“Spider Man: Turn off the Dark” is going to need its own hospital wing at this point.
Last night, at the end of the show, Christopher Tierney, 31, a stunt double for star Reeve Carney, fell into the orchestra pit. The show’s main song is called, ironically, “Boy Falls from the Sky.”
Tierney is in Bellevue Hospital with broken ribs. He’s being watched, according to my source, because there was bleeding after he fell 26 feet.
When Tierney fell he was not flying. “This had nothing to do with aerial stuff,” says my source. “He was on the big ramp that rises 14 feet. We’re trying to figure out how he fell.” Tierney was harnessed and tethered. But it’s clear from a video that the tether snapped and Tierney free fell right off the ramp.
“Spider Man” usually doesn’t have a Monday night performance, but this week’s schedule was altered by the holidays. There was no performance set for tonight away. There are two tomorrow. And Tierney does have an understudy.
Right now, OSHA is at the Foxwoods Theater conducting an investigation.
Still, this latest mishap has shaken everyone in the company. Not only that: an audience member was illegally filming the entire show last night. Videos are popping up on the internet. An eight second clip can be found on the New York Times website. (On cnn.com you have sit through a 30 second commercial before seeing their interview with audience members.)
“We’re doing things in the dark here,” says a source, “and that makes it more difficult. The theater is a dangerous place.”
