Just as we were starting to forget about all of those accidents that marred the early performances of Spider-Man: There Will Be Blood Turn Off the Dark along comes the U.S. Labor Department to bring it all back. The Department's office of Occupational Safety & Health Administration took a look at Julie Taymor's crucible and found it wanting. The Office today smacked the show's production company, 8 Legged Productions, with "three serious violations of workplace safety standards" worth $12,600 in fines.
Here's how they describe what they found:
From the investigation, OSHA alleges that employees were exposed to the hazards of falls or being struck during flying routines because of improperly adjusted or unsecured safety harnesses. An additional fall hazard stemmed from unguarded open-side floors that lacked fall protection. Finally, the company failed to shield employees from being struck by moving overhead rigging components.
These conditions resulted in the issuance of the three serious citations, with a total of $12,600 in proposed fines. OSHA issues a serious citation when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.
The show now has 15 days to either pay up or contest OSHA's findings. OSHA got involved in the Broadway mess at the behest of the New York State Department of Labor (which already fined the show for two violations after their inspection).
Meanwhile, according to Playbill, last week Spider-Man was again the second-highest grossing show on Broadway with $1,559,341, behind only Wicked which pulled in $1,660,095.
