Back in March, the official release outlining the retooling of the massive and plagued Broadway production Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark touted a new direction and a new director to replace Julie Taymor. And when the revamp finally made it to opening night in June after months of delays and bad press, Taymor was in the audience to take a bow. Apparently, the good will ended there: On Tuesday, the director filed a lawsuit in New York against Spider-Man‘s producers alleging that they haven’t compensated her for the work she did on the most expensive musical ever staged, and that they violated her creative rights. Her lawyer Charles Spada told the Associated Press that the non-payment comes “despite the fact that the show has consistently played to capacity or near-capacity houses since its first public performance in November 2010.” Taymor previously filed a claim that she never received royalties from the production, which last week grossed more than $1.4 million at the box office.
Last week, the Tony Awards committee announced that Taymor was eligible to be nominated in the Best Direction of a Musical category — an unlikely scenario considering all the negativity that’s come out of the $70 million production. On the opening-night Playbill, she carried the credit “Original Direction By” and was listed first among the scriptwriters.


I think we should ALL sue Spiderman Turn Off The Dark for creating a 70 gazillion dollar piece o’ —-. For not taking that 1% wealth and using it for the 99% talent that was overlooked. You think Occupy is just a Wall Street thing? It’s a BROADWAY thing just as badly. Only a certain class of people afford it now. Those who use credit and can’t afford it, those insiders who get it free, and those who pay for the mindless merry-go-round-musical.
Sorry, I’ve got to return my soapbox. Can’t make the payments due to NYC real estate.
They should have renamed it “Spiderman: Turn Off the Suck” when they retooled it.
Is anyone suing Julie Taymor for THE TEMPEST?
I don’t blame her fopr wanting the money, but the creative credit is really a drag. What a stinker.
So how close was Cynthia Nixon channeling her on L&O CI?
Ms. Taymor, with all due respect and empathy for the unfortunate circumstances surrounding your prior production of Spiderman, I think the reason you haven’t gotten paid because the ” insurance ” has gone up astronomically from all the injuries incurred on your set…..not to mention not knowing how much pay out to each injured performer out of pocket as well…..
I understand that it was your first stage production where actors were required to be flown in the air, now having said that….any good director would agree with me, that on any set at any time as a director, action or not, you have an obligation first and foremost to secure a safe set for all of your actors to work on, you’re responsible for seeing over everything, not just creatively and not care if they walk on stage with a puddle of water there, slip and fall….especially on something as complicated as the set of this one, you should have been extra careful with the safety of your actors, since they’re in the air…..your failure to do so resulted in several injuries from broken necks, to broken arms, broken ribs, broken legs and much more, thank god no one died! Due to your negligence that has cost the productions millions more out of pocket, raise in their insurance, and badly injured many people……so that is the reason why you’re not getting your money! You’re lucky the injured staff didn’t come after you personally to sue you for injuries and loss of income…..you’re better off spending your energy on pursuing other projects and accept responsibility for this one. This production has gone through hell, just leave them in peace so they can make a living….everything is peaceful for them now, leave it alone!
WHILE we’re at it, can we please have our money back for that mess Across the Universe? Almost as bad as Moulin Rouge and Showgirls, but far more boring.
This just in: the lawsuit is noe $44 million over budget.
“Now.” Way to kill your own joke.