Musicals are so popular these days that even the flops are hits – and there have been none more notorious than Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a Broadway “rock circus spectacular” inspired by the popular superhero. This collaboration between Julie Taymor, director of the stage version of The Lion King, and Bono and The Edge from U2 was described by critics as “a musical aimed squarely at a Cub Scout demographic” and “a tangle of disjointed concepts, scenes and musical sequences that suggests its more appropriate home would be off a highway in Orlando”. And yet this all-singing, all-dancing, all-trapeze-swinging flop – which saw three actors seriously injured during its prolonged run of previews – is taking in $1.5 million a week and is accepting bookings until at least September. As a much-celebrated producer of musicals once said: “How could this happen? I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast. Where did I go right?”