Julie Taymor, who revolutionized the musical with her staging of The Lion King, will remain as director of the troubled Broadway musical production Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Reports in the New York Post that Taymor was being replaced or forced to “share” the workload with a co-director, have been rejected by the show’s producers who issued a categorical denial to the Hollywood trades.

 

The Spider-Man musical has suffered a series of high profile accidents involving cast members, has had its opening delayed numerous times, and been pilloried by the critics, but it remains one of the highest-grossing shows on Broadway (see “No Such Thing as Bad Publicity Dept.”).

 

The Spider-Man musical is still far from a finished product. Deadline reported last week that veteran comic book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa had been hired to rework the book of the show, which has been criticized for not have a close enough relationship to the Spider-Man comics. Aguirre-Sacasa, who has written Spider-Man comics for Marvel and also works on the HBO series Big Love, appears to be an excellent choice to add an element of authenticity to the musical.