Quick Takes: Spider-Man opens on Broadway on Dec. 21

Spidey sense is singing

After delays and numerous rumors of shutdowns and financial problems, Broadway’s new Spider-Man musical announced an official opening date Tuesday.

The production, directed by Julie Taymor and featuring music by Bono and the Edge, will begin preview performances at the newly renamed Foxwoods Theatre (formerly the Hilton Theatre) on Nov. 14 and will open on Dec. 21.

“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” was originally supposed to open in February, but the escalating cost of the musical — which is said to be the most expensive ever on Broadway — caused the production to be pushed back.

Organizers also announced new cast members for the production. Tony nominee Jennifer Damiano will play the role of Mary Jane Watson, taking over from Evan Rachel Wood, and Patrick Page will play the Green Goblin, a role that was previously going to be played by Alan Cumming.

Reeve Carney is still on board to play the lead role of Peter Parker.

—David Ng

Barrino is in stable state

Former “American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino was in stable condition in a North Carolina hospital Tuesday, following an overdose of aspirin and a sleeping aid, according to her manager, Brian Denkins.

On Monday, a North Carolina woman filed for divorce from her husband and accused him of having an affair with Barrino. According to the statement Denkins released Tuesday, Barrino had an off-and-on-relationship for over 11 months with the man because she believed he had been separated from his wife since the summer of 2009.

After she read the complaint, Barrino was “overwhelmed by the lawsuit and the allegations,” the statement said.

Barrino, 26, is prepping her third album, “Back to Me,” set for release Aug. 24. It’s her first in nearly four years after touring with “The Color Purple.”

Her VH1 reality show, “Fantasia for Real,” returns on Sept. 19 for its second season.

—Maria Elena Fernandez and Gerrick D. Kennedy

A look at the young Elvis

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame plans to celebrate its 15th birthday with a look back at the year rock’s king turned 21: An exhibit of photos taken of Elvis Presley in 1956 by Alfred Wertheimer will open Sept. 13.

The Cleveland venue said Tuesday that the pictures offer a record of a defining period for rock ‘n’ roll’s most enduring figure. They show Presley in public and in private as he started to break through nationally.

—Associated Press

9/11 museum

is in progress

The Sept. 11 museum is taking shape 70 feet below ground, a cavernous space that provides an emotionally raw journey and ends at bedrock where huge surviving remnants and spacial voids reveal the scale of the devastation of what once was the World Trade Center.

The museum’s architects, director and two victims’ family members led members of the news media Tuesday on a tour of the subterranean space, which commemorates nearly 3,000 people who died in the 1993 and 2001 terrorist attacks.

There are no display cabinets yet, no exhibits. It is still a construction site. But authentic structural elements that survived the terrorist attacks are there: the last column of trade center steel ceremonially removed from the site in 2002; the staircase that served as an escape route for hundreds; and foundational box columns that anchored the building.

The $45-million museum is due to open in 2012.

—Associated Press

‘Wind’ dresses need restoring

It’s time to find out if fans of “Gone With the Wind” frankly give a damn about the fabulous dresses worn by Vivien Leigh in the Oscar-winning Civil War drama.

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin is trying to raise $30,000 to restore five of Scarlett O’Hara’s now-tattered gowns from the 1939 film.

It is planning an exhibit to mark the movie’s 75th anniversary in 2014, but at the moment most of the costumes are too fragile to go on display, according to Jill Morena, a center official.

The Ransom Center acquired the costumes in the mid-1980s as part of the collection of “Gone With the Wind” producer David O. Selznick.

—Associated Press