The $65 million dollar Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has pushed back its opening night from January 11th to some date in February TBD. Of course, the production has already "opened" in the sense that audiences are being charged full price to watch a show that, we're told, ends with an actor raising his arms up in the air and yelling, "SPIDER-MAN!" But these performances are referred to in the business as "previews"; the opening date is when critics can publish their reviews (as soon as the curtain falls). And the producers do not want critics to see their spider baby yet. It's fragile! Arts Beat reports:

The delay is intended to provide more time for the creators to stage a new final number, make further rewrites to the dialogue and consider adding and cutting scenes and perhaps inserting new music from the composers, U2’s Bono and the Edge, who will resume working full-time on the show in late December.

Reflecting the view of some audience members who have criticized the show on blogs, Twitter and Facebook, Ms. Taymor and the producers have concluded that Act II has storytelling problems that need to be fixed. While Act I is a familiar rendition of Peter Parker turning into Spider-Man, Act II is largely the invention of Ms. Taymor and Bono, and includes some major reversals that can be hard to understand in the fast-moving show.

This will be the fourth major delay in the production's long and tortured history; as we noted Tuesday the producers are counting on good reviews if they're ever going to recoup their investment, which under a best case scenario would take four years of sold-out houses. But enough fretting over the producers, what about the other super heroes who deserve Broadway shows! If this thing fails, will we ever see a Justice League musical, or an Aquaman water spectacular? As if Bono didn't have enough to worry about, now the fate of American musical superhero theater is resting in his hands.