Spider-Man has been a part of pop culture since 1962 and in that time the web-head has seemingly done everything. There have been so many movies about the character in the last two decades that it's getting almost ridiculous. However, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse found some great success in making that fact part of the story itself. One corner of Spider-Man history that didn't make it in to the movie, unfortunately, but was originally planned, was a joke aimed at the disastrous Spider-Man Broadway musical. According to producer Phil Lord...
There used to be a Turn Off the Dark joke in the movie, but there just wasn’t time for it. There was a moment before Miles [Morales] came back to Aunt May’s, after he found out about the Prowler. They’re all hanging around waiting for him and they’re all talking about Spider-Man in their various different universes. And Peter B. Parker said, 'Yeah, there’s a crazy musical that Bono did in my universe,' and they’re all like 'that’s crazy!
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is one of the most infamous Broadway musicals in history. The show was incredibly expensive to produce and included numerous technical effects to create Spider-Man's web slinging that frequently went wrong, sometimes resulting in injury. The other thing tat made the show incredibly high profile was that all the music was written by U2's Bono and The Edge. All this would have been ok, if the show had been been, you know, any good. However, it reviewed pretty poorly as well and thus only lasted about three years on the stage, not nearly as long as it took to produce it. The show has become legend in both the history of Broadway and the history of Spider-Man.
It seems like Turn Off the Dark is one of the few aspects of Spider-Man history that doesn't have a little fun poked at it over the course of the film. It's not too shocking that there actually was a joke referencing the show. Unfortunately, Phil Lord tells SyFy the joke was just one too many and it needed to be trimmed out.
Honestly, a powwow between the various Spider-Men just comparing notes on how the character has been handled in each universe sounds like a fabulous idea for the film and I could probably watch a 30-minute special on that alone. Just all the different characters trying to explain the most bonkers Spider-Man related thing that happens where they live. A Spider-Man Broadway musical with music by U2 is definitely up there. I'm assuming U2 is a thing in all universes.
Of course, there's always the possibility that a similar joke could find its way into a future Spider-Man movie. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has already seen sequels and spinoffs greenlit, so there will be plenty of future opportunity for jokes about Spider-Man that didn't get made the first time around.
