This week's issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine checked in with the rep for Evan Rachel Wood, who previous rumors stated was let go as Mary Jane, along with other contracted performers from SPIDER-MAN when the show hit financial troubles. Wood's representative tells the magazine however that she is still on board and that she was never set loose. Co-star Alan Cumming's rep was 'unavailable for comment.'
Michael Riedel reported last week in his Broadway Matinee column in the The New York Post today that while 'SPIDER-MAN, Turn Off The Dark' may have hit a snag on the road to Broadway, a friendly "superhero" is trying to "swing" in to get things rolling again.
Directed by Tony Award-winner Julie Taymor with 22-time Grammy® Award-winning Bono and The Edge creating new music and lyrics, SPIDER-MAN will be written by Julie Taymor and Glen Berger.
Riedel reveals that Bono is hoping to gather up some of his creative and well-heeled friends to give the musical "webslinger" a lift and help him back on the road to production.
He reports that, "the help -- or, more accurately, the cash -- is said to be coming by way of Bono, who, with The Edge, has written the score to "Spider-Man."
Bono's too smart to put his own money in the show, but word on the street is that he's tapped into his vast network of rich friends and business associates to restart production.
Designers and some stagehands go back to work today." To read Michael Riedel's column on the latest 'SPIDER-MAN' updates click here.
Julie Taymor is best known as director of one of the most successful musicals in Broadway history, Disney's The Lion King and the film Across The Universe. Bono and The Edge are half of one of the most popular rock bands of all time, U2, who will be making their Broadway debut with SPIDER-MAN.
Drawing from over forty years of Marvel comic books for inspiration, SPIDER-MAN spins a new take on the mythic tale of a young man propelled from a modest rowhouse in Queens to the sky-scraping spire of the Chrysler Building, the bustling offices of the Daily Bugle, through the dizzying canyons of Manhattan, to new vistas never before seen. The musical follows the story of teenager Peter Parker, whose unremarkable life is turned upside-down-literally-when he's bitten by a genetically altered spider and wakes up the next morning clinging to his bedroom ceiling. This bullied science-geek-suddenly endowed with astonishing powers-soon learns, however, that with great power comes great responsibility as villains test not only his physical strength but also his strength of character. Spider-Man's battles will hurtle the audience through an origin story both recognizable and unexpected--yielding new characters as well as familiar faces--until a final surprising confrontation casts a startling new light on this hero's journey.
The principal creative and design team for SPIDER-MAN includes Daniel Ezralow, Choreographer (Across the Universe, The Green Bird); George Tsypin, Sets (The Magic Flute, The Little Mermaid); Eiko Ishioka, Costumes (Academy Award® for Bram Stoker's Dracula, Tony Award® nomination for M. Butterfly, the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics); Donald Holder, Lighting (Tony® Awards for The Lion King, South Pacific); Jonathan Deans, Sound (Fosse, The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil, Young Frankenstein, Ragtime); and Teese Gohl, Musical Supervisor (Across the Universe, Frida). Additional members of the SPIDER-MAN creative team will be announced at a later date.
