Spiderman musical in peril? (1 Viewer)

And another injury:

Theatergoers who attended Monday’s performance of “Spider-Man,” a $65 million musical laden with complicated aerial stunts, said they saw a performer playing the title hero fall about eight to ten feet into a pit during the closing minutes of the show, and that some equipment fell into the audience when this occurred. A video of the performance showed a line holding the performer apparently snap.

A police spokesman confirmed that a male actor was injured at about 10:42 p.m. and taken to Bellevue Hospital Center. No other information was immediately released.
* * * *
[An audience member] said he saw the actor playing Spider-Man appear to trip and fall from the bridge, into an open pit at the end of the stage. “You heard screams,” Mr. Tartick said. “You heard a woman screaming and sobbing.”

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/performer-is-injured-during-spider-man-performance
 
60 Minutes did a segment on this several weeks ago a brought concerns about money issues involved. There was alot of talk about the spectacular stunts as well as the costs for the stage. Looks like reviews could of poor start could kill this show before it ever gets started. May have bitten off far more than they could chew.
 
Well all of this publicity about the injuries might end up helping the show... that is if it don't get it canceled. Think Nascar
 
Visual commentary from The New Yorker:

new_yorker.gif


Should be noted, however, that all the "previews" last week were sold out, and the show had the top box office on Broadway (average ticket price: $102.86).

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2...ead-spider-man-outgrosses-wicked-on-broadway/
 
For anyone who's still interested:

Precipitous Fall for ‘Spider-Man’ Director
By Patrick Healy | The New York Times | March 9, 2011

After nine years of work, Ms. Taymor is stepping aside as director of the most expensive and technically ambitious musical ever on Broadway, the $65 million “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” its producers announced on Wednesday night. They named a new director to replace her and a script doctor to rewrite the show, as they prepared to overhaul the production during the next three months — including adding two new songs by the composers, U2’s Bono and the Edge. . . . Friends and colleagues of Ms. Taymor’s said she was being pushed aside because of sharply negative reviews by theater critics last month and because she would not make changes that the producers and her fellow creators, Bono and the Edge, had sought. . . .

The new director of “Spider-Man,” the producers said, will be Philip William McKinley, who previously directed the Hugh Jackman musical “The Boy From Oz” in 2003 as well as several Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circuses. Early in his career, he worked as a performer in Las Vegas, a city known for the sort of thrilling spectacle that the producers want more of in “Spider-Man,” . . . With 101 preview performances now under its belt, a record . . . “Spider-Man” is now so troubled that the producers plan to shut down the show for two to three weeks in midspring. . . . Opening night, which had been set for March 15, will be delayed a sixth time, to early summer . . .

More at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/theater/julie-taymor-spider-man.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
 

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