By now, you've probably heard that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is indeed getting a makeover and that its director, Julie Taymor, is no longer running the show. Exactly what she will have to do with it in the future is probably still being worked out with lawyer talking to lawyer. The folks now calling the shots probably don't yet know how much the show will be modified and Ms. Taymor can't yet know if she'll even want her name associated with the final product.
Reports are vague on if and when the show may shut down for retooling and the producers may not even know yet. Closing for a while would be a pretty extreme step and a costly one. The big question is how will the grosses hold up, particularly in light of this new announcement. People might rush to see the current version while they can or they may decide to stay away in droves. It's kind of a Broadway tradition that when a spectacular, notable flop is about to close, audiences stampede to see it while they still can…but this show isn't exactly closing.
How has it been doing? Well, the week before last it took in $1,559,341, which was 100.1% of capacity. (Broadway shows sometimes do that. They figure capacity by multiplying the number of available tickets at their standard pricing…but because there are premimum seat deals with some tix going at even higher prices, the total gross can exceed 100%.) Last week, it took in $1,281,776, which was 84.5% of capacity. 84.5% is still a good take — and if you can't make money at that level, you might as well close down. But it's also cause for concern when you drop more than 15% in one week without an obvious reason like a change of leads. I'm curious as to whether they'll go up or down in the next report.