys, prepare to be part of the legend!”
Waiting to cross the border on the way back, Rick bought a plaster-of-Paris Spider-Man statuette from an impoverished Mexican kid for about two bucks.
“Let the fun begin!” he said as he examined his purchase.
I remember thinking that “Spider-Man,” despite its $85 million price tag, was just as fragile as that cheap statuette. I chuckled and thought, destroying this show is going to be as easy as smashing Rick’s new toy.
Well, two years later and despite my best efforts, “Spider-Man” is still here, attracting hordes of tourists and posting weekly grosses of more than $1 million.
And Rick’s Spider-Man statue remains intact, prominently on display in his office.
Who knew it was his — and the show’s — good luck charm?
Chalk up the durability of “Spider-Man” to several factors.
First, the brilliant p.r. spinning by Rick and his team at O&M Co. Rick’s been in this racket nearly 25 years. He’s a great believer in what he calls “old school” press agentry. In other words, as long as you’re in the papers, no matter how negative the story, somebody’s paying attention. And attention very often sells tickets.
He’s a whiz at putting a cheeky spin on a bad situation. For instance, when “Spider-Man” wasn’t nominated for the Tony for Best Musical, he cooked up the show’s own Tony campaign.
Today, “Spider-Man” has added an extra performance. The first 100 people named Tony — or any variation thereof — to arrive at the Foxwoods Theatre at 10 a.m. will get two free tickets to the 3 p.m. matinee.
Rick’s line: “We’re going to have more Tonys on Tony Sunday than any other show on Broadway!”
When all hell was breaking loose at the production last year — injuries, technical foul-ups, canceled performances, ballooning costs — Rick remained unflappable. Fielding phone calls from reporters in the middle of the night about yet another cast injury, he’d say, “Oh, Mary, here we go again! I’m moving my office to Bellevue!”
Last June, the night the show re-opened after an overhaul, I ran into Rick and his team in Times Square. They were carrying flowers to present to the cast and Julie Taymor at the curtain call. (Taymor had been fired a couple of months earlier but decided to attend the opening in support of her actors.)
Rick and I thought it would be a kick if I were one of the “flower boys.” So he handed me a bouquet and I went down to the lip of the stage and passed out flowers to Taymor and the cast. Patrick Page (Green Goblin) and Michael Mulheren (J. Jonah Jameson) burst out laughing when they saw me.
The intense press coverage of “Spider-Man” helped keep the show on the boards. Before performances began in November 2010, advance sales were weak. But once people started getting injured, the box office exploded. People wanted to see Spider-Men tumble into the pit. It became Broadway’s version of NASCAR.
“Spider-Man” wound up on the cover of New York magazine and The New Yorker. Its problems were chronicled in newspapers around the world and every media personality from Don Imus to Stephen Colbert, Lesley Stahl to Whoopi Goldberg weighed in.
The critics killed “Spider-Man” in all its incarnations. But that didn’t matter. The prime audience for the show — international tourists — has never heard of Ben Brantley of the Times or Elisabeth Vincentelli of The Post.
“Spider-Man” is a gold-plated title and the producers, aided by Miramontez and his team, have persuaded the public that its special effects are as thrilling as anything in Cirque du Soleil.
And so “Spider-Man” endures. Will it make money?
Not on Broadway. It may gross $1.3 million a week but that just about covers its weekly overhead. It’s hard to see how the investors will ever get back their $85 million in New York.
But the longer the show runs here, the more in demand it will be in other markets.
And that’s the plan: license productions in huge arenas all over the world.
It just might work, as long as each production studies the Miramontez press strategy that spins dross into gold.
I have a feeling Rick’s about to rack up a lot of frequent flyer miles.
Oh, Mary!
The Tony Awards air tonight at 8 p.m. on CBS.