Producers of the battle-scarred Broadway mega-musicalSpiderman: Turn Off the Dark have yet to issue an official statement, but sources confirm that leading lady Natalie Mendoza will be leaving the production. Insiders tell the Post that Mendoza, who suffered a debilitating concussion when she was hit by a rope during the show's first performance, will be released from her contract with a "substantial" exit package. And other actors may follow in her footsteps and get out before they're carried out.
"In the past week, agents have been making inquiries about getting their actors out of the production," a source tells the Post. Mendoza has not performed in the show since the night lead aerialist Christopher Tierney fell nearly 30 feet into an orchestra pit, breaking ribs, injuring vertebrae, and suffering internal bleeding. (After back surgery, he's back on his feet and hopes to return to the show.) Producers says Mendoza left the show a second time because she needed vocal rest, but insiders say she was "freaked out" by Tierney's accident, and is too shaken to return to the role. (Here's a funny annotated Playbill detailing the production's mishaps.)
Meanwhile, the Post's Michael Riedel—who's been Spider-Man's arch-nemesis all along—suspects that he was targeted by ushers at the Foxwoods Theater because of all his rumormongering about the show. Riedel attended the same night we did, but when he made his way to his seat in the orchestra section, a security guard approached and said, "You can't sit here, sir," he said. After Riedel protested, a manager explained, "I have another seat for you, sir, but I must move you for safety reasons."
I took out my notebook, identified myself as a reporter and asked why my seat in row D—D for death, I guess—wasn't safe. The color drained from the manager's face and, after conferring with the security guard, he said: "Sir, this seat has been sold twice. I have another seat for you, and I will give you a full refund." Things were getting fishier by the minute, but I wasn't going to move.
"Sir, we cannot start the show until you move," the manager said. "If you do not, I will have to call the police."... As the manager escorted me to the balcony, I said, "Look, are you banishing me to the balcony because I'm Michael Riedel of the New York Post?"
"I did not know who you were, sir, until you told me," he said.
Spider-Man's publicist insists the producers weren't aware of Riedel's presence, though when they heard he was relocated to a terrible seat "in the rafters," they laughed. But they won't be laughing when Riedel eviscerates them on his late-night TV show Theater Talk—in front of an audience of dozens!
