The last news on the subject of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was Bono’s mea culpa on the production’s troubled first life. It was the first big blow in the campaign to sell the world on Spider-Man 2.0, the streamlined, Julie Taymor–free version now in previews — a version that will, one day, hopefully before Harold Camping picks the right date, see not only an actual opening night, but also a decades-long money-printing Broadway run. Meanwhile, Bono and the Edge keep on plugging the product: Last night, they popped up on American Idol to run through the show’s big number, “Rise Above,” alongside the show’s star Reeve Carney. (If the song sounded a bit familiar, that’s because it’s the same one Carney did on Letterman, back during the pre-makeover days of the show.) After an auxiliary Spidey does a quick, not unimpressive bit of flying, the power trio breaks into the ballad, with Edge sandwiched between the two belters as they trade off lines. It was earnest, and committed, and all a touch boring. Maybe next time they’re on TV they can do a song from Joshua Tree instead?
