Spider Man on Broadway: Will the Flying Pass Inspection?

10/12/10 12:33am Roger Friedman 1

“Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” is heading toward its November 14th first preview on Broadway with just enough tsuris to throw off a little gossip.

The $52 million-plus show is one of those Broadway legends already. Some in the theater are rooting for it to fail. Others, like this column, are looking forward to a big hit.

But along the way: chaos! trouble!

First of all, I am told that the rehearsals continue apace, but slowly. “They’ve only gotten through the first act,” says a source. “It’s been very complicated. Act 2 will start this week.” That’s 30 days from the unofficial “opening” night.

More importantly: the flying that all the Spider Men do in the show is indeed holding things up. Here’s the scenario. Apparently the actors will be flying over the audience’s heads and all over the theater. This isn’t “Peter Pan” with a little onstage aerial. And the people who are flying are not from Cirque du Soleil or trained acrobats. “They’re muscular actors who got flying training and are into it,” says a source.

Hmmm. Apparently also, there are regulations about this sort of thing, unions and all that, various controls. “They’re afraid they won’t pass inspection when the flying inspectors come,” says my source.

There’s lots of good news, however. “The music is great,” my source says of the Bono-Edge score. “And the choreography and the stunts are amazing to watch. The Green Goblin and Spider Man have a fight in the sky right above the audience that will blow everyone’s minds.” Indeed. There’s no net.

And since it’s a Julie Taymor show, expect puppets. “A lot of puppets,” says my source.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.