As reported last week, the company behind the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was looking for a new producer. Today, Michael Riedel of the New York Post reports that U2’s musical may be on the verge of death as actors are being released from their contracts, and ticket agents are refunding people for early previews. Says Reidel in his column:
“Spider-Man” has been in trouble from the beginning, done in by the inexperience of its producers — Sony, Marvel Comics and David Garfinkle, a Chicago lawyer who, sources say, had almost no Broadway experience.
“He was in over his head,” a source says.
Taymor, the director of “The Lion King,” conceived of “Spider-Man” as an “installation show,” something big and bold and full of special effects. Something, in other words, like Cirque du Soleil.
That’s fine if you’re going to put the damn thing up in Las Vegas, where “installation shows” run several times a day and are funded in large part by hotels and casinos.
Reidel reports that Julie Taymor’s really crazy spending spree would count up to a nearly impossible price tag for the theater to break even. At 45 million, the theater would have to play five years straight of sold out shows to pay back their investment. I’m sorry to say, but it looks like this spider has been flushed down the drain for good.
(I’ll stop now with the puns, sorry, I can’t help myself).
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