After being cancelled for three weeks, the $70 million musical ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’ will reopen to the public on June 14th, 2011.
The show’s producers, Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris, reported their plans for the Spidy revamp back in March. Aside from poor reviews, the show, which has the highest budget in Broadway history, made controversial headlines after four actors were hurt due to accidents on the set, including stuntman Christopher Tierney who spent eight days in the hospital after falling from about 30 feet high from the stage.
The musical has been completely reworked to the point where Cohl called it “almost a brand-new show.” So if you have tickets to opening night tonight, expect to see (and hear) a bunch changes.
Director Julie Taymor was replaced by Philip William McKinley, who directed the popular show ‘The Boy From Oz.’ This time, U2’s Bono and The Edge collaborated on the music. In addition, a new choreographer was hired and more flying stunts were added. The script was also reworked a bit so that the romance between Peter Parker and Mary Jane came more to the forefront.
At the Tony Awards earlier this week, Neil Patrick Harris managed to control himself and make only a few jokes about the show. Bono and The Edge explained they had missed the deadline of reopening the show to have it quality for Tony consideration. But to quote The Edge, a deadline to a rock musician is the way a manager gets the band on the bus.
