He’s lied about his heritage, he’s lied about his education, but now Congressman George Santos has officially gone into the dark. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, to be exact.
A new report from Bloomberg claims that the New York congressman, who has been caught in numerous falsehoods over the past few weeks, told donors to his 2021 campaign that he was among the producers of the ill-fated Spider-Man Broadway musical, which ran for about two and a half years from 2011-2014. One of the show’s actual producers, Michael Cohl, told Bloomberg that Santos had nothing to do with it.
This is, objectively, hilarious, and filled with so many layers. The first being that Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is not a well-regarded show. It was one of the most expensive Broadway shows ever, had innumerable issues on its way to the stage, and was not something most fans or critics enjoyed. Then, and now, its title does not elicit positive thoughts. So why would anyone, let alone someone running for office, choose to be associated with it? If you’re going to lie, make it a good lie. Say you produced Rent or Phantom of the Opera or maybe if you wanted to do something a little less famous, an Avenue Q or something. But saying “I produced Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” is like bragging that you greenlit Morbius.
Then there’s the fact that the news doesn’t track in reality. According to the report, Santos wasn’t quite living the Broadway producer life when this would’ve happened. Around that time, he was a customer service rep for the Dish Network and founded a group to help sick animals. He also lived in Brazil for some of the time in question. These are all perfectly good and noble things but none of them have anything to do with Broadway or Spider-Man. Except maybe if Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was airing on Dish.
Truly, the George Santos avalanche of deceit may have reached its pinnacle once it touched upon the world of superheroes. Next thing you’ll know, he’ll claim to be rebooting DC or directing a new Avengers movie.