Two weeks ago we learned that Broadway director Julie Taymor had been fired from the troubled production Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and today we learn MORE bad news for the trainwreck of a show. T.V. Carpio, the lead villain in the show, was injured on set last week and has been forced out of the show due to her injuries. As you may know, Carpio replaced actress Natalie Mendoza after she was injured by the show last year. T.V. Carpio is now the 5th Spider-Man actor to be physically injured on the set of this $70 million dollar debacle.

The actress who plays the villainess Arachne in Broadway’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” will be out of the show for the next two weeks after sustaining an injury during an onstage battle scene, the production’s spokesman said on Tuesday. The specific injury to the actress, T.V. Carpio, was not disclosed, but the spokesman, Rick Miramontez, said it occurred at a performance on Wednesday, March 16. She has been out since then. An understudy, America Olivo, has been performing as Arachne and will continue to do so while Ms. Carpio is out, said Mr. Miramontez. According to a person familiar with the injury, it came during the Act II showdown between Arachne and Peter Parker, who was played at that performance by Matthew James Thomas. While “Spider-Man” has drawn attention from state and federal safety officials for its aerial sequences, the scene that brought harm to Ms. Carpio involves some fairly aggressive hand-to-hand combat between Arachne and Peter, as well as the two characters swooping and swinging from heights to confront each other on stage. The person said that Ms. Carpio appeared to have a neck injury, but had no details. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because the producers did not want to release details about the incident. Ms. Carpio is the fifth person known to suffer an injury while working on “Spider-Man” since the fall. Indeed, she won the part of Arachne only after the original actress in the role, Natalie Mendoza, quit the musical in December after suffering a concussion during the show’s first preview performance. Ms. Mendoza was struck in the head with a rope while backstage; she performed again three days later, against doctor’s orders, but fell ill and took time off to recover before eventually leaving the show. The most expensive (at $70 million) and technically ambitious show in Broadway history, “Spider-Man” has been buffeted with problems since the fall, most recently a creative standoff between the director, Julie Taymor, and her lead producers as well as her fellow creators, U2’s Bono and Edge. Ms. Taymor was effectively sacked from the show this month because she would not make changes per the wishes of the producers, Bono and Edge. She will continue to be billed as director and one of the book writers; meanwhile, her lawyers continue to negotiate with the producers’ lawyers over her contract and over allowing creative changes to the show. The producers have brought in a theater and circus director, Philip William McKinley (Broadway’s “The Boy from Oz”), to succeed Ms. Taymor and oversee the changes they wanted, while also tapping the playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to rewrite the script along with Ms. Taymor’s fellow book writer, Glen Berger … “Spider-Man” will go on hiatus for three weeks from April 19 to May 11 so that the actors can adapt to changes without having to also perform the standard eight performances a week. The musical is now set to open on June 14.

This is absolutely INSANE! 5 actors have been injured thus far … FIVE … and still, the show must go on. While I enjoyed the high-flying aerial acrobatics (and not much else) that are used in the show, I do not think they are worth the safety and welfare of the players involved in the show. I cannot believe that the safety procedures reportedly put into place on this show continue to result in major physical injuries. It’s a bit troubling, too, that it took a week for Carpio‘s injury to be reported. It sounds like the Turn Off the Dark folks tried to keep her injury quiet for as long as possible … which leads me to wonder what else they are keeping quiet. I am very suspicious of this plan to revamp the show in just a couple weeks’ time. My guess is that the most alluring part of the show (i.e. the flying acrobatics) is what is responsible for all of these injuries … and I doubt the acrobatics will be taken out of the show. I am utterly convinced that actors will continue to be injured on the set of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark until the show closes for good. I wonder which actor will be hurt next.

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