Spider-Man Musical Off to Tangled Start

Previews of Broadway musicals are rarely perfect, but last night's debut of the long-plagued Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was especially troubled. The start was delayed 24 minutes; the show was paused five times for technical problems; an actress hung upside down in the air for six minutes. Yet none of it was enough to dissuade many of the fans, who tweeted throughout expressing delight at the aerial stunts. Samples from the Wall Street Journal: "My heart was racing," said one audience member; "WOW on flying thru theater," said another.

Still, not everyone was impressed. During one pause, a woman shouted, "I don’t know how everyone else feels, but I feel like a guinea pig today—I feel like it’s a dress rehearsal," the New York Times reports, but she was booed. The $65 million musical, long delayed due to financial difficulties, has garnered quite a bit of attention thanks to the score, written by U2's Bono and the Edge, as well as the flying stunts—which injured two actors during rehearsals. It is scheduled to open Jan. 11, 2011.
(More Spider-Man stories.)