'Spider-Man' Star Reeve Carney Feels Safe If Show Goes on Tonight

The curtain may rise again tonight on Broadway's beleaguered "Spider-Man" musical, as the show's stars defend the injury-plagued production while other stage actors call it too dangerous.

The matinee and evening performances of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" were canceled Wednesday as new safety protocols were rehearsed. They were put in place after a Spidey stunt double fell 20 to 30 feet in Monday night's show, leaving him hospitalized with broken ribs.

Several "Spider-Man" stars took the sidewalk Wednesday night outside the Foxwoods Theater, posing for pictures and signing autographs for fans who arrived to find the $65 million musical was canceled. The high-flying show has about three dozen aerial moves.

Spider-man

Reeve Carney, who plays Spider-Man in Broadway's "Spider-Man Turn off the Dark," poses with ticket holder Olivia Packenham on Wednesday outside the Foxwoods Theatre in Times Square.

"I do feel safe," said Reeve Carney, who plays Spider-Man, according to NBC's "Today" show. "It was an unfortunate event the other night, but the safety precautions have gone up even more since then. I've always felt safe."

"They've got a lot of people making sure things are even safer than they were," the actor said, according to the New York Daily News.

The "Spider-Man" producers said tonight's 8 o'clock show would go on, The New York Times reported. But state officials said the producers also pledged to keep the show dark until the new safety methods were in place, which could be by tonight, the paper said.

The safety plan calls for a crew member to attach equipment to actors while a second stagehand will verify that the equipment is in place, the paper said. That second person will notify a stage manager that the cables, wires or tethers needed are safely connected. The actor also will need to verify that the equipment is connected.

The Times estimated that the canceled performances lost $400,000 in ticket sales. The show is still in previews, with a delayed official opening of Feb. 7.

Patrick Page, who plays the Green Goblin, said, according to NBC: "The injuries in our show are a terrible thing and no one wants to discount that at all, but injuries in a big show are something that happens."

But actors from other Broadway shows were speaking out against "Spider-Man," noting that Monday's accident was the production's fourth injury.

"Spiderman should be ashamed of itself. This is completely unacceptable and embarrassing to working actors everywhere," Tony winning actress Alice Ripley tweeted in all caps Tuesday morning.

"Does someone have to die?" she wrote later that morning.

Another Broadway star, Adam Pascal, who appeared in "Rent," also ranted against the show through his Facebook page.

"They should put Julie Taymor in jail for assault!" he wrote of the musical's acclaimed director.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal from Toyko, he said he was kidding about jailing Taymor to make a point.