Disney, which has been a major player on Broadway since Beauty and the Beast and on with The Lion King, Mary Poppins and many others, has
UPDATE: Well, another source, the NY Times Arts Beat states that Disney WASN’T the white knight here, and Spidey got it together on its own.
Another executive involved with the musical said on Tuesday morning that, contrary to another rumor, the producers have been able to capitalize the show without receiving any money from Disney, which recently acquired Marvel Entertainment, which holds the rights to the “Spider-Man” story. A spokesman for Disney Theatrical Group on Tuesday referred questions about the musical to the production team.
So there you have it. Although it makes all the sense in the world for Disney to help salvage this wreck, they aren’t taking credit if they did it. For now.
stepped in to get Spider-MAn the Musical back on track, Michael Riedel at the New York Post reports.
Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark, which one wag dubbed “The Avatar of musicals” due to its ambitious staging demands, has had a rocky road. With superstar director Julie Taymor, and superstar composers Bono and The Edge on board, it seemed like a surefire hit, but monetary mismanagement, and Taymor’s divided attention with her movie career forced the planned February launch to be scuttled as the show became a financial black hole, blowing through some $52 million and needed four years of full houses just to break even.
However, a new producer has helped get things in shape, and now Disney has stepped in to provide financing– they previously worked with Taymor on the groundbreaking Lion King show, and even if the show will have a hard time making money, letting this high profile venue for Disney’s shiny new characters become a legendary Broadway failure would be a bummer all around — so the Mouse had a lot of reason to play white knight this time out.
The show is now slate to open in fall 2010. Casting includes newcomer Reeve Carney as Spidey, Evan Rachel Wood as MJ and Alan Cumming as the Green Goblin. Tickets already purchased for February can be refunded or exchanged.
Turn Off the Dark? Are they serious? What the hell does that even mean?
I hope this does come out soon! :)
In that article’s comment section, a Broadway goer views the source material: “Bad enough the movie business is now completely driven by comic book fantasies, science fiction and animation, has our culture become so insanely infantalized that it’s seeping into live theater–once the province of intelligent, or at least mature, adults?”