About 10 years ago, I read a book called Not Since Carrie, an entertaining look at how some Broadway shows went horribly wrong and flopped. As the title indicated, the authors considered the gold standard of Broadway failure to be the musical version of Stephen King's iconic novel, which sought to portray teen angst with flashing lasers and Solid Gold-like dancing. (If you're too young to remember Solid Gold . . . trust me, you don't want to know).

It seems that the yardstick has been reset by Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a sensational, slow-motion, expensive disaster (which, at least of this writing, seems to at least still be selling tickets – but can it recoup its cost?). Which is a shame, because it's done damage to what has the potential to be a thriving genre, if done well - the live comic adaptation.

The sad saga of singing Spidey has been well-documented in both the mainstream and geek media, so I don't think I need to take you step-by-step through the mishaps – the accidents, the rewrites, the firing of the director, the postponed openings, the costs spiraling out of control. The chorus of thumbs-down from the critics seemed almost inevitable – the press was waiting with unsheathed blades, waiting to punish Marvel for this act of theatrical hubris.

But was it really such a bad idea to begin with? It seemed to have all the right elements on paper – a well-beloved property with a history of successful translations to other media (let's just forget that Japanese sentai version, shall we?), a director who'd worked theatrical magic before, one of the most successful songwriting teams in rock history. It SHOULD have worked. So, what went wrong?

One of the biggest stumbling blocks of the musical was the flying accidents. Several critics said that the producers should have brought in Cirque du Soleil to do the flying, rather than relying on conventional techniques, since this involved a lot more trickery than simple flying in a show like Peter Pan. The critics have a definite point here. When there's a dangerous stunt to be done on a movie set, you bring in a stuntman – and the Cirque troupe is the ultimate stuntmen when it comes to aerial acrobatic. Lesson learned – Don't be afraid to call in the experts, it'll save you time, money and embarassment.

And then, there's that score. In a review of the soundtrack CD (included, along with several theater review links, in the June 16 Links of the Day), the New York Daily News pointed out that Bono and the Edge might produce great albums, but their art form doesn't necessarily translate well to the Broadway stage. Would the musical have succeeded if turned over to Disney tunesmith Alan Mencken or Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz instead? Odds are, yes. Lesson learned: Pick the right person for the right job. Some skills cross over well, others don't.

So, is this the end of comics adaptations on Broadway? Not necessarily. For a lesson on how to adapt such a property the right way, Broadway need only look to Japan, where anime/manga adaptations are a staple. Some have been over-the-top and silly (as anyone who's seen SeraMyu, the musical adaptations of Sailor Moon, can testify), but others have been sharp and successful in translating one medium to another.

One case in point: The recent Japanese stage production of Hakuouki, an anime about the Shinsengumi, a legendary band of samurai familiar to anyone who's seen Kenshin. In anime form, Hakuouki is a character-driven drama with elements of romance and comedy. The producers took a look at the anime, transformed it into an action-driven show with plenty of sword-fighting, and hired a cast who could handle the job (led by actor/dancer Saotome Taichi, an expert in onstage swordplay). The result worked on just about every level. (The show is available on DVD in Japan, but I would not be surprised to see a subtitled version show up on Crunchyroll or a similar service).

So, lesson learned: Even a catastrophic failure need not be fatal. There's always opportunities to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again with an entirely new approach.

Here's a challenge to theatrical types who know comics – Take all these lessons and undo the damage done by this ill-hatched Spider. Because done correctly, the comics musical can truly fly. – Bonnie Walling