Ready or not, here comes “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”
The most expensive show in Broadway history, at $65 million, or more than twice as much as the previous record-holder, “Shrek the Musical,” “Spider-Man” will hold its first preview performance at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday before more than 1,900 paying theatergoers, reporters, and several of the musical’s nervous producers and investors.
They will witness the latest attempt to run “Spider-Man” from start to finish without stopping, after several failed outings over the past week, when the director, Julie Taymor, had to pause to work on scene transitions and some of the show’s unprecedented technical and special effects. Most new Broadway shows have at least one dress rehearsal before an invitation-only audience, but the producers canceled plans for one to give Ms. Taymor more time to work.
Ms. Taymor expects the first performance to stop at some point to work through technical glitches, executives involved with the production said on Sunday. In addition, the final 10 minutes are not fully finished and may not be entirely staged, according to the executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Ms. Taymor and the producers had forbidden public comment on the backstage work.
“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” a musical version of the Marvel Comics superhero story, has attracted enormous media attention and public interest by Broadway standards, in large part because of the money and the talent involved. U2’s Bono and the Edge signed on to create the show nine years ago and have written a full-length score, their first for Broadway. Ms. Taymor soon joined as a Tony Award winner for one of the last musical spectaculars to open on Broadway, “The Lion King.”
The complexity of “Spider-Man” – particularly its flying sequences over the heads of audience members – has also stoked curiosity as well as concern, after two actors were injured (one broke his wrists) performing aerial stunts this fall. And the show’s growing cost – it is likely to exceed $65 million in the end – has drawn attention given the economy and the difficulty of raising money to mount the show. The musical was originally supposed to start performances last January.
The show has been a work in progress since rehearsals began in August. A new ending was conceived in the last few weeks by Ms. Taymor; her co-author of the book, Glen Berger; and by Bono and the Edge. The ending involves a mixture of spectacular effects and intense, intimate moments involving the lead characters Peter Parker (played by Reeve Carney) and Mary Jane Watson (Jennifer Damiano). But 12-hour rehearsal days (though everyone had Thanksgiving off) have not been enough to deal with the show’s many technical elements and the new ending.
The producers had already delayed the latest scheduled start of preview performances by two weeks; Ms. Taymor has said that a further delay would be too expensive. The producers have also canceled several matinee performances in December to give more time to Ms. Taymor and the cast and crew to work on the show.
A spokesman for the production said on Sunday that the estimated running time was two and a half hours, but he acknowledged that he could not say with precision how long the performance would last. Ms. Taymor and the show’s lead producer, Michael Cohl, declined interview requests.
Halting a show midperformance during previews to fix problems; making changes during early weeks of paid performances; and tinkering with production numbers and finales are not unheard of with new and technically ambitious musicals. But most of this work usually occurs during tryout performances in other cities, where producers go to solve problems far from the eyes of Broadway. “Spider-Man,” however, is opening cold on Sunday evening at the 1,932-seat Foxwoods Theater because the producers decided an out-of-town run would be financially unfeasible.
Another new musical, “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” opened cold on Broadway this fall. Several performances were paused because of technical problems, and the show lacked a finale while the initial one was reworked. “Women on the Verge” opened to largely negative reviews in November. “Spider-Man” is scheduled to open on Wednesday night, Jan. 11, 2011, with most theater critics’ reviews coming out the next day.
One threat to starting performances has been tackled: Safety inspectors from the New York State Department of Labor have signed off on the 27 flying sequences in “Spider-Man” without asking for substantive changes, the executives with the production said. The inspectors made their fourth visit to the Foxwoods Theater on Friday to assess the most technically complex flying sequences — some for the second time — and gave the green light to hold Sunday’s performance. The department’s approval is required by law for aerial stunts used in public performances.
The executives added that Ms. Taymor had not made any changes on her own to the major flying scenes, including an elaborate aerial battle over the heads of audience members (without a net) at the end of Act 1 between Spider-Man and one of the show’s villains, the Green Goblin.
Leo Rosales, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor, said in an interview on Sunday that the inspectors had no issues with the safety of the flying maneuvers or their sequence in the show. “We are set,” Mr. Rosales said.
“Spider-Man” has timed a major media rollout to the start of preview performances; the CBS news show “60 Minutes” will broadcast a segment about the musical on Sunday night, a rare feature on a Broadway show on that much-watched television show. The musical is also set to begin running two television commercials in the New York area on Monday; the commercials were created by Jacob Cohl, a son of the lead producer.
The younger Cohl is a filmmaker and photographer who previously directed the documentary “Salt of the Earth” about the Rolling Stones. The band has long worked with Michael Cohl as their lead concert promoter. Jacob Cohl and his crew have hundreds of hours of footage after filming for months at the theater, in rehearsal rooms, and at meetings including Bono, the Edge and Ms. Taymor. The footage is the property of the musical production. If “Spider-Man” is a hit, few doubt that the Cohls and Ms. Taymor, who is also a filmmaker, will spin a documentary or other film project out of the material.
Among those expected in the audience on Sunday night are Lesley Stahl, the “60 Minutes” correspondent on the “Spider-Man” segment, and Sean Hayes, the star of the Broadway musical “Promises, Promises,” according to the executives with the production. Bono and the Edge will not be in the house, however, because they are on tour with U2 in Australia until late December.
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