Spider-Man Musical Budget Swings Up to $40 Million!

Broadway insiders say Julie Taymor is out of control on the set—er, rehearsal studio—of the upcoming musical adaptation of Spider-Man. The projected budget has soared to $40 million so far, with sources telling the Posts's Michael Riedel, "She doesn't care what it costs. Does not care at all. Her attitude is: It's for the art, and you don't question artists." To be sure, with music by U2's Bono and the Edge and direction from the Tony-winning Taymor, Spider-Man could easily be the most fabulous piece of, um, art on Broadway since Capeman. But Riedel predicts that with a weekly running cost of $1 million, the show would "have to run about 8,000 years" to break even. Producers are supposedly eying the big Hilton Theatre for a 2009 opening—they just need the current occupant, Young Frankenstein, to admit defeat.