Lawsuit continues in Spider-Man Broadway show case

Posted by Theresa Milano On Wednesday, January 18th 2012 in International

The producers of the popular Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” decided to launch a counteroffensive during a federal court hearing that took place on Tuesday. The counteroffensive was aimed against a lawsuit made by Julie Taymor, the former director of the $75 million show. The producers wish to erase Taymor’s involvement in the show as they continue with the production. They gave the first response to the lawsuit stating she violated her contract and thus should be denied any earnings from the show. The former director was fired in March. The producers stated she “could not and would not do the jobs that she was contracted to do,” therefore others had to take on her tasks. In the end they explained the show had been changed and she had no claim to it.

“Taymor refused to develop a musical that followed the original, family-friendly ‘Spider-Man’ story, which was depicted in the Marvel comic books and the hugely successful motion picture trilogy based on them,” the lawyers for Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris, the lead producers, wrote in the response. “Instead, Taymor, who admits that she was not a fan of the ‘Spider-Man’ story prior to her involvement with the musical, insisted on developing a dark, disjointed and hallucinogenic musical involving suicide, sex and death,” the lawyers added, talking about Taymor’s development of the main villain character Arachne.

When they fired her, the producers claimed the director had been unwilling to make any kinds of changes to the script.