Spider-Man : Turn off the Dark is the newest musical to hit Broadway and the previews did not quite go as planned. There are many flying stunts and five of them went wrong causing hold-ups to the show. In fact the performance lasted over three hours die to these hold ups.
Reeve Carney plays the lead role and at one point he was left dangling in the air high above the crowd. This also happened to co-star Natalie Mendoza as well. At one point backstage crew tried to grab the food of the star, Carney and the audience began to laugh. However, most of the stunts were fine and some really wowed the audience.
The show is the most expensive to be staged in Broadway, mainly because of all of these stunts and so there was great expectation from the crowd in the risk that had been taken. The critics seems split with some thinking the show itself was not good, but not blaming the technical problems but others flt that it was a great show.
The music for the show was written by U2’s Bono and The Edge who did report there had been technical problems during some rehearsals and expected that some of these would occur in performances. The director, Julie Taymor also admitted that she was concerned about the risk they were taking with the stunts, but also felt that doing it was a fantastic experience for those watching.
It is likely that these early problems should be ironed out once the show has been running a while. With all of the delays due to injuries and financial problems, this long awaited show is likely to become popular and the possibility of technical errors may even draw in bigger audiences, as people often enjoy watching things go wrong and seeing how well they are resolved..