SPIDER-MAN Cancels March 15th Show & Party; Cast Disappointed

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 cast was informed of this news at a 7pm pre-show meeting. Along with this news, they were told that the scheduled private March 15th performance and gala had both been been cancelled, which sent cast members scrambling to cancel travel plans that had been booked by friends, family members and loved ones. The cast was expecting that even with a further delay, or change in plans that the performance and party would proceed as scheduled as a 'celebration of making it that far'. Many had been pushing out of town family members from coming to see the show with each scheduled delay and were disheartened to have to do that yet again. 

We spoke to multiple cast members before tonight's performance, and the range of emotions went from disappointment at Taymor's departure to being pleased with the idea of new creative blood coming on board for the show. Cast members had expressed frustration in recent weeks to Taymor about the lack of clarity on particular plot points and the lack of progress and found her to be unresponsive to their concerns. 

While the cast was told tonight that Julie Taymor would still be involved, just not day to day, those that have been in contact with have described her as feeling pushed aside and being extremely disappointed and distraught. 

At tonight's meeting, producers, Bono and The Edge attempted to raise the cast's spirits by promising multiple new songs and changes in the coming weeks while asking them to keep the faith and to put on their 'game faces' before tonight's performance. They were told to expect the opening to be scheduled for "June or July" with an exact date to come soon. 

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. 

Both are reported to have seen the shows multiple times in recent weeks and the cast was informed that they were now ready to hit the ground running though it wasn't clear when changes would begin to be implemented or if and when a hiatus would be scheduled. 

At the end of the day, all whom we spoke to continue to believe in the show's potential, and although exhausted remain banded together for whatever might come next.