Erie Beat                                                January 26, 2012 | Volume 8 Issue 5

The Vanguard of Erie's Musical Movement
By Jenna Croyle

The Punk Rock genre first developed in the mid 70’s with bands such as the Ramones, in New York City, and the Sex Pistols and The Clash, in London, were recognized as the leaders of a new musical movement.
 

Much like the pioneers of the genre, this week’s featured band, Susan, Be Anthony seems to have come out of nowhere and taken the lead in forging a new and edgy brand of music that has taken the local Punk Rock genre to new heights that seems to be boundless. This unique five-piece band has carved out their own place in the Erie music scene that is as distinctive as the original music that they play. Susan, Be Anthony is made up of Mary Orr on Lead Vocals, Aaron Sutton on Lead Guitar, Riley Fink on Bass, Cloud on Rhythm and Dual Lead Guitar along with Nick Dzuricky on Drums. The band is sometimes joined by violinist, Rachel Gante.

The most surprising thing about Susan, Be Anthony is not the amazing music that pours off the stage as they rock their way into the souls of their listeners, it is not the surprising unity they seem to have with their music that is the definition of simpatico.

The most astonishing nuance of this band is that, though they seem to have the talent that can only stem from decades of musical experience, they are by all standards, relatively new to the professional music scene.

While many bands play music, the true benchmark of a great band is the natural ability to feel the music and to covey that feeling to their audience, Susan, Be Anthony is without any doubt, just such a band, as the music clearly originates from their hearts, not their instruments.

Lead singer, Mary Orr, despite her youth, unmistakably presents a confident and energetic stage presence of a veteran rocker with a smooth and power packed voice that grabs her audience and twists them inside out in a way that can only be described as mesmerizing.

Fink’s Bass Guitar does each song proudly as she bare musical structures emulate the greats of the genre that came before her.

Sutton’s and Cloud’s power cords, mixed with the lighter Guitar tones makes for an unconventional, and innovative twist to the music, much in the same way that the craziest versions of Chuck Berry’s power Guitar took Rock to new levels in the 50’s.

The chops of Drummer Nick Dzuricky are simply stellar in every way as he is one of the most creative players you'll find in the local genre.

Dzuricky certainly knows how to truly serve a song, always keeping things interesting and will surely influence legions of punk drummers in the years to come.

The music of Susan, Be Anthony will not only give you one of the most exciting awakenings of a musical experience, but is sure to be one of the best times you could have at a show. Susan, Be Anthony is a true pioneer of local music and an incredible musical odyssey that expands the mind and provokes the senses in a way that will change your concept of what this style of music should be.

February 4th, 2012 marks the next slated Susan, Be Anthony show at the Basement Transmissions’ Countercultural Center for the Arts located at 1501 State St. Also on the bill are Kevlar, Good Weather for Ducks, Stage 5, The Hannigans along with Erie superstars, The Romantic Era.

This show is as unique, energetic and electrifying as the artwork that adorns the walls of the Basement Transmissions’ halls. As the music, the lighting and the energy in the room becomes so powerful, it seems to almost give life to the reflection of that same art.

The doors will open around 4pm for this all age’s musical extravaganza of a show that will pound the sounds and crack the walls in an all-out blast that will rock your world for the entire night.

For show bookings, CD release dates and more information on Susan, Be Anthony, please visit their Facebook Page.

Legendary Blues Singer Etta James Dies in Calif.

Etta James' performance of the enduring classic "At Last" was the embodiment of refined soul: Angelic-sounding strings harkened the arrival of her passionate yet measured vocals as she sang tenderly about a love finally realized after a long and patient wait.

In real life, little about James was as genteel as that song. The platinum blonde's first hit was a saucy R&B number about sex, and she was known as a hell-raiser who had tempestuous relationships with her family, her men and the music industry. Then she spent years battling a drug addiction that she admitted sapped away at her great talents.

In other words, she was one of music's original bad girls.

"The bad girls ... had the look that I liked," she wrote in her 1995 autobiography, "Rage to Survive." ''I wanted to be rare, I wanted to be noticed, I wanted to be exotic as a Cotton Club chorus girl, and I wanted to be obvious as the most flamboyant hooker on the street. I just wanted to be."

James' spirit could not be contained — perhaps that's what made her so magnetic in music; it is surely what made her so dynamic as one of R&B, blues and rock 'n' roll's underrated legends. The 73-year-old died at Riverside Community Hospital, with her husband and sons at her side, her manager Lupe De Leon said.

"It's a tremendous loss for her fans around the world," he said. "She'll be missed. A great American singer. Her music defied category."

Despite the reputation she cultivated, she would always be remembered best for "At Last." The jazz-inflected rendition wasn't the original, but it would become the most famous and the song that would define her as a legendary singer. Over the decades, brides used it as their song down the aisle and car companies to hawk their wares, and it filtered from one generation to the next through its inclusion in movies like "American Pie." Perhaps most famously, President Obama and the first lady danced to a version at his inauguration ball.

The tender, sweet song belied the turmoil in her personal life. James — born Jamesette Hawkins — was born in Los Angeles to a mother whom she described as a scam artist, a substance abuser and a fleeting presence during her youth. She never knew her father, although she was told and had believed, that he was the famous billiards player Minnesota Fats. He neither confirmed nor denied it: When they met, he simply told her: "I don't remember everything. I wish I did, but I don't."

She was raised by Lula and Jesse Rogers, who owned the rooming house where her mother once lived in. The pair brought up James in the Christian faith, and as a young girl, her voice stood out in the church choir. James landed the solos in the choir and became so well known, she said that Hollywood stars would come to see her perform.

But she wouldn't stay a gospel singer for long. Rhythm and blues lured her away from the church, and she found herself drawn to the grittiness of the music.

"My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy," she recalled in her book.

She was doing just that when bandleader Johnny Otis found her singing on San Francisco street corners with some girlfriends in the early 1950s.

"At the time, Hank Ballard & the Midnighters had a hit with 'Work With Me, Annie,' and we decided to do an answer. We didn't think we would get in show business, we were just running around making up answers to songs," James told The Associated Press in 1987.

And so they replied with the song, "Roll With Me, Henry."

When Otis heard it, he told James to get her mother's permission to accompany him to Los Angeles to make a recording. Instead, the 15-year-old singer forged her mother's name on a note claiming she was 18.

"At that time, you weren't allowed to say 'roll' because it was considered vulgar. So when Georgia Gibbs did her version, she renamed it 'Dance With Me, Henry' and it went to No. 1 on the pop charts," the singer recalled. The Gibbs song was one of several in the early rock era when white singers got hits by covering songs by black artists, often with sanitized lyrics.

After her 1955 debut, James toured with Otis' revue, sometimes earning only $10 a night. In 1959, she signed with Chicago's legendary Chess label, began cranking out the hits and going on tours with performers such as Bobby Vinton, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers.
 

"We would travel on four buses to all the big auditoriums. And we had a lot of fun," she recalled in 1987. James recorded a string of hits in the late 1950s and '60s including "Trust in Me," ''Something's Got a Hold on Me," ''Sunday Kind of Love," ''All I Could Do Was Cry" and, of course, "At Last." "(Chess Records founder) Leonard Chess was the most aware of anyone. He went up and down the halls of Chess announcing, 'Etta's crossed over! Etta's crossed over!' I still didn't know exactly what that meant, except that maybe more white people were listening to me. The Chess brothers kept saying how I was their first soul singer, that I was taking their label out of the old Delta blues, out of rock and

into the modern era. Soul was the new direction," she wrote in her autobiography. "But in my mind, I was singing old style, not new."

In 1967, she cut one of the most highly regarded soul albums of all time, "Tell Mama," an earthy fusion of rock and gospel music featuring blistering horn arrangements, funky rhythms and a churchy chorus. A song from the album, "Security," was a top 40 single in 1968.

Her professional success, however, was balanced against personal demons, namely a drug addiction.

"I was trying to be cool," she told the AP in 1995, explaining what had led her to try heroin.

"I hung out in Harlem and saw Miles Davis and all the jazz cats," she continued. "At one time, my heavy role models were all druggies. Billie Holiday sang so groovy. Is that because she's on drugs? It was in my mind as a young person. I probably thought I was a young Billie Holiday, doing whatever came with that."

She was addicted to the drug for years, beginning in 1960, and it led to a harrowing existence that included time behind bars. It sapped her singing abilities and her money, eventually, almost destroying her career.

It would take her at least two decades to beat her drug problem. Her husband, Artis Mills, even went to prison for years, taking full responsibility for drugs during an arrest even though James was culpable.

"My management was suffering. My career was in the toilet. People tried to help, but I was hell-bent on getting high," she wrote of her drug habit in 1980.

She finally quit the habit and managed herself for a while, calling up small clubs and asking them, "Have you ever heard of Etta James?" in order to get gigs. Eventually, she got regular bookings — even drawing Elizabeth Taylor as an audience member. In 1984, she was tapped to sing the national anthem at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and her career got the resurgent boost it needed, though she fought addiction again when she got hooked on painkillers in the late 1980s.

Drug addiction wasn't her only problem. She struggled with her weight, and often performed from a wheelchair as she got older and heavier. In the early 2000s, she had weight-loss surgery and shed some 200 pounds.

James performed well into her senior years, and it was "At Last" that kept bringing her the biggest ovations. The song was a perennial that never aged, and on Jan. 20, 2009, as crowds celebrated that — at last — an African-American had become president of the United States, the song played as the first couple danced.

But it was superstar Beyonce who serenaded the Obamas, not the legendary singer. Beyonce had portrayed James in "Cadillac Records," a big-screen retelling of Chess Records' heyday, and had started to claim "At Last" as her own.

An audio clip surfaced of James at a concert shortly after the inauguration, saying she couldn't stand the younger singer and that Beyonce had "no business singing my song." But she told the New York Daily News later that she was joking, even though she had been hurt that she did not get the chance to participate in the inauguration.

James did get her accolades over the years. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, captured a Grammy in 2003 for Best Contemporary Blues Album for "Let's Roll," one in 2004 for Best Traditional Blues Album for "Blues to the Bone" and one for Best Jazz Vocal performance for 1994's "Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday." She was also awarded a special Grammy in 2003 for lifetime achievement and got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Her health went into decline, however, and by 2011, she was being cared for at home by a personal doctor.

She suffered from dementia, kidney problems and leukemia. Her husband and her two sons fought over control of her $1 million estate, though a deal was later struck keeping Mills as the conservator and capping the singer's expenses at $350,000. In December 2011, her physician announced that her leukemia was terminal, and asked for prayers for the singer.

In October 2011, it was announced that James was retiring from recording, and a final studio recording, "The Dreamer," was released, featuring the singer taking on classic songs, from Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Dreamer" to Guns N' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle" — still rocking, and a fitting end to her storied career.

Reggae Icon Winston Riley Dies

Winston Riley has died, months after he was shot in the head in his native Jamaica. Riley fell into a coma after he was shot in Kingston on Nov. 1, and he died Thursday. He was 65.

Widely recognized as one of the most successful reggae producers of all time, Riley began his career as a singer at the age of 16, when he formed his band the Techniques. They recorded with producers Byron Lee and Duke Reid before Riley quit the group and moved behind the soundboard to try his hand at beatmaking.

He went on to work with reggae acts including Boris Gardiner and Johnny Osbourne and scored international success in 1971 with Dave and Ansell Collins' hit "Double Barrel." Riley became known for creating the popular Stalag beat and later helped launch the careers of Buju Banton, Lone Ranger and Frankie Paul. Riley's Stalag rhythm is estimated to have provided the music foundation for an estimated 400 songs.

Riley had been targeted in a number of vicious attacks in the past year. He was shot in August and stabbed repeatedly in an incident in September. Police have struggled to establish a motive for any of the attacks.

Riley's son, radio DJ Kurt Riley, remains equally baffled by the shocking wave of violence.

He told the Jamaica Observer newspaper, "Unfortunately, Daddy didn't wake up so we could talk to him to find out if there was something he was not telling us. He was a straightforward man who was allergic to hypocrisy."

Winston Riley is survived by several children and grandchildren.

Funk Legend Jimmy Castor Dies in Las Vegas at 71

Jimmy Castor, a New York funk and soul saxophonist, singer and songwriter whose 1972 tune "It's Just Begun" morphed over 40 years into an anthem for generations of hip-hoppers and mainstream musical acts, died of apparent heart failure in a Las Vegas hospital, family members said Tuesday. He was 71.

Castor's music, including another 1972 hit, "Troglodyte," spoke for itself thousands of times in riffs and samples by groups like N.W.A., 2 Live Crew, Kanye West, Ice Cube and Mos Def, as well as by acts such as the Spice Girls, Christina Aguilera and Madonna.

His son, Jimmy Castor Jr., 45, a filmmaker from Redondo Beach, Calif., told The Associated Press he's seen instant recognition hundreds of times at the first sax chords of "It's Just Begun," even before the lyrics begin. ("Watch me now. Feel the groove. Into something. Gonna make you move.")

"No matter what country you're in, no matter what language you speak, everyone knows it," Jimmy Castor Jr. said in Las Vegas.

Jimmy Castor was hospitalized in November after suffering a heart attack and undergoing quadruple bypass surgery. He died Monday at Saint Rose Dominican Hospital, his son said.

Castor, head of the musical group the Jimmy Castor Bunch, lived with his wife, Sandi, in suburban Henderson near Las Vegas.

His work was sampled by other artists more than 3,000 times, his son said, and he continued to work and perform until last August, when he played at the Long Beach Funk Festival in California. Jimmy Castor Jr. said his father had booked dates for a European tour this year.

Dion Explores Bluesy Side of His Hits and the 'Pain' of Buddy Holly Plane Crash
By Chris Epting

It was with his street corner buddies from the Bronx, Carlo Mastrangelo, Angelo D'Aleo and the recently deceased Fred Milano that Dion Dimucci changed the musical world. As Dion and the Belmonts, they all but owned the late-1950s pop charts with tunes including 'I Wonder Why' and 'A Teenager in Love.' DiMucci found even more meteoric success with his solo hits 'Runaround Sue,' 'The Wanderer' and 1968's 'Abraham, Martin and John.'

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, today Dion lives in Florida with his wife of 48 years, Sue. And now, the legendary rock 'n' roller releases his new album, 'Tank Full of Blues,' which you can stream below. It's his third blues-themed album in the trilogy of recordings that started in 2006 with the release of 'Bronx in Blue.' Unlike Dion's two preceding blues albums, his latest release is comprised almost entirely of original, newly written songs. It's a personal, evocative collection that finds the artist in exceptional form.

Dion recently spoke with Spinner about the new album, his storied career, Bob Dylan and "The Day the Music Died."

Of all the original rock 'n' roll stars from the late 1950s, you're one of the only ones still making original music.

I feel more relevant today than when I was making hit records. Your opinions change over the course of your lifetime, your worldview changes and you have more to say, so I just keep on trying to push ahead. The writer, Dave Marsh, spoke to me not too long up at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He said to me, "You're the only artist from the '50s who has remained creative." I wanted to argue with him because that's a hell of a thing to say, but what it did for me is it pushed me. It made me think, "OK, now I'm going to have to express who I am: Write my own songs, make my own statement within this form" and so I went for it. And I ended up with 'Tank Full of Blues.'

Do you feel like there's a connection between your early hits and the new record?

Absolutely! I know the blues is known for being deep music that deals with serious emotions. But even 'Teenager in Love' has questions about life and love and pain. I once asked Bob Dylan to write something for an album I was doing, for the liner notes. He wrote all about 'Teenager in Love,' four paragraphs' worth, and he talks about that song and the depth of it that people might overlook if they don't read between the lines. Dylan stressed that it wasn't claptrap, and that it had deeper meaning that may not be evident at first. He totally understood and I love him for that.

Even the song 'I Wonder Why' has wonderful questions about life, the same concerns that people have about abandonment, fears: All the right questions people need to have in life and, not coincidentally, things that usually turn up in the blues.

Also, listen to 'The Wanderer.' It's a deeper song than people think. Those lyrics: "Oh well, I roam from town to town/I go through life without a care/And I'm as happy as a clown/I with my two fists of iron and I'm going nowhere." That's not just some throwaway song. There's a lot more going on than you might think. I used an image from Pagliacci. My grandfather took me to that opera as a kid and that inspired the song.

And I always say that 'Runaround Sue' is a blues song cleverly disguised as rock 'n' roll [laughs].

Is there a highlight for you on the new record?

There are several, but one in particular is called 'Ride's Blues (for Robert Johnson).' I started putting together this imaginary conversation I had with blues legend Robert Johnson. I never bought or even liked the folklore idea that he sold his soul to the devil. People just never wanted to admit that he was gifted. And so like Dylan says, "Get under the spout of creativity." That's how I wrote this song about him, just allowed myself to get lost in the concept. Most blues tunes are guitar oriented, obviously, but I wanted to put some songs together that focus on the narratives, the stories. This song is about a special conversation that I have often imagined, and I'm very happy with it.

People love to talk about the old days with you, too. Do you still embrace your past?

It's natural thing for me to respect all those old tunes -- I'd never trample on 'Runaround Sue' or 'The Wanderer' or 'Teenager in Love.' Those songs mean more to me now than ever. As times moves on, they become even more valuable to me. I treasure the memories. Those songs are like sharing your childhood. At the same time, I like to grow and explore.

Many people don't know your connection to "The Day the Music Died."

Right, the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. We were on that tour and it was pretty cold for those guys. Buddy and Big Bopper were from Texas, and Richie was from L.A., so they weren't used to winter. Buddy hired the plane and I won a coin toss with the Bopper for two of the extra seats but it would have cost me $36. Plus, the cold didn't really bother me so I just told Ritchie to go instead in place of me. And look at what happened. Hard to describe. My life has taken many interesting turns. It's another thing with the blues, it's a chance to reflect on the pain of life and what it teaches you.

You heard the original Robert Johnson records a long time ago.

I may have heard the records before Clapton. I'm talking 1961, when John Hammond at Columbia Records played me those records, the original Robert Johnson recordings. Now that I'm the age I am, I look back and think about sitting in John's office, hearing those songs, as well as records by Furry Lewis, Fred McDowall -- all the blues legends. I had 23 gold records on the wall and I still worshiped these guys. That was always the real music to me.

You have a personal definition for the blues.

I define the blues as "The naked cry of the human heart longing to be whole or at peace with one's self." You can express anything in the blues -- pain, joy, fear, love -- the whole gamut of life fits in that form of music. It's American roots music, a precious way to express oneself, a God-given form of music to help us on our journey.

I've been many places in my life, but I'll never forget the feeling standing at Robert Johnson's tombstone in Mississippi. I think about it a lot. And I'm telling you, this is the music I'm supposed to be singing right now.

Grateful Dead Exhibit Coming to Rock Hall of Fame

A massive new exhibit chronicling the Grateful Dead's 30-year odyssey is coming to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Grateful Dead: The Long, Strange Trip opens at the Cleveland museum on April 12, two days before the Rock Hall's annual induction ceremony.

"The band gave their full blessing to the project," says Howard Kramer, the Hall of Fame's director of Curatorial Affairs. "They allowed me unfettered access to their warehouse and offered up items from their personal collection, which is how you want this process to work."

The exhibit will feature five Jerry Garcia guitars; handwritten lyrics to "Box of Rain," "Truckin'," "Sugaree" and many other classics; Mickey Hart's custom-painted drum kit; and artifacts from the band's longtime sound designer, Owsley "Bear" Stanley, alongside many other objects from the group's long career.

"Jerry Garcia's guitars carry a lot of emotional weight with the fans," says Kramer. "And the handwritten manuscripts, including a working version of 'Fire on the Mountain,' are stunning."

The artifacts will be presented in a nonlinear manner, and will focus not only on the band, but on their hugely devoted fan base as well. "The Grateful Dead created a culture around them that is a much richer story to tell than just the recounting of events that they were part of," says Kramer. "The story of the Grateful Dead is as much about the people around them as it is about the band themselves."

The exhibit is scheduled to close in December.

Johnny Otis of 'Willie and the Hand Jive' Dies

Johnny Otis, the "godfather of rhythm and blues" who wrote and recorded the R&B classic "Willie and the Hand Jive," and for decades evangelized black music to white audiences as a bandleader and radio host, has died. He was 90.

Otis, who had been in poor health for several years, died at his home in the Los Angeles foothill suburb of Altadena on Tuesday, said his manager, Terry Gould.

Otis, who was white, was born John Veliotes to Greek immigrants, and grew up in a black section of Berkeley, where he said he identified far more with black culture than his own. As a teenager, he changed his name because he thought Johnny Otis sounded more black.

"As a kid, I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black," he once explained.

His musical tastes clearly reflected that adopted culture and even after he became famous, his dark skin and hair often led audiences and club promoters to assume he was black like his band mates.

Otis was leading his own band in 1945 when he scored his first big hit, "Harlem Nocturne." In 1950, 10 of his songs made Billboard Magazine's R&B chart. His "Willie and the Hand Jive" sold more than 1.5 million copies and was covered years later by Eric Clapton.

He later wrote "Every Beat of My Heart," which was a hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips.

But the influence of Otis was felt most through his ability to recognize and promote talent. He wove into his bands diverse and legendary R&B vocalists such as Etta James, Hank Ballard, Big Mama Thornton and The Robins, the latter a group that would evolve into the Coasters.

He produced Thornton's original recording of "Hound Dog," a song that would later become an even bigger hit for Elvis Presley.

"His band shows a different style on pretty much every new recording," said Piero Scaruffi, author of "A History of Rock Music, 1951-2000." "The reason is that Otis did not force his personality on others but worked with the personality of the others. He may not have been a great composer or performer himself, but he was an impressive conductor."

Otis launched his professional music career as an 18-year-old drummer for bawdy barrelhouse pianist Count Otis Matthews, although he had never played the drums until then.

Matthews instructed him to simply pound out the syncopated "shave and a haircut, six bits" beat that would become the backbone of early rock 'n' roll. His mastery of it soon proved his ticket to other bands, and eventually to headlining his own group.

Otis saw himself as curator of black popular music, which for him represented much more than a diversion or livelihood. His cross-country R&B reviews and his radio and television appearances were dedicated to delivering black music to white audiences.

"The music isn't just the notes, it's the culture — the way grandma cooked, the way grandpa told stories, the way the kids walked and talked," he once said.

While he always returned to playing music, in later years touring with his sons Shuggie and Nicky, Otis' eclectic interests also included politics, art and organic food.

He worked for years as deputy chief of staff to state Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally when Dymally served in the California State Assembly, the state Senate, as a lieutenant governor and as a congressman.

In later years, Otis spent much of his time painting and sculpting. He also opened an organic grocery store in Sebastopol, Calif., in the early 1990s to sell his son Nicky's vegetables, decorating the store with his own colorful murals.

Although he had little success selling groceries, he did draw large crowds to the market every Friday and Saturday night when he performed there with his band.

"It was a smashing success," Gould said. "You had to make reservations three weeks ahead. It was amazing."

Otis also had a regular show playing records on nonprofit Pacifica Radio Network stations until failing health prompted him to retire in 2005.

In addition to his sons, Otis is survived by his wife, Phyllis, whom he married in 1941; daughters Janet and Laura; and several grandchildren.

Producers of Broadway's 'Spider-Man' Fire Back at Julie Taymor

Producers of Broadway's "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" have fired back in their legal fight with onetime director Julie Taymor, claiming the woman they once called a visionary failed to fulfill her legal obligations and refused to collaborate on changes to the $75 million show.

In a countersuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Taymor and her company, LOH Inc., the producers argued that the show "is a success despite Taymor, not because of her."

The lawsuit further exposes the deep rift that has opened between former collaborators who seemed to have reconciled — at least through forced smiles — on the red carpet this summer when the musical finally officially opened.

Taymor, who had been the original "Spider-Man" director and co-book writer, was fired from the musical in March after years of delays, accidents and critical backlash. The show, which features music by U2's Bono and The Edge, opened in November 2010 but spent months in previews before officially opening a few days after the Tony Awards in June.

In November, the Tony Award-winning director slapped the producers and her former co-book writer with a copyright infringement lawsuit, alleging that they violated her creative rights and haven't compensated her for the work she put into Broadway's most expensive musical. She is seeking a minimum of $1 million.

In the new filing, the producers' counterclaims assert that the copyright claims are baseless. They also argue that although Taymor was contracted to co-write and collaborate on the musical, she refused "to fulfill her contractual obligations, declaring that she could not and would not do the jobs that she was contracted to do." They claim Taymor repeatedly refused to collaborate on changes with other members of the production team.

The producers claim she "caused numerous delays, drove up costs, and failed to direct a musical about Spider-Man that could open on Broadway." Her version of the Spider-Man story, they assert, bears little resemblance to the show that is currently playing at the Foxwoods Theatre.

Charles Spada, an attorney at the firm Lankler Siffert & Wohl who filed Taymor's lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest legal filing.

Taymor's lawsuit seeks half of all profits, gains and advantages derived from the sale, license, transfer or lease of any rights in the original "Spider-Man" book along with a permanent ban of the use of her name or likeness in connection with a documentary film that was made about the birth of the musical without her written consent.

It also seeks a jury trial to determine her share of profits from the unauthorized use of her version of the superhero story, which it said was believed to be in excess of $1 million.

After Taymor left, Philip William McKinley, who directed the Hugh Jackman musical "The Boy From Oz" in 2003, was hired to take over. He was billed as creative consultant when the musical opened. Only Taymor will be considered eligible for the show's Tony Award for the best direction of a musical category.

The stunt-heavy and expensive show has been doing brisk business ever since, most weeks easily grossing more than the $1.2 million the producers have indicated they need to reach to stay viable.

Taymor, who helmed "The Lion King," also is seeking compensation through the union that represents theater directors. The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society filed an arbitration claim in June against the show's producers over unpaid royalties. On Tuesday, "Spider-Man" producers blasted those claims, saying that "Taymor is an independent contractor, not an employee" and that the society's backing Taymor amounts to "unlawful conspiracy among independent contractors."