The Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” is the most lavish, technical and expensive show ever produced on Broadway. But now it could be on its way to becoming the biggest flop on Broadway.
Originally slated to premiere back in December of 2010, “Spider-man…” has been riddled with technical problems that pushed the opening back multiple times, currently planned for next month. Performers have often been left dangling high above the audience when technical cues went awry. One stunt performer was seriously injured during a matinee performance, halting the show and requiring an ambulance to enter the theater. Even the lead female quit the musical over safety concerns. That’s when the New York State Department of Labor stepped in, delivering safety citations and mandating production changes. But now the troubled show has run into more difficulty of late.
The $65 million dollar musical has been called visually stunning (when it works). Yet it was loudly booed last week by professional critics who grew impatient over endless delays with the stunt-heavy show. Usually, a Broadway show isn’t reviewed until after its official opening. But for a show that has been in preview performance for months while still charging post-opening full ticket prices (currently $150. for a Saturday night orchestra seat), reviewers broke with tradition and weighed in on the show with some rather harsh words. The Washington Post called it “a shrill, insipid mess” while the New York times predicted “Spider-man…” is likely to “rank among the worst musicals of all time.”
Then, as if to prove the Julie Taymor-directed show isn’t quite ready for prime time with less than a month to go before its official opening, another technical malfunction left actors playing the Green Goblin and Spider-Man characters hanging helplessly over the audience for several minutes. This prompted the state to once again step in and issue two new safety violations against the musical.
Despite the stinging early reviews and the excessive bad publicity, “Spider-man…” has been selling out consistently, mostly due to gawkers eager to see what all the fuss is about and if they’ll be present when/if another technical hiccup takes place. Broadway usually does very slow business during the winter months, yet “Spider-man…” has ’em lined up around the corner for tickets. Which makes one wonder: are producers milking the whole “not yet open/technical problems” situation to rake in all the cash they can, while they can?
