'Spider-Man' Hunk Reeve Carney Takes A Bow

Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, has stirred up a lot of controversy over the past few months, as several actors were injured in its preview run at the Foxwoods Theatre. Now the cast — Reeve Carney (pictured far left), Jennifer Damiano (middle) and Patrick Page (right) — is dropping the curtain for a three-week hiatus, during which the show will undergo major rewrites before its May revival.

Carney, 28, who plays the young Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the musical, never thought he would end up on Broadway. "I always thought I would be a musician," he told TheaterMania.com. "For some reason, Broadway seemed more unreachable or untouchable to me than being in a band or being cast in a film."

The New Yorker's first priority has always been his music career. He is the frontman for an L.A.-based rock band named "Carney," (after Reeve and his brother Zane, the band's guitarist), which released its debut album, Mr. Green Vol. 1, less than a year ago. Now that Carney is on the stage, the rest of his band plays music for Turn Off the Dark from the orchestra pit.

If you can't shake the feeling that you've seen Carney somewhere before, you probably caught him in last year's The Tempest, where he played Prince Ferdinand opposite Helen Mirren and Russell Brand. After being impressed with his performance, director Julie Taymor, wanted him to audition for her next project, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Think back to a little over a decade ago, and you might also remember him as the young Ishmael Chambers (the character played as an adult by Ethan Hawke) in Snow Falling on Cedars, for which he won a Young Artist Award.

Now that Carney has wound up on the stage, he couldn't be happier with the role. "It's exciting being part of a show everyone knows about," he said. "I also liked that Spider-Man is very human. In the comic books, if he gets sick, he has to stay home. In another issue, he had a sprained ankle."

The revamped version of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, which will feature new songs from Bono and The Edge, will be unveiled on May 12, with an official release date of June 14. Taymor is no longer part of the project, but the cast seems optimistic about going in a new direction. "Now that we have a clear vision, I feel very confident," Carney told news channel NY1.

As for his romantic life? Well, that remains shrouded in mystery. Perhaps Carney will soon consider "turning off the dark" on that secret and letting the world know if he's Broadway's most eligible bachelor. —KIMBERLY STEELE