Spider-man:

Turn Off the Dark

2
The Show
“Drawing from over 40 years of Marvel comic books for inspiration, Spider-Man
Turn Off the Dark spins a new take on the mythic tale of a young man named
Peter Parker, whose unremarkable life is turned upside-down –literally – 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
astonishing powers – soon learns, however, that with great power comes great
responsibility as villains test not only his physical strength but also his strength of
character.”
Opened June 14, 2011 and closed January 4, 2014

Ran 1,066 performances

Foxwoods Theatre

$65 Million musical

Opening cast Peter Parker/Spider-Man: Reeve Carney
Mary Jane Watson: Jennifer Damiano
Arachne: T.V. Carpio
Norman Osborn/Green Goblin: Patrick Page
J. Jonah Jameson: Michael Mulheren
Uncle Ben/Buttons/Viper Executive/Ensemble: Ken Marks
Aunt May/Mrs.Gribrock/Maxie: Isabel Keating
Flash Thompson/Bud/Gangster/Ensemble: Matt Caplan
Emily Osborn/Marbles/Ensemble: Laura Beth Wells
MJ’s Father/Stokes/Viper Executive/Ensemble: Jeb Brown
Boyle/Roberson/Gangster/Viper Executive/Ensemble: Dwayne Clark
Alternate for Peter Parker/Spider-Man: Matthew James Thomas
Travis/Kong/Gangster/Viper Executive/Ensemble: Luther Creek
Ensemble: Gerald Avery, Collin Baja, MArcus Bellamy, Emmanuel Brown, Craig Henningsen, Dana
Marie Ingram, Ayo Jackson, Natalie Lomonte, Kristen Martin,Jodi McFadden, Bethany Moore, Kristen
Faith Oei, Brandon Rubendall, Jennifer Christine Perry, Sean Samuels, Dollar Tan, Christopher W.
Tierney
Creative Team
Book: Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Music and Lyrics: Bono and The Edge from U2
Director: Julie Taymor
Choreography: Daniel Ezralow
Scenic Design: George Tsypin
Costume Design: Eiko Ishioka
Lighting Design: Donald Holder
Sound Design: Jonathan Deans
Projections Designer: Kyle Cooper
Musical Supervision: Teese Gohl
Aerial Designer: Scott Rogers
Awards
Outer Critics Circle: Tony Awards:
Outstanding Costume Design - Winner Best Scenic Design Of A Musical - Nominee
➔ Eiko Ishioka ➔ George Tsypin
Outstanding Featured Actor In A Musical - Nominee Best Costume Design Of A Musical - Nominee
➔ Patrick Page ➔ Eiko Ishioka
Outstanding Lighting Design - Nominee
➔ Donald Holder Drama Desk Awards:
Outstanding New Broadway Musical - Nominee Outstanding Featured Actor In A Musical - Nominee
Outstanding Set Design - Winner ➔ Patrick Page
➔ George Tsypin
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/spider-man-musical-review-13842674

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Arachne
The myth of Arachne is a Greek story of a weaver who challenged the goddess Athena. Arachne’s
woven tapestry depicted the gods badly and Athena tore it to shreds. Arachne was so saddened she
hung herself but Athena took pity on her and turned the rope to web and Arachne to a spider.

In this show this story of Arachne is told at the beginning and Acrachne is brought up multiple times
and makes appearances. Her last appearance is when she invades Peter Parker’s dreams when she
realizes that she will no longer be alone now that there is another spider to share her “darkness”. She
begins to weave illusions in his mind and inspires and warns him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v3HxACYOw
w
Injuries and LAwsuit
Just before previews began in October, Kevin Aubin, a body double for Spider-man, was seriously injured during a demonstration
for ticket brokers and sales agents. While performing a flying stunt, Aubin slammed into the stage after being catapulted into the
air and broke both his wrists. Afterwards, a second actor admitted that he injured his feet performing the same flying stunt a
month earlier. The injuries garnered enough media attention on the show's acrobatics that The New York State Department of
Labor began safety inspections on the show's flying and safety devices.

Adding to an growing litany of injuries, Natalie Mendoza, a lead actress in the musical, was hit in the head by a piece of equipment
hanging from a rope during the first preview performance. She suffered a concussion and had to take a two-week leave from the
production. In late December, Mendoza, who played villainous spider-woman Arachne, decided to leave production permanently.

Just a few weeks later at another performance, Chris Tierney, one of the many actors who plays Spider-man in the musical, fell
20-30 feet while performing an aerial stunt. It was a near-death accident in which he broke multiple vertebrae and ribs and
suffered fractures in his elbow, scapula and skull.

In late March, T.V. Carpio, the actress who replaced Natalie Mendoza as Arachne, was injured during a battle scene on stage during
a preview performance. She was the fifth castmate to sustain an injury since the show began production.

Julie Taymor filed a blockbuster lawsuit that claimed that Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark violated her rights by continuing to use
her work without compensation. Taymor was let go from the musical before it officially opened due to artistic differences. The
show suffered from poor early reviews and high-profile injuries to cast, but it has been a success at the box office, showing to
near-capacity crowds since it first premiered in November 2010. After Taymor was let go, she filed an arbitration claim against
producers, saying she was owed more than $500,000 in royalties.
Critical Response “The musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the
“No, an honest-to-gosh, show-stopping
glitch occurred, just as the title character
“Stephen Sondheim, the supremo of the Dark was an epic. Onstage it featured of this new musical was about to vanquish
Broadway musical, merely sings about actors flying on invisible wires; offstage or be vanquished by the evil Green Goblin.
death; "Spider-Man" has inadvertently it offered titanic creative battles, record Never fully explained “mechanical
pointed the way toward a sensational new losses and lawsuits filed by the director, difficulties” were announced by an
window of commercial opportunity: the Julie Taymor, who was fired, and an amplified voice (not immediately
musical of human sacrifice. True, the injured dancer, Daniel Curry. The show, distinguishable from the other amplified
broken feet, broken wrists, broken ribs, which ran on Broadway for just over voices we had been hearing for what felt
concussions, and internal bleeding already three years before it closed in January, is like forever), as the actors in the scene
suffered by members of the show's due to reopen in Las Vegas next year. deflated before our eyes. And for the first
acrobatic team are not the ultimate The original Spider-Man costume, time that night something like genuine
sacrifice, but the time is surely not far off designed by the late Tony pleasure spread through the house.This
when Broadway's dream of "making a Award-nominated designer Eiko Ishioka production should play up regularly and
killing" will literally come true. Think of it as and worn by the actor Reeve Carney, will resonantly the promise that things could
bearbaiting for the twenty-first century. receive a lifetime encore at the go wrong. Because only when things go
Instead of wasting taxpayers' money on American History Museum, where it will wrong in this production does it feel
social programs for prisoners, immigrants, enter the permanent collection this remotely right — if, by right, one means
and the aged, we can dispose of those at month. Dwight Bowers, curator of entertaining. So keep the fear factor an
risk in the name of entertainment. The culture and the arts, is drawn to active part of the show, guys, and stock the
participants would, of course, pass along to comic-book heroes that gain new lives Foxwoods gift shops with souvenir crash
their heirs a percentage of the adjusted in other media -- and he says helmets and T-shirts that say “I saw
box-office gross, which, even after taxes, Spider-Man's leap from the page to the ‘Spider-Man’ and lived.” Otherwise, a more
would allow them to die with dignity.” "visual pyrotechnics" of Turn Off the appropriate slogan would be “I saw
-The New Yorker Dark was particularly challenging.” ‘Spider-Man’ and slept.”
-Smithsonian The New York Times

10
WOrks Cited
Brantley, B. (2011, February 08). Good vs. Evil, Hanging by a Thread. Retrieved November 10,
2020, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/theater/reviews/spiderman-review.html

Fawcett, K. (n.d.). This Just In. Smithsonian, 45(2), 82.

Green, A. (2010, November 12). Ka-Pow! Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Vogue, 46(3), 5-7.

Lahr, J. (n.d.). Wall Crawler. The New Yorker, 87(2), 74-75.

League, T. (n.d.). IBDB.com. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from

https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/spider-man-turn-off-the-dark-488485

Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark Broadway @ Foxwoods Theatre - Tickets and Discounts. (n.d.).
Retrieved November 10, 2020, from
https://www.playbill.com/production/spider-man-turn-off-the-dark-foxwoods-theatre-va
ult-0000013708