PRODUCERS WON’T TURN OFF BROADWAY SUPERMAN

Costs continue to mount for Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, with the production’s budget soaring towards that of a blockbuster Hollywood movie — with only one theater to recoup the investment. Published reports are now estimating that $70-75 million has already been poured into the troubled production, which has been plagued by accidents, cost overruns, disastrous reviews for the preview performances, and falling ticket sales. On Wednesday, producers of the show announced that director Philip William McKinley and writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa “will be implementing a new plan to make significant and exciting revisions to the production.” McKinley will be taking over the director’s reins from Julie Taymor; Aguirre-Sacasa, who is both a playwright and a Spider-Man comics writer, will be revising the script. The producers insisted that, contrary to reports that she had been fired, “Julie Taymor is not leaving the creative team.” U2’s Bono said in a statement: “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.” Producers have now rescheduled the official opening for “early summer,” presumably at a cost of additional millions.