Julie Taymor’s much anticipated musical “Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark,” which was set to being previews on February 25 next year, is now reportedly on the brink of being canned.
The production was set to star Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming with music by U2’s Bono and The Edge but after rumors of financial difficulties last week, the Broadway musical is now apparently releasing actors from their contracts with no reimbursement and facing an influx of refunds inquiries from ticketing agencies after having failed to recruit experienced producers to save the already flailing production.
Sources blame the failure on the inexperience of ‘Turn Off The Dark’s’ producers — Sony, Marvel Comics and David Garfinkle, a Chicago lawyer who had almost no Broadway experience. Calculations figured that, with its $45 million dollar budget and weekly running cost of almost $900,000, the musical would have to run five years at the 1,700-seat Hilton Theatre, selling every single seat in the house, to just break even. If that’s the case, how the production got this far is astounding.
NY Post’s Micheal Riedle added that “designs for the sets and costumes that [he] saw were impressive, and some of U2’s songs weren’t bad — moody and melodic, if not all that theatrical.” Surely, U2’s music will come out in some form even if the production crumbles, right? But wait, we’re not sure we care. Maybe they can throw those songs in another cellphone ad. [NY Post/Vulture]