Fourth Actor wounded During 'Spider-Man' Performance

An actor performing in the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” was injured during a performance Monday nighttime, according to the police and several witnesses.

Theatergoers who attended Monday’s performance of “Spider-Man,” a $65 million musical featuring complicated aerial stunts, said they saw either the actor playing the title character or his stunt two times fall about 8 to 10 feet during the closing minutes of the show, and that some equipment fell into the audience when this occurred.

A police spokesperson confirmed that a male actor was injured at about 10:42 p.m. and taken to Bellevue Hospital Center. No other information was immediately available.

Two brothers from Toronto who watched the presentation, Scott Smith and Matthew Smith, saw the fall from their balcony seats.

“It looked like it was supposed to happen,” Matthew Smith said. “But he fell at a faster pace. It did not look right.”

Audience members said that after the show they saw an ambulance taking the cast member away.
Steven Tar tick, an audience member, said the accident occurred during a scene when Spider-Man was rescuing his love attention, Mary Jane, as she dangles from a rope attached to a bridge.

Mr. Tar tick said he saw the actor playing Spider-Man appear to trip and fall from the bridge, into an open hole in the ground at the end of the stage.

You heard screams, Mr. Tar tick said. “You heard a woman screaming and sobbing.

Brian Lynch, an audience member who attended “Spider-Man” on Monday night, described the scene at the Foxwoods Theater on his Twitter feed, text of the performance: “Stopped short near end. Somebody took nasty fall. Screaming. 911 called. No thoughts what happened there, kicked audience out.” He added: “No joke. No explanation. MJ and Spidey took what seemed to be a planned fall into the stage hole in the ground. Then we heard MJ screaming.”

“He fell several feet from a platform approximately seven minutes before the end of the performance, and the show was stopped,” a statement from the musical said. “All symbols were good as he was taken to the hospital for observation.”

The “Spider-Man” musical has faced several setbacks throughout its preview period, with one of its actresses suffering a concussion and two actors injured by a slingshot technique intended to force them through the theater.