Marvel Says Spider-Man 'May Hit Broadway' in 2009

Marvel Studios Chairman David Maisel told an audience at the Thomas Weisel Consumer Conference in New York that the Spider-Man musical might at last hit Broadway next year. The show has been in the works for three and a half years, with casting calls this summer heating up talk about the show. 

This confirms reports from earlier this summer where Marvel Comics Executive Peter Cuneo said "we are very pleased with our Broadway show. The show is done, it's being directed by Julie Taymor who of course won the Tony for Lion King. The music has been done by Bono and The Edge. A late '09 launch or a 2010...actually it's a challenge to find a theater on Broadway right now. These things are all scheduled, as you might imagine, well in advance. So the timing is more related to getting a theater than it is to the progress of the show."

"Spider-Man (Peter Benjamin Parker) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superhero, created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. The character first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), and has since gone on to become one of the most popular, enduring and commercially successful superheroes worldwide, and is arguably Marvel's most famous character. When Spider-Man first appeared in the early 1960s, teenagers in superhero comic books were usually relegated to the role of sidekick to the series' main character. The Spider-Man series broke ground by featuring Peter Parker, a teenage high school student to whose "self-obsessions with rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness" young readers could relate.[1] Spider-Man has since appeared in various media, including several animated and live-action television series, syndicated newspaper comic strips and a successful series of films starring actor Tobey Maguire as the character.

Marvel has featured Spider-Man in several comic book series, the first titled The Amazing Spider-Man. Over the years, the Peter Parker character has developed from shy high school student to troubled college student to a married teacher and a member of the superhero team the New Avengers," state press notes.

Taymor, who won a Tony Award for directing the Broadway musical The Lion King and who is also known for equally visually imaginative films such as Titus and Frida, helmed the recent Metropolitan Opera production of The Magic Flute, as well as productions such as Juan Darien, The Tempest, and Oedipus Rex.