HELLO Entertainment News

Julie Taymor tells New York Magazine that regarding SPIDER-MAN Turn Off the Dark opening in the fall: 'We're doing it.'

According to a report from Entertainment Weekly, Alan Cumming has cut ties with SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off The Dark. Cumming was to play the musical's villain, the Green Goblin. Cumming elected to depart the production this weekend, according to the report, due to new scheduling conflicts with The Good Wife, for which his role was recently expanded.

According to Broadway scoopster BroadwayGirlNYC on her Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/BroadwayGirlNYC) the rigging for SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark is currently being put up in the Hilton Theater. See the image of the Hilton Theater below, courtesy of BroadwayGirlNYC!

Roger Friedman of Showbiz411.com is reporting that producer David Garfinkle has told him that Spider-Man will be ready to make its Broadway debut this fall and that an announcement will be made soon regarding the shows schedule, as well a casting announcement as to who will replace Evan Rachel Wood.

It seems the producers are making good on promises of a resurrected SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off The Dark. According to the Actors Equity website, the production will begin holding ensemble auditions on April 13, 2010 (female dancers) and April 14, 2010 (male dancers) and April 16 (singers). According to the notices, the auditions will take place at 520 Ripley Grier.

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Evan Rachel Wood has bowed out of the financially troubled and much delayed SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off The Dark, due to an alleged 'scheduling conflict,' leaving open the role of Spider Man's love interest, Mary Jane Watson. Casting agency Telsey + Company posted notice on March 19 advertising Equity Principle auditions for the role on April 3, 2010.

Variety has confirmed that Evan Rachel Wood, who had been set to star as Mary Jane Watson in the much delayed Broadway production of SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off The Dark, has bowed out of the production altogether. A statement out from the producers claims that her departure is due to a 'scheduling conflict' but that a search is 'underway to find a new Mary Jane to join the rest of the cast in the production.'

A musical adaptation of 'Spider-Man' was scheduled to begin previews today, February 25. However, plagued by financial troubles, the team behind the production decided to delay its opening. According to a recent report in which U2's The Edge, who along with the band's frontman Bono wrote the music and lyrics for the show, the production is now poised for a Fall 2010 opening. A creative meeting was held on February 18 and new lead producer Michael Cohl is rapidly getting funds in place to proceed.

According to U2's The Edge, SPIDER-MAN is poised for a fall 2010 opening, as has been speculated. 411.com reports that a productive creative meeting with all of the principles took place yesterday, February 18, and that new lead producer Michael Cohl is rapidly getting funds in place.

Today, a preview clip from the upcoming season of Theater Talk has been released in which panelists Michael Riedel, Susan Haskins, Jesse Green, Michael Musto and Patrick Pacheco discuss the viability of the upcoming Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, now expected to open on Broadway in the fall of 2010 after financial troubles delayed a winter opening. Theater Talk, a weekly expose of world theater that airs on PBS Friday nights (PBS/Thirteen) and 5 times weekly on CUNY TV. Theater Talk makes its 2010 premiere tomorrow at 1 AM on Thirteen.

In his morning column today, Michael Riedel writes that SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark will begin performances in the fall of 2010. The $50 million production was supposed to begin previews next month, but as previously reported, was delayed due to significant financial fallout the production faced last year.

Broadway vet Alan Cumming, who is set to star as the Green Goblin in Broadway's upcoming SPIDER-MAN: Turn off the Dark, told the New York Times on Saturday that the show will indeeed experience further delays. Though the show's official website claims that previews are set to begin on February 25, Cumming tells the Times at a TimesTalk event this weekend (as part of the paper's annual Arts & Leisure Weekend), 'No one's going to be there that day. We're just waiting.'

While there has been no official news on the SPIDER-MAN front since an announcement on November 6 that Michael Cohl had joined the show as lead producer, and that it would indeed 'open in 2010' things have been rolling along behind the scenes trying to put everything into place.

The producing team of the Broadway-bound SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark met with the show's key creatives today to confirm the following.

New York magazine caught up with Julie Taymor at the Monday, September 21st opening of the Metropolitan Opera season and the visionary director declared that SPIDERMAN, TURN OFF THE DARK is still set to swing to Broadway.

The New York Times is reporting that tickets for Spider-Man will go on sale on October 31, 2009.

This week's issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine checked in with the rep for Evan Rachel Wood, who previous rumors stated was let go as Mary Jane, along with other contracted performers from SPIDER-MAN when the show hit financial troubles. Wood's representative tells the magazine however that she is still on board and that she was never set loose. Co-star Alan Cumming's rep was 'unavailable for comment.'

Michael Riedel reports in his Broadway Matinee column in the The New York Post today that while 'SPIDER-MAN, Turn Off The Dark' may have hit a snag on the road to Broadway, a friendly 'superhero' is trying to 'swing' in to get things rolling again.

The New York Times reports today that 'modest construction work is expected to resume on Wednesday morning at Broadway's Hilton Theater to prepare for the new musical production 'SPIDER-MAN, Turn Off the Dark,' even though the ultimate fate of the show is still in limbo, three people involved with the production said this afternoon.'

Variety reports on the announcement yesterday of The Walt Disney Co. buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock. That move will now bring such iconic characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse, Goofy and WALL-E. They also highlight the subject of the upcoming Broadway musical 'SPIDER-MAN, Turn Off the Dark' and its web of confusion regarding its current status.