Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark Injury Leads To Lawsuit

“Injured Actor Suing Producers…”

Last October we posted a story from the New York Times reporting on a fundraiser that was held to help pay the medical bills of one of the show’s injured cast members. That injury has now led to a lawsuit.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark cast member Daniel Curry, who suffered extensive injuries when using a lift during a performance last August, is now suing the show’s producers, Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris, as well as some of the companies that handled tech equipment for the production.

From the New York Times:

The 27-page complaint, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, contends that the producers and other defendants knew the lift could be dangerous for “Spider-Man” cast members and put no safeguards in place to prevent injuries. No evidence is included in the legal filing to support these claims that the lift malfunctioned or that its computer software was defective.

Mr. Curry asserts in the complaint that he and other cast members were told the lift was safe and that he used it “in accordance with the instructions.”

A spokesman for the “Spider-Man” producers, who have maintained that Mr. Curry’s injuries were the result of human error, said on Friday that they had no comment.

The lawsuit — which was filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Tuesday, but not made available to the public until Friday — does not shed much new light on the actual cause or extent of Mr. Curry’s injuries, which occurred during the Aug. 15 performance of “Spider-Man.” As the second act was underway, Mr. Curry, 23, found his foot caught between the lift and the stage, the complaint stated, resulting in “serious and protracted permanent injuries.”

An earlier court filing by Mr. Curry’s lawyers, in September, stated that he had undergone “surgeries and amputations,” leading to much concern among actors and others about the condition of his foot. A lawyer for Mr. Curry, Elias N. Fillas, speaking in a phone interview this week, declined to discuss what the amputations involved, only saying that Mr. Curry was out of the hospital but continuing to receive medical care and physical therapy.

According to the complaint, Mr. Curry will not be able to dance or perform and earn a living as he once did, and has spent “large sums of money” on medical care.

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark closed in January after a three-year run on Broadway at the Foxwoods Theater. It is estimated that the musical suffered a loss of about $60 million.

One of the show’s co-writers, Glen Berger, has written a fascinating book called Song of Spider-Man about all of the behind-the-scenes turmoil surrounding the production. I talk about that book on the Spider-News segment of the February Crawlspace podcasts to be released later this month.

–George Berryman!