The second act’s plot-in which Arachne, a character from Greek mythology, lures Spider-Man into a series of elaborate traps later revealed to be an illusion-was replaced with an extension of the more familiar Green Goblin narrative. In March 2011, Cohl replaced director Julie Taymor of Lion King fame with Philip William McKinley, former director of the Barnum and Bailey circus (Taymor was not was not available for comment for this story).Īt a cost of $12.3 million, plus $4 million in lost ticket sales, the new team shuttered the operation for nearly a month and rewrote half the show. But advance sales started drying up as the terrible reviews mounted. After a year of delays, the show opened for previews in Novemand was soon grossing over $1 million per week in spite of well-publicized cast injuries and a raft of negative publicity. “It was just a complete mess,” he says.Ĭohl helped raise another $30 million to get Spider-Man off the ground.
When Cohl came on board, the production couldn’t even pay its rent, and its performers were locked out of the Foxwoods Theater. The Irish rocker, who knew Cohl from his days as a concert promoter, scored Spider-Man with bandmate the Edge and was an early backer (through Elevation Partners, he’s also an investor in Forbes Media). The tale begins in September 2009, when U2 frontman Bono asked former Live Nation chief Michael Cohl to take the reins of the troubled show. That’s quite a feat for a show with a past as checkered as Spider-Man's. “ Spider-Man is the biggest musical ever,” says Ken Davenport, co-producer of No. This year, the show ranks fifth with just shy of $50 million, according to BroadwayWorld.
Even so, Spider-Man has grossed more than $200 million over three years, including $78.5 million in 2012, fourth-best on Broadway behind Wicked, Lion King and Book of Mormon. The New York Times reports that the show may still be as much as $60 million in the red. Despite the bubbly language, the move would seem to be an admission of defeat indeed, the show never lived up to the expectations generated by its lofty price tag. So, as its backers shift their focus, Corleone family-style, from the Big Apple to Sin City, the question arises: Can Las Vegas actually save Spider-Man? Only time will tell, but clues exist throughout the show’s brief history.
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