Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the most expensive Broadway musical ever produced, has endured a lot since it began performances last November: Budget overruns, cast and director changes, and, of course, injuries. The production has survived flying equipment, broken harnesses, and nosy workplace safety inspectors. Now, the show has something new to contend with as an investor is suing the production for money owed.
To get off the ground, the Broadway spectacle had to pull money from many sources, including from Patricia Lambrecht, who put up $2.5 million in collateral so that producers could license the theater on 213 West 42nd Street in New York where the show was scheduled to run.
Specifically, as a condition of the Theater License Agreement, producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark needed to demonstrate that the theater would be returned to good condition at the conclusion of the production.
Lambrecht’s collateral was a guarantee that even if the show never opened, the theater would be paid for restoration costs.
Lambrecht pledged $2.5 million, but the agreement allegedly provides that she was to be paid a facility fee totaling $368,750.
After the production experienced numerous delays, the show’s producers needed Lambrecht to extend the pledge of collateral. Since the show was becoming riskier, the cost of doing so became more expensive. Labrecht says that she got an agreement where the facility fee paid to her would be upped to $985,000.
But Lambrecht says she’s only gotten $360,000 from producers, leaving a balance of $625,000, plus seven months of interest and counting. She’s just filed a lawsuit in New York to get her money.
E-mail: eriqgardner@yahoo.com
Twitter: @eriqgardner
