The Tangled Web of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

In Hawkeye, a fictional Broadway musical called Rogers depicted the life of Captain America and The Avengers. The show became so popular, that a real life version of Rogers had a brief run onstage in Disney California Adventure in the summer of 2023. The delightfully cheesy meta-moment brings back to mind the actual time Marvel tried to bring one of their superheroes to Broadway.Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark earned a reputation as being a train wreck of a production, suffering from a clashing creative team, a muddled story, and numerous injuries. It became known as being the most expensive Broadway show to flop in history, and having the longest preview period with a whopping 182 performances before actually opening. If Rogers was ever considered to become a proper musical, learning the mistakes of Turn Off the Dark might be a good way to avoid repeating history.With Great Power, Comes Great TheatricalityFollowing the ginormous success of the first Spider-Man movie in 2002, Marvel looked for other industries to conquer with their iconic superhero. They approached Tony Adams, an Irish director, to produce a musical based on Spider-Man. Adams was best known for his work with Blake Ed...