New York Post: Michael Cohl, the producer of my favorite show of all time — “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” — told me the real reason the musical is closing in January:
“We tried to get on the Web site for Obamacare, but we couldn’t. We don’t have injury insurance, so we have to close the show.”
You can’t say the man doesn’t have a sense of humor.
6 comments:
It really disappoints me that some many people are excited about Spider-Man closing. The show is the best production on Broadway, and I will even say that it doesn't reach it's full potential. However, what we can learn from this production's process is what it means to take a risk. From the get-go Spider-Man the musical was a risk. The creative team tried to do something new and very innovative, and like many people who try something new they fail. Unfortunately, there were a few injuries. (Please note that I am sad that these injuries happened a hope that all that were hurt get better soon.) There was no way of knowing the new technology and other elements of the production would work until they tried them out. Making this basically the learning process. To conclude, I applaud the show in their closing, wish them all the best on their run in Vegas, and hope that others will see more in the show than the injuries that occurred,
I find it kind of funny that it is closing on broadway and moving somewhere else and they are like oh no we are broke. "We don't have injury insurance, so we have to close the show." Does that mean you are going to move to a new location and not get injury insurance. I feel like they are closing for no reason if thats what he says, such a great joke. Spider man might be a good show now and not have reached its full potential, but please tell me people have leafed from the process! There just needs to be a full spread in a magazine talking about the real process and the real closure. Its just all kind of weird.
I appreciate SpiderMan for pushing the literal bounds of theater with its defying stunts and over-the-top theatrics, but enough is enough. After they failed to get injury insurance, a light bulb should have gone off: they've gone too far. Just because you're moving to a different city, doesn't mean that your production won't have similar problems. Location has no hold on whether or not you get injury insurance. For the love of God, respect the sanctity and safety of the actors carrying your show and close. There will be other gigs, other jobs. But for now, let SpiderMan rest in piece. Move on before more people get hurt.
It's hard to know when this guy is being genuine or not. I"m pretty sure legally they had to have some kind of injury/hazard insurance given the huge number of dangerous stunts and accidents that have already happened. I've always kind of felt that the show was a little too dangerous for live theatre, and while I suppose you could say the same thing about Cirque, it always seemed for some reason to be just a little too far. It seems like they faced all of the R&D dangers in the NY space, and kind of got them figured out, and I worry that they're going to face the same problems moving to a new space, whether that's Vegas or abroad. Taking this show on tour is also something I'm skeptical about... I'm not sure if the acrobats and flying in the show can easily be inserted into other theatre spaces. It just seems like the travel and transfer costs for this show would be astronomical, and so I question Cohn's assertion that this will be profitable eventually.
I'm glad the team of Spider-Man learned a valuable lesson throughout this whole process. However, I don't think they have fully grasped the concept of what they learned. Why are you going to take a show that cost so much money that you can't pay off and bring it to other venues while still spending money to put the shows up there expecting enough money to pay back the cost of the original show and the cost of the shows that have opened up elsewhere? It's a nice thought, but I feel the team is being over zealous. You keep doing you and I hope all works out... but let's be real.. it probably won't.
Ok so they are closing hopefully they will make the money in Las Vegas!! So another 20 million to build a theatre in Las Vegas and build a story. I say they just make it like a Circ show, no lyrics or singing just music and motion. This way the swingers can focus on swinging and not singing and swinging, but who knows what will happen. Best of luck Spider Man. Can we just leave Super Heroes out of broadway!
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