Following persistent rumors, a new director has been brought on board troubled Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark: Philip William McKinley, who directed Hugh Jackman (comic book connections wheee) in the Broadway version of The Boy From Oz. The latest press release from the show also included the previously disclosed news that former Sensational Spider-Man writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has joined the production to provide “book rewrites.” Additionally, in a shocker worthy of Herman Schultz himself, the opening date has been moved (again) from March 15 to “an event in early summer.”
This leaves original director Julie Taymor mostly out of the mix, with the press release stating that her “previous commitments” make it impossible for her to be involved in the day-to-day productions, but she is “not leaving the creative team.”
Keep reading Newsarama for more on Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. The full press release is after the jump.
New York, NY – Lead producers Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris announced today that SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark has a newly expanded creative team in place. The team will be implementing a new plan to make significant and exciting revisions to the production. Opening night (previously set for March 15, 2011) has been rescheduled to an evening in early summer, 2011. This amended schedule will allow the time necessary to execute the plan, which will include revisions to the script.
The additional time commitment required by this new plan will make it impossible for director and co-book writer Julie Taymor to continue on in her day-to-day duties with the production. Philip William McKinley and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa have joined the creative team to help implement new staging and book rewrites, respectively. McKinley has vast experience directing technically complex productions on Broadway and beyond. Aguirre-Sacasa is both an acclaimed playwright and a noted writer of Spider-Man comic books. The expanded creative team also includes musical consultant Paul Bogaev (Tarzan, Bombay Dreams, Aida, Sunset Boulevard) and sound designer Peter Hylenski (Elf, Scottsboro Boys, Rock of Ages, Shrek), both of whom have already been working on improving the musical arrangements and sound quality (respectively) over the past few weeks, thereby vastly enhancing the audience experience.
Producers Cohl and Harris said, in a joint statement, “Julie Taymor is not leaving the creative team. Her vision has been at the heart of this production since its inception and will continue to be so. Julie’s previous commitments mean that past March 15th, she cannot work the 24/7 necessary to make the changes in the production in order to be ready for our opening. We cannot exaggerate how technically difficult it is to make such changes to a show of this complexity, so it’s with great pride that we announce that Phil McKinley is joining the creative team. Phil is hugely experienced with productions of this scale and is exactly what SPIDER-MAN Turn off the Dark needs right now.”
Bono and The Edge added, “Julie is a truly gifted and imaginative director. This is an epic ride, and the standing ovations we have seen from the preview audiences have confirmed our absolute faith in the project. We are listening and learning and, as a result, we have a couple of new songs we are very very excited about putting into the mix. 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.”
Featuring direction by Tony® Award-winner Julie Taymor (The Tempest, Across The Universe, The Lion King), music and lyrics by 22-time Grammy® Award-winners Bono and The Edge, a book co-written by Taymor and Glen Berger (Underneath The Lintel) and one of the most iconic title characters of all time, SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark is the most ambitious production ever undertaken on Broadway and finds astonishingly fresh ways to tell a story inspired by over 40 years of Marvel comic books. The show follows the story of teenager Peter Parker, whose unremarkable life is turned upside-down when he’s bitten by a genetically altered spider and wakes up the next morning clinging to his bedroom ceiling. This bullied science-geek suddenly endowed with incredible powers soon learns, however, that with great power comes great responsibility as villains put both his physical strength and strength of character to the test.
March 9th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Just let it die, honestly. Julie Taymor is very good at visuals, but as anyone who has seen her Shakespeare based films can tell you, she CANT tell a story very well. And thats what it sounded like from all the preview audiences.
March 9th, 2011 at 11:47 pm
Let’s hope Sacasa’s writing on this is better than the crap he wrote in Good Boys and True, which was trite as hell, totally sophomoric, and pretty unnecessary. Don’t mean to be a troll, but I don’t think he’s the right guy for the job.
March 10th, 2011 at 4:08 am
Just let it die already. This show has had so much bad press that no ones going to watch it even as a train wreck. Unless the tickets now come with a free blow job, there is no way that anyone is going to wsate money on it.
March 10th, 2011 at 7:11 am
Which do you think will come first? The eventual release of this or the next Spider-Man movie?
March 10th, 2011 at 8:18 am
Well, I think this is a good step because honestly, they way this thing is going, an actor will eventually get killed during a performance. Technically speaking the stunts are beyond what should be done by untrained actors (in terms of stunt work) in simple wire harnesses.