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inive

for the

debut

of the

revamped

"spider-Man:

Turn Off

The Dark"

in Times

Square

last

night.

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Revised

version

of

'Spider-Man'

musical

returns

to

BroadwaY

BY

FMNK

TOVECE

Speciol fo

Newsdcy

"spider-Man:

Turn

Off

the

Dark"

redux

came through

with

flying colors

-

red

and

blue

-

in an early

look

at

the

revamped

Broadway

musical's

first

preview

performance

at

the

Foxwoods

Theatre

in

Times

Square

last night.

The

show

opens

officially

June

14.

The

two

"spider-Man"

aeri

al

sequences

flew

flawlessly

before

intermission,

with

the

stunt

performers avoiding

the

technical

woes

that troubled

the much-maligned

original

version

that

previewed from

Nov.

28 through

mid-April.

Gone

is the

much-maligned

"Geek Chorus"

of

four

teens

who

ruminated

on

the

super-

hero. Gone

is

the overarching

reliance

on

the spider-goddess

Arachne,

whose

incomprehen-

sible

machinations

bewildered

audiences.

And

gone

is the

ac-

cidental

death

of

Peter Park-

er's Uncle

Ben,

who

in the

classic

comic-book

retelling

died

as

the

inadvertent

result

of

Peter's selfishness

and

irre-

sponsibility,

creating

the guilt

that

motivates

his

superltero-

dom

-

although

his

offstage

death

by

a

burglar still

isnt

Pe-

ter's

fault in

any way.

"I'm

happy to

hear

that

theY

got

rid of the

Geek

Chorus,"

said

Dan Slott,'the

writer

of

Marvel

Comics'

flagship

series,

"The

Amazing Spider-Man,"

who

was

outside

the

theater be-

fore curtain

time.

"It

had

kind

of

felt like

a

slarr\

making

fun

of

the comic-reading

audience."

Retaining

the

original's

sPec-

tacular

set designs

and

acrobat-

ic

aerial

sequences,

and offer-

ing

a tightened

and

more cohe-

sive

plot,

a sharper

focus on

Spi-

der-Man's

archnemesis

the

Green

Goblin,

and five

new

songs

that

replace

three

others,

the

ambitious

show,

by

far

Broadway's

most

exPensive

production

ever,

earned

re-

spectful

though

not

thunderous

applause,

and

a tair number

of

laughs

in

appropriate

places.

Writer

Roberto

Aguirre-Sa-

casa,

director

Philip

William

McKinley

and creative

consult-

ant

Paul

Bogaev were

brought

in to

revamp

the show

at the

producers' request.

In

earlY

March, original

director

fulie

Taymor

agreed

to step

aside.

Aside

from the

near-unani-

mous brickbats

"Spider-Man"

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suffered when

critics

reviewed

the

preview of Feb.

7

-

the

fourth

announced

and

delayed

opening

night

-

enough

per-

formers

suffered

injuries

that

the

show became

a

punch

line.

Stunt

Spider-Man

ChristoPher

Tierney

was

hospitalized

after

falling

at

least

20 feet,

and

Na-

talie

Mendoza,

the

fust

to

PlaY

the

spider-goddess

Arachne,

suffered

a

concussion

during

the

frst

preview.

Her

replace-

ment,

T.V. Carpio,

was

later

in-

jured

and

had to

sit out

the

show

for two

weeks.