Spider-Man musical once again delayed, now opening in 2011

After months of setbacks and delays, “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” was finally set to hit Broadway stages on November 14th. Not so fast, tiger. The $60 million production has now been pushed back to 2011. As the New York Times reports, “flying sequences were still being developed and the music, special effects and scenes of plot and dialogue were still largely in separate pieces” despite previews starting in less than 10 days.

The sources went on to indicate that director Julie Taymor was spending too much time “experimenting over and over” instead of paying closer attention to the rapidly approaching deadlines.

While the new dates have yet to be announced (expect official word next week), the current plan seems to be to begin previews after Thanksgiving with and official run starting some time in mid-January.

The NYT reports that while presales have racked up about $10 million, a decent score for the average musical, it’s not nearly enough for the expensive costs of “Spider-Man.” (The “Shrek” musical, by contrast, cost $25 million and lasted only about 12 months.)

Assuming it opens on time in January, the “Spider-Man” musical will be a good year off its original release date. In that extra time, I still have not figured out why anyone would want to go see a “Spider-Man” rock opera scored by U2…