In 1962, the friendly neighborhood Spiderman was erected from the mind of superhero originator Stan Lee and Marvel comics. But from the mind of Julie Taymor came the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, with some not-so-friendly occurrences on stage.

     During one of the first shows for the musical, the stunt double playing Spiderman’s tether broke, causing the actor to plummet over 30 feet into the orchestra pit below (according to cbsnews.com). Many other injuries have occurred over the course of a little over a month. Natalie Mendoza, an actress playing the female spider Arachne, was struck by a weighted rope backstage during a performance, resulting in a concussion. She was replaced by an understudy without informing the audience of the incident (according to huffingtonpost.com).

     Not only is the safety (or lack of) making this play plummet, the script is also a source of problems. The writer, Julie Taymor, has directed such stage musicals as The Lion King and also directed the movies Titus and Frida. Though in this case, her jumbled plot, lifeless characters, and lame jokes won’t be able to be covered up by the large amounts of special effects and music (written by U2’s Bono and The Edge) put into Spider-Man, which is causing the plays budget to reach over $65 million, which includes the injuries (according to nypost.com).

     Many jokes have been made about the musical. One playwright said, “The actors should fly a lot more, preferably in the nude,” and people who’ve seen the play say to “sell it as a Cirque du Soleil-type spectacle, rather than a Broadway musical” (according to nypost.com).  Television shows have also made their cracks at the play; SNL did a clip about it, where Andy Samberg played the fourth actor to be Peter Parker in Spider-Man, saying, “the first one broke his wrist, the next guy shattered his leg, and the last guy just exploded.” Conan O’Brian made jokes on his show about it, where he later received flowers from the Spider-Man producers with a note stating, “We hope you enjoy the flowers. It was cheaper than a cease-and-desist” (according to huffingtonpost.com).

     I for one enjoy Marvel comics and Stan Lee’s work, and I think that they should leave this alone. Obviously, Taymor has bitten off more than she can chew and should keep this story to the silver screen, not the Broadway stage, unless she wants endless jokes made about her work.