Deadline reports that more negative attention is surrounding the musical
Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark - which has received much negativity over the past year, but is currently very successful at Broadway . In response to former director Julie Taymor's lawsuit concerning her copyright entitlements to the musical after being filed, the stage producers have launched a counter suit which challenges her contention that she should be paid full royalties despite being sacked. Particularly, they're challenging her assertion filed last November that the revamped version of the musical infringes on her copyrights, and they're now trying to thwart her attempt to keep them from taking the musical to other venues.
The producers also claim that, despite Taymor being contracted to co-write and collaborate on the musical (which has music from U2′s Bono and The Edge), she refuses
“to fulfill her contractual obligations, declaring that she could not and would not do the jobs that she was contracted to do.” The producers claim her actions left them with no choice but to fire her.
“As a result of all of the changes that Taymor could not and would not make, the Spider-Man musical is now a hit,” the producers said.
“The show is a success despite Taymor, not because of her.” In addition, the
Turn Off The Dark producers filed an antitrust suit against the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and Taymor in US District Court, Southern District of New York, in response to Taymor’s claim that she's entitled to be paid
“full royalties as director and collaborator despite the fact that Taymor caused numerous delays, drove up costs, and failed to direct a musical about Spider-Man that could open on Broadway.”
Philip Wm. McKinley is currently directing the musical, which grossed a record-setting $2,941,790 in ticket sales earlier this year, the highest single-week gross of any show in Broadway's history.
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