Early last month we learned that famed director Julie Taymor had been fired from her show Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark due to numerous cast injuries and across-the-board terrible reviews. Just a couple weeks after that news broke, lead actress T.V. Carpio was injured so severely during a performance that she had to leave the show, adding to the already long list of actors injured by the show. Today we learn that Taymor‘s vision of the show, the one that cost $70 million to produce, will end entirely this weekend. After the final shows play this weekend, Turn Off the Dark will close for 3 weeks so that the entire show can be overhauled. Without question, the end of Taymor‘s vision of the Spider-Man mythos will be the greatest failure of her career.

History will be made on Broadway this weekend: The $70 million museum piece that is Julie Taymor’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” the most expensive musical of all time, will be on display for four final showings from Friday night through Sunday afternoon, then disassembled out of existence. Gone, when the show resumes performances on May 12 after a three-week overhaul, will be the Geek Chorus of narrators who were stand-ins for the show’s creators: Bono and the Edge of U2, the playwright Glen Berger, and Ms. Taymor, whom the producers ousted as director last month over creative conflicts. Gone will be Ms. Taymor’s vision of the spider villainess Arachne, now a central role inspired by Greek mythology, but one that will be reduced to a guardian angel character during the hiatus, according to members of the cast and the production. Gone, too, will be some of Ms. Taymor’s head-spinning numbers like “Deeply Furious,” where Arachne and her spider ladies-in-waiting became all-powerful by slipping shoes onto their many legs. Gone will be the Act I death of another villain, the Green Goblin, who will become an even bigger character when performances resume — reflecting the wishes of focus groups that “Spider-Man” producers convened this winter. And gone will be the Act II climax, a confrontation between Arachne and Peter Parker. In a statement, Ms. Taymor’s spokesman said: “Julie feels that the early reviews that published before the show was ready to open sadly do not reflect the show that is closing this weekend. Most critics, in fact, will have never seen this latest version before they see one that greatly changes major threads of the story, choreography and songs.” As some actors have prepared to depart, others have been rehearsing the new script written by Mr. Berger and his new collaborator, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, a playwright and comic book author. But even some of those who are staying said they were still struggling over the loss of Ms. Taymor. T. V. Carpio, who will remain in the cast as Arachne, described Ms. Taymor in a statement as “at the heart of this project” … The reconfigured creative team — the theater and circus director Philip William McKinley (Broadway’s “Boy From Oz”), Mr. Aguirre-Sacasa and Mr. Berger — also declined to be interviewed through a spokesman for the production. More than 245,000 people have seen “Spider-Man” since preview performances began on Nov. 28, the first of about 140 so far — the most ever for a Broadway show … Theater critics roundly thrashed the show in reviews in early February; the producers now hope that the overhaul will yield a better production that will win praise from critics who come to review before June 14, the latest opening-night date.

What a complete debacle. No matter the success that Turn Off the Dark may end up enjoying if the changes work for the better, this show will surely go down in Broadway history as the biggest embarrassment of all time. The only reason the show isn’t being shut down entirely is because they already spent $70 million to bring it to life … there is no way they are not going to try and recoup some of that money. In the end, absent the serious injuries that just keep happening … the core of the show’s problem is that the story, the songs and the staging are just really terrible. All they have to do is fix the core elements of the show (and keep people from dying) and the show could still be a success. It’s pretty insane that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will be the first show to begin previews, end previews and begin new previews again all before the show officially opens in the first place. What a mess. If the new creative team is able to turn around this sinking ship, I’ll be happily surprised. I’m curious to see what the show will look like in its new incarnation … but I am very glad to know that the terrible show I saw last February is being put out of its misery. Spider-Man deserves a better Broadway show than this one. Here’s hoping he AND we Spidey fans finally get the show we all deserve.

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