‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’ Producers Silence the Geek Chorus

Finally, some good news for the endlessly plagued Spider-Man musical, Turn Off the Dark. The New York Times reported on Thursday that the show's deeply despised "Geek Chorus" -- a group of nerds who fanfic the ludicrous story as it rolls along -- have been fired. While it's usually an unhappy thing for anyone to lose their jobs, especially starving actors, it's likely the Geek Chorus would have been hideously maimed by a falling piano had they remained.Based on the four principal creators of Turn Off the Dark -- director Julie Taymor, co-writer Glen Berger, Bono and The Edge of U2 -- the Geek Chorus has been the most common source of complaints from preview audiences and critics (besides the horrific injuries and dreadful music, of course). In his review of a preview performance of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, ComicsAlliance's Brian Childs described the Geek Chorus thusly:

The Greek "geek" chorus are four comic book fans nerding out over the ultimate Spider-Man story, which becomes the play and frames everything. The end result of this device is that every scene is either preceded or followed by a painfully explicit explanation of what is happening, slowing the entire story down to a crawl.

As such, the Chorus has been silenced. It is perhaps the first of many ejections of Taymor-generated material following the director's own exodus from the production earlier this month. New director Philip WIlliam McKinley, Berger and new co-writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa have reportedly devised a new way to transition from scene to scene without the cover of the Geek Chorus, although details are not yet available.

In related news, Broadway World reports that Turn Off the Dark choreographer and alleged "Taymor loyalist" Daniel Ezralow, who's credited with designing the show's dangerously spectacular acrobatics, has been replaced by Chase Brock, the choreographer of the Broadway Experience video game for Wii.

Preview performances of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will continue until April 18, when the show goes on hiatus to implement the ideas of the new creative team. Previews will resume on May 12 and the show is presently scheduled to open properly on June 12.

[Via Robot 6]