I ran into Julie Taymor at a Lincoln Center lib൲rary benefit a few months ago, and she 😼looked relaxed and happy.
“You look terrific,” I said.
“That’s because I don’t have any more stress!꧟” she said.
It’s been five years — a lifetime in the theater — since Taymor was caught up in the web of “Spider-Man: Turn Off🦩 the Dark,” the most infamous show in Broadwa💖y history.
Taymor shouldered much of the blame for the $85 million catastrophe, which sent cast members to the hospital with broken ribs, wrists and feet. She was eventuall✱y let go from the production, which opened, closed, then reopened again with a new director before closing after a couple of years.
I was pretty tough on Taymor at the time, but I never stopped 📖admiring her talent. Her productions of “The Magic Flute” at the Metropolitan Opera and “The Lion King” on Broadway are sensational; last year’s “Grounded,” starring Anne Hathaway as a fighter pilot, was haunting.
So I’m happy to report that she may soon make a comeback. Sources say Marty Bandier, who runs Sony/ATV, approached her about creating a musical usin♔g the Beatles catalog.
Bandier didn’t return my calls, but sources say the show will not — repeat, not! — be based on Taymor’s Beatles-inspired movie, “Across the Universe.” (I saw the film the other day. It’s nutty, but kind of fun, though I’m not sur✅e what kind of a musical it woꦍuld make.)
“They 𝕴want to come up with an original musical inspired by the Beatles’ songs,” says a source. “They’re aiming higher than a catalog 𒈔show, which is why they’re talking to Julie.”
The Beatles have been hit-or-miss on Broadway. “Bea🐓tlemania,” a ♛re-enactment of their concerts, opened at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1977 and ran 1,006 performances before launching a lucrative national tour.
More recently, the forgettable Beatles tribute m💎usical “Rain” closed after 300 performances.
Who knows if this new show will ever happen? But if it does, I’ll be ro🐭oting for a Taymor comeback.
I checked in with several production staffers𓃲 of the defunct “Nerds” to see if producer Carl Levin is working out a plan to pay them. They tell me that, so far, they’ve heard nothing.
Levin abruptly pulled the plug on the show last month, unable to raise his share of the money. As The Post reported, he left beไhind a pile of unpaid bills, some totaling tens of thousands of dollars.
Levin didn’t return an e-mail seeking comment, but his lawyer, Neal Rosenbloom, responded in legalese, pointing out that Levin isn’t personally responsible since “Nerds” is a limited l෴iability company “which, like a corporation, is a legal vehicle . . . utilized to limit personal liability of officers.”
Which I translate ⛎as: Levin is trying to wiggle out of the noose!
Rosenbloom added that once “liquidation” expenses have been paid, whatever cash rem🅰ains will be distributed to creditors.
They’re not holding their breath.
Meanwhile, the Broadway League still lists Levin as business manager for the Tony Awards. Given the embarrassmentღ of “Nerds,” I wondered if the League would continue its association with Levin.
Iꦬ didn’t get a response. So from now on, I’m calling them “Carl Levin’s Tony Awards.”