The producers of the $65 million Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark musical have announced that director Julie Taymor has been relieved of her day-to-day duties. The show, which has been among Broadway’s top earners in previews, but which has received extremely bad notices, will not open as planned on March 15th.   The production will likely shut down at some point for retooling though the date and duration of the shutdown was not announced.  The retooled musical will open on an as-yet-unspecified date in the “early summer.” The replacement of Taymor and the delay in the opening have been widely rumored (see “Taymor Could Be Out of Spider-Man Musical”).

 

Phillip William McKinley has joined the show to implement new staging, while playwright and Spider-Man comic book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sarcasa will rework the book of the troubled production.  Musical consultant Paul Bogaev (Aida, Sunset Boulevard) and sound designer Peter Hylenski (Rock of Ages, Shrek) have also joined the creative team. 

 

Bono expressed his admiration for Taymor and what she has accomplished, but he also noted that he and The Edge  have heard criticism of the show and had written a couple of additional tunes that they “are very excited about putting in the mix.” The Irish rocker was quoted on Broadway World.com as follows: “All of us on the creative team are committed to taking Spider-Man to the next level. We are confident it will reach its full potential and when it does, it will open.”