5.25.11 Adam News & Info

Troubled $65 million musical will need sellout runs of two to three years just to break even.

On Nov 28, after multiple delays, injuries and the death of founding producer Tony Adams, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the new $65 million musical with a score by U2’s Bono and the Edge and directed and written by The Lion King’s Julie Taymor, began previews on Broadway. And even before the curtain went up — 24 minutes late — the Twittersphere and Internet theater websites were buzzing with anticipation and not a little schadenfreude.

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The money has been put up by a consortium of independent investors, including theater veterans like James Nederlander and Terry Allan Kramer, as well as lead producer Michael Cohl, a rock promoter. “It’s a crapshoot, it’s a long shot,” Azenberg says, adding, “but it’d be nice if they pulled it off.”