Musical To Cost Over $40 Million

BROADWAY MAGAZINE – News out now for the upcoming U2 and Julie Taymor production Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark. As previously anticipated, Evan Rachel Wood will star as Mary Jane. The role of the Green Goblin will be played by Alan Cumming, who was last seen on Broadway in the Three Penny Opera. Both artists have previously collaborated with Ms. Taymor. Still to come is news about casting the actual web-slinger himself. While that rumor mill churns, we still maintain that Adam Lambert will play Spider-Man on Broadway at some point. Whether that is in the opening night cast remains to be seen.

On the Jim Sturgess blog, there is a quote from Evan Rachel Wood about the production: “You know, I’m still trying to drag Jim Sturgess.  But – if he doesn’t do it, I’m not sure.  We actually did the workshop together.  So, I have sang the Peter Parker-Mary Jane songs with him, and I just can’t imagine anybody else doing it.  So, I’ll be sad.  But I have a lot of faith in Julie, and I’m sure she’ll find somebody amazing.”

New York Post columnist Michael Riedel recently reported that the show is approaching $40 million and involves a redesign of the Hilton Theatre. Each season it seems, Mr. Riedel picks a show or two to kill before it opens, and it looks like he may have his sites on Spider-Man. Last season, he targeted All My Sons with Katie Holmes writing that the show was not selling tickets before tickets were on sale to the public (”You Cruise, You Lose”). The production ended up being a commercial success recouping all of its 3.25 million dollar investment. For the curious, Mr. Riedel himself catalogs some past recipients of what future Broadway scholars will identify as the “Wrath of Riedel” in a March 29 column. The list includes Boy George, Mary-Louise Parker, George C. Wolfe, producers Elizabeth I. McCann & David Brown, and Terry Kinney “just to name a few.” Broadway Bully’s come in all sizes, and sometimes they are even petite and wear glasses. Of course, he turned the spotlight on Fela! last August, and now the production will arrive on Broadway…so he can be a champion too.

See the on-demand issue of Broadway Magazine here.

Tags: Adam Lambert, Alan Cumming, Bono, Evan Rachel Wood, Julie Taymor, Michael Riedel, New York Post, Spider-Man Musical, The Edge, U2

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 4:18 am and is filed under Broadway Blog, Broadway Magazine, Broadway News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.