There has been much news about the U2-backed Spider-Man musical, something that looks great on paper or in the mind's eye but is working out as well as their PopWorld opening show where they were Spinal Tap-ishly stuck inside a large lemon. Here's a brief timeline of what has happened since day one:
April 2007: BBC reports U2 writing music for new Spider-Man theatre project directed by Julie Taymor (Lion King).
-- Feb 2009: Announcement is made that Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark will make debut Feb 18, 2010. However, numerous rewriters, tinkering and problems (ie: nobody in their right mind is going to put up money for this) causes them to push it back to December 2010 and eventually to 2011. The musical has become some $25M in debt and ballooning to a possible $52M budget.
During this time Bono and The Edge bring in concert promoter Michael Cohl (Stones, U2) to save the musical.
-- Alan Cumming and Evan Rachel Wood both drop out after originally being the main characters due to the delays.
-- During rehearsals two stunt doubles are injured, one breaking both of his wrists while other breaking his toe after injuring his foot previously.
-- At the first preview performance Natalie Mendoza suffers a concussion yet continues with another show against doctor's advice. She eventually leaves the show due to concussion symptoms.
-- On December 20th, Christopher Tierney (pictured above), an ensemble member of the cast, has a cable on his harness detach, causing him to plummet 20 feet into an orchestra pit and with severe injuries. The show is called off with critics asking if it's a sign the musical should be stopped.
-- On Dec 31, 2010, both Bono and The Edge appear on Carson Daly's lame New Year's Eve show confident that the show will go on. "If you're not going to do something revolutionary why bother?" Fan site atu2.com reports that by the time the show will officially open, eight hours of pre-production will have gone into each minute of the show.
Unless I'm mistaken, I've yet to see Bono or The Edge do any aerial stunts during any of their recent tours or for that matter any of their tours. The only thing they've done is walk around a heart-shaped track, and even then Bono managed to fall off that once. Perhaps if they were tied to a cable a la Gene Simmons of KISS, Paul Stanley of KISS, Pink (who had a horrible spill last summer in Europe thanks to a faulty harness) or numerous other acts, they might realize the risks involved. Playing your guitar on a reinforced stage is one thing, swinging from a harness or jetting high above a crowd is something totally different.
Regardless, hopefully there are no more injuries from this project, or the only remaining injuries are to the ego's of U2's core.
Oh and here's Pink's fall, not good.....
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