The cast of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark are getting injured with frightening regularity.
I was on Twitter last night when I ran across the following from Brian Lynch, who was at a preview performance for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark: “Stopped short near end. Someone took nasty fall. Screaming. 911 called. No idea what happened, kicked audience out.” Lynch quickly followed with “No joke. No explanation. MJ and Spidey took what seemed to be a planned fall into the stage pit. Then we heard MJ screaming.” Lynch was one of the first to report the latest injury to befall a cast member of the accident-prone musical.
About seven minutes before the end of the show, the line holding one of the show’s Spider-Men (likely actor Christopher Tierney) appeared to snap, dropping him about 10 feet into an open pit on the stage. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center. After the accident, the house lights came up, and an announcement informed the audience first that the performance was delayed, then that it was canceled. The New York Times ArtsBeat interviewed members of the audience, one of whom painted a pretty scary picture of the incident, saying “You heard screams…you heard a woman screaming and sobbing.”
Actress Natalie Mendoza, who was herself injured in one of the musical’s first previews, tweeted, “Please pray with me for my friend Chris, my superhero who quietly inspires me everyday with his spirit. A light in my heart went dim tonight,” which seems to confirm, as no official statement has yet, that Tierney is the injured party.
ArtsBeat quoted the statement released by Actor’s Equity, the union for theatrical actors and stage managers, saying, “Actors’ Equity Association is working with management and the Department of Labor to ensure that performances will not resume until back-up safety measures are in place.” I’m sure the two remaining uninjured members of the cast appreciate that.
Source: New York Times ArtsBeat
