Could Spider-Man Ever Swing Back to Broadway?

(Photo: Jacob Cohl)

by Chris Peterson

With Spider-Man: Brand New Day set to hit movie theaters in July and it being 12 years since Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark closed at the Lyric Theatre(formerly the Foxwoods Theatre), it feels like a fitting time to ask a question that still sounds a little ridiculous, but maybe should not be dismissed outright:

Could Spider-Man ever come back to Broadway?

I know. I know.

For many theatre fans, Turn Off the Dark is not remembered as a musical as much as it is remembered as a Broadway cautionary tale. The injuries. The delays. The rewrites. The budget. It became one of those productions where the drama around the show completely overtook whatever was happening on stage.

But I’ll say something that might get me lightly pelted with Playbills: I don’t think Spider-Man is an impossible Broadway idea.

In fact, I think the bones of a good musical were always there. Because at its core, Spider-Man is not a bad musical theatre character. Quite the opposite.

The problem with Turn Off the Dark was not that Spider-Man could never work on stage. The problem was that the original production became defined by risk. Physical risk. Financial risk. And eventually, the conversation around the show swallowed the show itself.

So could it come back? In theory, yes.

In reality? Probably not.

Broadway in 2026 is not exactly built for financial experiments, especially ones involving superhero IP, extensive safety requirements, and a title with this much baggage. Producing any new musical on Broadway has become brutally expensive. Add flying, automation, fight choreography, insurance, and the inevitable marketing campaign needed to convince audiences this is not simply the old disaster in a new costume, and the numbers would likely become terrifying very quickly.

That might be the biggest reason a Spider-Man revival feels nearly impossible right now. Not because the idea could never work creatively, but because the economics of Broadway may not allow for the kind of patient, careful, rebuilt version the property would actually need.

A return would have to be a complete reimagining. The stunt work would need to be rebuilt from the ground up with safety, sustainability, and storytelling as the priorities. Audiences do not need Spider-Man flying over them every seven minutes to believe he is Spider-Man. As we’ve seen with the How to Train Your Dragon show at Universal’s Epic Universe, sometimes one well-staged moment can do more than ten dangerous ones.

The book would need serious attention, too. And honestly, some of the score deserves another look. Not all of it worked, but there were songs that had potential. A revised version by Bono and the Edge could keep what worked and lose what did not.

The biggest challenge, of course, is the brand damage. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is still shorthand for Broadway chaos. Any producer touching it would have to know that the first headline would not be about the cast, score, or creative team. It would be about whether Broadway has lost its mind again.

But theatre has a long memory and a short one. Shows get reassessed. Ideas get rescued. Bad productions do not always mean bad concepts, excempt maybe Chess.