Bill Condon’s Kiss of the Spider Woman challenges a belief I’ve long held: that in order for a musical to succeed, it must have memorable musical numbers.

The tunes in Spider Woman aren’t terrible so much as they are wallpaper, meh , pleasant enough in the moment yet evaporated from the mind as soon as the polite, obligatory audience applause marks the transition to the next scene. The Broadway production this film is based on won a handful of Tonys in 1993, including best musical — though it’s doubtful many would argue that it’s among the best efforts of John Kander and Fred Ebb, the songwriting team behind Cabaret and Chicago .

For these reasons alone, this movie shouldn’t work — yet it mostly does anyhow, triumphing over those artistic limitations via vivid characterizations

See Full Page