Spider-Man
Chris Tierney, Spider-Man’s stunt double for the Spider-Man Musical has returned to the production after a 30 ft fall nearly cost him his life.
The stuntman returns to the show under new director Phil McKinley and insists he has much more control over the show’s stunts.
Tierney took the fall when doing a flying scene after one of the crew didn’t secure his harness properly.
He tells U.S show Nightline, “I went out for the jump. I’m contained by my tether and that’s why I’m always…(thinking), ‘it will stop me‘,…and so I always go for it. I didn’t factor in somebody’s mistake… I took a dive, but it was worth it.”
He suffered three broken vertebrae and four ribs and fractured his elbow, and after four months of intense rehabilitation and rest the performer is ready to go back to the stage.
Tierney loves flying above the audience as Spider-Man, and with new safety precautions in place, he can’t wait to get back to it: “I can 40 miles per hour, 45 miles per hour. I can also change the speed of how I fly and the impetus and how I go.”
After director Julie Taymor quit in April McKinley was drafted in to fix the show’s problems and insists that previous shows he has worked on have set him in good stead for Spider-Man.
He says, “Directing the circus told me how to, you know, work with and collaborate with large numbers of people.”
Spider-Man has re-opened for previews after being shut down in April as a result of bad reviews and safety issues which resulted in a number of cast members becoming injured.
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