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Julie Taymor Leaving Spider-Man, Show Shutting Down Briefly
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 9, 2011
Modified Mar 9, 2011
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Joan Marcus
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 9, 2011
Modified Mar 9, 2011
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Acclaimed director Julie Taymor will be leaving the beleaguered Broadway monstrosity Spider-Man: I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Turn Off the Dark , sources tell multiple news outlets. U2's Bono, who co-wrote the score, has reportedly been negotiating the terms of her exit/surrender, so the news doesn't come as a huge surprise, but it's stunning nonetheless; Taymor co-wrote the show and has been working to bring the spectacle to Broadway for almost a decade. It's unclear if Taymor jumped or was pushed, but a source tells the Daily News, "Taymor is out. She's left the building." So who gets to take care of her deformed orphan mutant stillbirth? How about Aaron Sorkin?
Well, almost. The well-connected rumormonger Michael Riedel says producers approached Sorkin about working with the show in some capacity, and the screenwriter/director was reportedly "amused, but passed." Riedel hears that Christopher Ashley, who directed Xanadu and Memphis, will take the broken helm. The production will postpone its March 15th opening night for the sixth time and officially open sometime in June. And it will also shut down for two or three weeks in April for a major overhaul, the Times reports. The shutdown would cost the show, which has been covering its operating expenses and continues to be one of Broadway's highest grossing productions, $1.3 million a week.
But what, Riedel wonders, can be done to turn it around? His sources say comic book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will have a go at the script, but an unidentified Broadway producer asks, "What's Chris going to do in a month? Maybe he can pace it better, but he can't change the physical production. The show is unfixable." And if Taymor doesn't leave on good terms, Riedel notes that "she can forbid the producers from changing a word of her script. In which case they'd have to come up with a completely new story. That might not be a bad idea, though somebody should have thought of it two years ago..."
Tagged
broadway
julie taymor
spiderman musical
spiderman turn off the dark
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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