After suffering a concussion during the first preview performance of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark on Nov. 28, actress Natalie Mendoza is officially leaving the production, The New York Times reports. She played Arachne, a villainess that plays a key role in Spider-Man’s origin story.
To be more specific, Arachne—an original creation by Lion King director Julie Taymor—is the spider that bites Peter Parker and gives him super powers. And she sings!
Spider-Man was to be the Broadway debut of Mendoza, 30, a film and theater actress and musician who is perhaps best known for her lead role in 2005 horror flick The Descent.
“Thank goodness I had such a brilliant neurologist who made sure I recovered properly,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “Nice to be almost back to normal … almost anyway haha! Thanking God for peace, real friends, love and health and healing.”
Chris Tierney—a Spider-Man stuntman who fell roughly 20 feet to the stage during a performance last Tuesday—is still recovering from multiple injuries, including a hairline fracture in his skull, four broken ribs, a bruised lung and three fractured vertebrae. Two other actors have suffered serious injuries due to the show’s complex (and clearly unsafe) stuntwork and effects.
The show’s opening night was recently pushed back four weeks to Feb. 7 to give Taymor, the producers and composers Bono and The Edge time to streamline the show before critics review it.
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