The troubled Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will close on January 4, after experiencing cast injuries, staff infighting and losses of up to $60 million. A steep decline in ticket sales led up to the announcement on Monday.
Spokesman Rick Miramontez said that Spider-Man will reopen in Las Vegas at a later date. A tour of Germany is also in the planning stages.
The musical's flying sequences and mid-air battles were spectacular--including a fight between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin over the audience's heads--but the music was decidedly less so.
Bono and The Edge of U2 wrote the musical score, which was supposed to be a selling point for the musical. But most critics found the score a weak point, including Thom Geier of Entertainment Weekly, who said, "Sadly, Bono and The Edge's score is a mostly lackluster collection of forgettable tunes that play like U2 B-sides."
The special-effects laden Spider-Man was the most expensive Broadway show ever. The show cost a total of $75 million, twice as much as any other Broadway musical.
The costs of running the production were enormous, between $1 million and $1.3 million per week. The weekly costs sometimes exceeded ticket revenue.
The show's investors complained about the show's unsustainable budget and the weaknesses of the musical score. Three investors told the New York Times that they have not been paid anything back during the three-year run of Spider-Man--expecting that they will have to cut their losses.
One of the show's lead producers, Michael Cohl, told the New York Times: "I think the investors will eventually see something, but look, this is showbiz. I hope the show will be a huge hit in Vegas and Germany and on an arena tour, and then I expect them to see some money back. But it will be a long road and take a long time."
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