Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark Will Close on Broadway

The Broadway production of Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark will end its three-year run at the Foxwoods Theatre on January 4, show spokesperson Rick Miramontez has confirmed.

“Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark will be ending its historic Broadway run in January 2014. We are excited to report that the next destination for Spider-Man will be the entertainment capital of the world: Las Vegas. Further details will be announced in the weeks to come,” Miramontez said in a statement e-mailed to the press at 10pm on November 18. The official announcement came after hours of speculation through published reports speculating that the show would indeed close up shop.

Inspired by the Marvel comic-book series, Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark features a score by Bono and The Edge and a book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. The $75 million musical began performances November 28, 2010, and set the record for the most previews ever in Broadway history, clocking in at 182.

The high-flying musical had a rocky start on Broadway, plagued with technical errors, high-profile injuries, and the departure of cast members. After multiple delays, director and cocreator Taymor was released from day-to-day supervision of the show in March 2011, with new director Philip William McKinley and co-book-writer Aguirre-Sacasa brought in to revamp the production. After shutting down for revisions, "Spider-Man 2.0" began performances on May 12, 2011, and officially opened on June 14, 2011.

Taymor's departure from the production was a contentious one. The acclaimed director filed suits against the show's producers for "violating [her] creative rights as an author"; the producers responded by filing a countersuit claiming that she "[refused] to perform her contractual obligations necessitating the hiring of a new writer to do the work she would not and could not do." A federal court settlement of these dueling lawsuits was reached in August 2012. The settlement of a suit over Taymor's profits and creative rights was reached in April 2013.

In a production dogged with problems, there were also a number of milestones achieved. In May 2012, Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark welcomed its 1,000,000th audience member. An initiative to honor the Spider-Man-like "Everyday Heroes" of the world was launched in September 2011. And, in a particularly tongue-in-cheek giveaway, the show annually offered complimentary tickets to audience members named Tony (or any variation on that theme) on the day of the Tony Awards.

Earlier this month, coauthor Glen Berger published a tell-all memoir about his experiences working on the show, titled Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History.

By the time it ends its run in January, Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark will have played 1,268 performances.

For more information and tickets to Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, click here.