Broadway's Spider-Man Flies Again

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Broadway's most expensive and audacious show, flies back into action tonight—with what the creative team and producers say is a cleaner story and has tighter music. The $70 million musical emerges from a three-week hiatus with most of the cast intact, but minus Julie Taymor as director. Among the changes: Bono and The Edge reworked the songs, more flying stunts were added, and the romance between Peter Parker and Mary Jane returned to center stage.

Reeve Carney, who plays Peter Parker, says the changes have been reinvigorating. The new script, he says, "jumps off the page at you." (We're hoping that's a figure of speech, but with this accident-prone show, one can't be too sure.) Despite terrible reviews from critics, Spider-Man tickets are "selling briskly", according to a spokesman for the show. Meanwhile, Spider-Man has broken the record for the longest run of preview performances, and is expected to open (fingers crossed) June 14.