Another innocent Broadway actor was seriously injured in a performance of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the New York Times reported. T.V. Carpio will spend the next two weeks recovering from what sources say is a neck injury sustained during a March 16 preview performance of the savagely dangerous musical based on the Marvel Comics superhero. Carpio, who plays the new villain Arcachne, is the fifth Turn Off the Dark actor to be hospitalized in pursuit of the mad, fevered dream initiated by Broadway legend Julie Taymor and former rock icons Bono and the Edge.

The near-crippling of actress T.V. Carpio is of course only the latest in a serious of vicious blows to what's become the most expensive and possibly worst musical in Broadway history. In the last month alone, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark lost its director, Julie Taymor, amidst a storm of controversy and historically negative reviews and production delays, and Robot 6 reports that choreographer Daniel Ezralow appears to be out the door himself.

Curiously, Carpio is not the first actress to find herself incapacitated in the role of Arachne, an eight-legged spider/diety/villain/thing created by Taymor. Natalie Mendoza originated the role but exited Turn Off the Dark after she was concussed during the show's very first preview performance. Understudy America Olivo has the unhappy duty of filling while Carpio makes her recovery (and, we hope, plans her escape), and we certainly wish her all the best as she dons what is plainly a cursed mask of doom.


Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is presently scheduled to properly open June 14 at the Foxwoods Theatre in New York City.

[Via The New York Times, Robot 6]