Doin’ whatever he can

Spider-Man, A Stunt Spectacular LIVE!

Through Sunday

Benedum Center

Tickets $14.50 and… Spider-Man, A Stunt Spectacular LIVE!

Through Sunday

Benedum Center

Tickets $14.50 and $28.50

(412) 456-6666

As I take my seat, I am sure I am forgetting something. It is either my yellow spider-webbed glow light or my kids – surely, I am one of the only audience members not wearing a red T-shirt with a three dimensional Spider-Man breaking through his web, reaching out to save the city from crime and to encourage the viewers to take action.

The show, “Spider-Man, A Stunt Spectacular LIVE!” begins with the raising of the sheer red curtain with purple webs revealing a laboratory where a typical high school student, Peter Parker, is curiously viewing. His studying, however, is interrupted when a radioactive spider bites him. From that moment, Parker notices his magical abilities to jump from rooftops, cartwheel from poles, flip on flat surfaces – from that point on, Parker faces his public debut in a triumphant wrestling match, and a breathtaking rescue of true love Mary Jane Watson from the evil clutches of The Green Goblin, Parker’s envious former roommate.

The special effects throughout the show are what makes even a college student amazed – the strobe lights flickering, the bass from the music bumping and merely a backdrop to the spinning, gravity defying, acrobatic Spider-Man.

The most fascinating part of the show is the relativity to the city, as a Channel 4 news reporter from Pittsburgh stands in the audience to report the destruction and the need for Spider-Man to come to the rescue. Who does the reporter interview? Three children from the audience, all under the age of 10, provide their assurance that Spider-Man will not fail, that he will save the city and be a true superhero.

Spider-Man, faced with fame or helping others, chooses, as natural superhero would, to put the concerns of others before his own. In the end, he saves the city, his true love Mary Jane Watson and he realizes his powers, with the help of friends and with love, is larger than life.

Since the Spider-Man debut in the original 1962 Marvel comic book “Amazing Fantasy #15,” Spider-Man has proven himself one to be of the most identifiable action figures of all time. Surely, Spider-Man was a part of your childhood – why not have “Spidey” experiences once again?