Duck! "Spiderman: Turn of the Dark" Is Back

It's time to take down the sign over NY's theater district stating how many days it's been since the last Spiderman accident.  OK, there isn't really a sign for that...but there should be.  After a 3-week hiatus to "re-imagine" Julie Taymor's disaster-prone $65 million musical, the show is set to resume previews tomorrow night.

So what's new about the re-tooled Turn Off The Dark?  Gone is the Geek Chorus, a quartet of comic book fans that narrated the story - and slowed it down to an unbearable crawl.  The confusing role of Arachne has been reduced to a smaller guardian angel role, while the Green Goblin now lives to see Act 2 (he was killed before intermission in the show's original incarnation).  Also, "Deeply Furious," the infamous spider-women in high-heels dance number, has finally been axed. 

A new creative team, including director Phillip William McKinley, playwright and Marvel comics writer Roberto Aguirre Sacasa, and choreographer Chase Brock are also on board.  The new crew has promised new (and hopefully safer) flying stunts, and a story that will remain more faithful to the original source material rather than Taymor's Greek mythology-inspired mess.  Bono and The Edge are still around, and have provided at least one new song. 

A definite bit of good news:  Spidey stunt double Christopher Tierney, who was seriously injured in an on-stage accident back in December, has returned to the cast.  He's even performing that same stunt again.

A new commericial for Spiderman 2.0 has hit the airwaves...however, they're using the same footage from the original version.  If all that stuff is still in the show, I'm not sure it's much better than it was:

I love how Spiderman looks so down and out at the start of that.  It was a pretty fair description of the audience reaction at the performance I saw a few weeks ago (more about that here).  Seriously, it's the first time I ever saw an usher have to start the applause when the audience stayed silent after a song.

Unless some sort of creative miracle has occured, I doubt I'll be seeing this again...but I wish them well.