Once more into the breach ... of contract

Last year New Yorkers and tourists alike guffawed at the bloated mess that was the "Spider-Man" musical.

It was a $75 million train wreck of bad songs, confusing story lines, and accidents galore. It was shaping up to the biggest disaster in the history of Broadway and the clock seemed to be ticking on when it would close and all the investors would lose their shirts. 

Then the producers got smart: they closed the show down, fired the director, Julie Taymor, brought in some new writers to fix the songs and story, worked out the kinks, re-opened it ... and the show actually turned out to be a success! 

But this musical is far from having a happy ending -- yet. 

Now the producers and Ms. Taymor are suing and counter suing each other for breach of contract. They are dumping emails and private information into publically filed lawsuits, bringing the whole nightmare back to life and giving this show -- which was just getting over its bad press -- even more bad press.  

You gotta be a genius to do something this dumb. 

And I don't know who's dumber: Julie Taymor, for suing the producers of a show that she almost wrecked, or the producers for not quietly settling with her and putting this whole situation behind them. It's not just about money, clearly -- it's about ego. What's really dumb, is that Taymor and these producers seem to want to drag "Spider-Man" down with it at just the moment its fortunes seems to be turning around.

Oh what a tangled "Spider-Man" web we weave when first we sue ...