Robot 6
Spider-Man musical loses its Mary Jane
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Just when it looked as if the long-troubled Spider-Man musical finally had gotten back on track, it’s been dealt another blow: Evan Rachel Wood, who had been cast as Mary Jane Watson, has dropped out of the $52-million production.
Variety reported on the departure of the True Blood actress Tuesday afternoon. Producers for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark issued a statement citing “a scheduling conflict,” and said that casting has begun for a new Mary Jane.
The ambitious musical, possibly the most expensive in Broadway history, originally was set to open this month at the Hilton Theatre in New York City. However, “cash-flow obstacles” pushed that date to sometime this fall.
Directed by The Lion King‘s Julie Taymor and scored by Bono and the Edge, Spider-Man stars relative newcomer Reeve Carney as Peter Parker and Alan Cumming as Green Goblin.
Production was stopped in August while producers sought more money for a budget that ballooned from $35 million. In November, Bono’s longtime business partner Michael Cohl was brought onboard to put the show back on track. According to a January report, Disney stepped in to provide “a chunk” of the financing for the musical, whose producers include Marvel and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Spider-Man will cost about $1 million a week to produce — hundreds of thousands of dollars more than elaborate shows like Mary Poppins and West Side Story — and require the 1,700-seat Hilton to sell out for every show for four years just to break even.
11 Comments
Wraith
March 10, 2010 at 5:42 am
I think we’re to the point where someone could start writing a musical (or play, or comic, etc.) about a seemingly-cursed attempt to produce a Spider-Man musical.
Aaron Poehler
March 10, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Wow, what a boondoggle. Stick a fork in it and cut your losses now.
One Eyed Monster
March 10, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Sell out for 4 years to break even? hahahahaahahaha. no. I don’t think this will work.
snikt Snakt
March 10, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I agree with Aaron, this is a disaster in the making and has FAIL written all over it. Maybe ERW saw this too and jumped ship?
As much as I like going to Broadway shows and love comics, even I have ZERO interest in seeing this. Even more surprising that Bono & the Edge would be involved with a turkey like this…
Bob
March 10, 2010 at 12:45 pm
@One Eye – Lion King did it. Spider-Man kicks Lion King’s ass!!!
Sano
March 10, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Please cancel this train wreck because I live in New York City and am an omega huge Spider-Man fan who earns good money. There’s no way I can miss this sadly ROFL!
bones jones
March 10, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Even Ticketmaster has not idea what’s going on with this clusterF.
They called to tell me my tickets were cancelled for my show in February (Yes I had bought these tickets on pre-sale ages ago). Then they wanted to know if I wanted to reschedule for a different show. I said sure as I had done this once already (the first time they changed the date).They tried to give me tickets for this month, March. I’ve been keeping up on this drama and knew that that was impossible but they had no idea. The latest they had was a September show but even that worried me. So I passed.
Sigh, I actually really would liked to see it. Good or bad, at least a musical on purpose would be better than spider-man 3 the movie.
Julian
March 10, 2010 at 7:06 pm
I really hope this eventually opens. This has all the makings for the greatest train wreck of all time.
Mike Phillips
March 11, 2010 at 5:27 am
dee-bah-cull
kitumbawannabe
March 11, 2010 at 6:32 am
I want this to open already just so I can get the album.
snikt Snakt
March 11, 2010 at 11:23 am
You know that old expression, “Actors shouldn’t sing and Singers shouldn’t act?”. Include “Superheroes shouldn’t be on Broadway” in that bunch!!!