Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark Trivia Quiz

Answer: Julie Taymor

Taymor, who had previously directed Shakespearean plays in New York, the Broadway production of "The Lion King", and the Beatles-inspired musical film "Across the Universe", went full-force into this Marvel franchise, adapting the comic book hero into a story fit for the stage. During preview performances as early as 2011, Taymor left the project altogether, not wanting to continue her association with the continuously delayed musical though she'd been behind the project since 2002.

Many considered her contribution overambitious.

Answer: U2

Bono and The Edge got together to write the setlist for the entire show, beginning to do so as early as 2002. What resulted was a list of twenty-one songs, only two-thirds of which ended up appearing on the soundtrack for the production and only half of which featured Peter Parker.

The music itself was critically panned which, after the relative success of "American Idiot" on Broadway, was perhaps a hint that not all rock musicians could be cut out for the medium.

Answer: Reeve Carney

After months of rehearsal performances, Reeve Carney took to the stage for opening night on June 14, 2011, in the role of Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man), and in many of the promotional performances done on TV (on late night shows and "American Idol"). He also played Parker in the soundtrack album. Carney's appearance in the show (despite only doing six of eight performances per week due to the high physical strain of the role) ended in 2013, after which he took a starring role in the Showtime horror-drama "Penny Dreadful".

Answer: False

While many "Spider-Man" purists would argue the girlfriend point to death, "Turn Off the Dark" features Mary Jane as the leading lady role, and the show itself starts with her plummeting from the Brooklyn Bridge. The role was played by Jennifer Damiano on opening night, though she left after only one year of performances, relinquishing the role to Rebecca Faulkenberry, who would close out the show. Damiano was also an understudy for "Spring Awakening" on Broadway and featured in Duncan Sheik's "American Psycho" musical on Broadway in 2016.

Answer: Green Goblin

In the musical, Norman Osborn becomes the Green Goblin due to a mutation in his lab brought on by a tragic event, and that closes out Act I. During the second act, Spider-Man not only needs to deal with his own visions, but the Green Goblin creates several other major villains in his lab (including Kraven, Lizard, and Carnage) and forces the hero to save both MJ and New York City. He does so in a finale on top of the Chrysler Building

...at least, all of that happens in the retooled version of the show.

Answer: Arachne

Uh...yeah. While Arachne (played by "Across the Universe's" T.V. Carpio in early performances) was much more heavily featured in Taymor's original vision of the show, she was cut back during the retooling efforts put forth in 2011 and she took a back seat for much of the rest of the show's run. Along with the existing Spider-Man plot, Arachne's story and mythology run at the same time, coming to ahead during the original finale.

She appears during three songs, one of which is the title track, "Turn Off the Dark".

Answer: Wire acts

The show being Spider-Man themed and all, it made sense to have high-concept wire stunts. This did, of course, contribute to much exhaustion on the part of the leading role. Over the course of the production, many people were injured as a result of the ambitious stunts and performances leading to, inevitably, issues with insurance.

These road blocks ended up being one of the leading reasons as to why the show had to shut down, along with declining ticket sales.

Answer: Yes

Yup, and in fact it was the most expensive show to be made on Broadway up until that point of time with the production already costing $25,000,000 in 2009, two years before opening night. That said, nearly $3,000,000 was earned in opening week, also breaking a Broadway record.

The show ultimately ended up costing over $75,000,000 to make-- a number it did not recoup during its time at the Lyric Theatre (then the Foxwoods Theatre).

Answer: None

The Tony Awards were not kind to "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark", and it was likely a reflection of the critical panning of the show which, while it improved after opening night, dragged the show through the mud during the extensive rehearsal performances leading to that point. That said, the show was nominated in two categories: Costume Design of a Musical and Scenic Design of a Musical, both were major budgetary contributions to the show.

It lost to "Follies" and "Once" respectively. Best Musical went to "Once" that year.

Answer: Two and a half years

And in that time it couldn't come close to making back its $75,000,000 price tag (it actually still owed about eighty percent of that back to investors). After nearly ten years in the works, the show ended with a bit of a whimper on January 4, 2014, with only five original cast members (none main roles) and a nearly-completely-replaced creative team behind it. Between insurance issues, costs, plummeting ticket intake, and the bad press, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" ended up shutting its doors.

It was replaced by a revival of "On the Town" in 2014.