Managing Editor
It appears that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will actually be turning off the lights as the Broadway musical looks set to close in January. Variety reports that the official announcement that the Spider-Man musical will end is expected later this week.
While a constant presence at the Foxwoods Theatre since late 2010, the Bono and The Edge-penned musical has been plagued with legal and creative setbacks. Before the show had its first preview at the end of 2010, it had already faced numerous delays due to budget issues. Hailed as “the most technically complex show ever on Broadway”, the show includes 27 aerial sequences, which resulted in numerous cast injuries during rehearsals and previews. The show was shut down in April for three weeks following the departure of director Julie Taymor over “creative differences” and the reworking of the story, songs and sound.
Then in November 2011, Taymor sued the show’s producers claiming “her creative rights were violated and she was not compensated for her work after she was canned following epic and very public early production woes and poor early reviews”. The legal dispute was only settled in April this year.
The musical did relatively well at the box office when it opened and has the record for the highest single-week gross of any Broadway show taking in $2,941,790 in January 2012. However, as the most expensive show in Broadway history costing $1.2 million a week to produce, it struggled to break even. This past August it took a record-low in weekly ticket sales dropping below $1 million. Following Labor Day, this dropped again to around $200,000.
The producers are hoping to take the production on the road, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that it would open next in Las Vegas.
http://www.Twitter.com/PopWrapped
https://pop-wrapped.tumblr.com
http://www.SoundCloud.com/PopWrapped
http://www.Facebook.com/PopWrapped
http://www.Instagram.com/PopWrapped
http://www.Pinterest.com/PopWrapped
http://www.YouTube.com/PopWrapped
https://pop-wrapped.wordpress.com
http://www.PopWrapped.com
