Rush-Job Behind "Spider-Man" Safety Woes?

The serious accident that temporarily shut down the most expensive show in Broadway history may have been a consequence of producers trying too hard to get it to Opening Night, a veteran stunt coordinator asserts.

Nearly 2,000 people packed the Foxwoods Theatre Thursday night to see the resumption of the new musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," three nights after its previews went dark following a terrifying, 30-foot fall by a stunt double when his harness snapped.

Safety upgrades producers have agreed to make include extra stagehands to check harnesses before every stunt, extra pads placed on stage and more tethering for cable harnesses like the one that failed, reports CBS News Correspondent Michelle Miller. An independent safety expert has also been brought on board.

Christopher Tierney's plunge Monday night sparked a New York State Labor Department investigation and brought to light three other injuries on the $65 million production, Miller points out.

New York Post theatre columnist Michael Riedel, who's been critical of the production, says the stakes were especially high Thursday. "I got a sense watching the cast members," he told CBS News, "(that) they were relieved. You could see them hugging each other during the curtain call. And there was a palpable sense that, 'We got through the show without an injury and now maybe we can begin to go forward." '

Reeve Carney, who plays Spiderman in the show, says there's now a "sense of relief, sense of rising to the occasion. … (There were) no glitches, more safety measures; it's a much safer show, thankfully."

And the pressure won't let up, Miller points out, with critics saying another mishap could bring the curtain down for good.

Brian Smyj, a stuntman and stunt coordinator for more than 20 years, told "Early Show" co-anchor Russ Mitchell Friday he thinks the show "needs a little more in-house overseeing, a manager, a stunt coordinator who's there all the time overseeing everything, constantly."

Smyj says the stunts in "Spider-Man" are unprecedented for Broadway, though not for movies.

"There are things that really shouldn't be happening," Smyj says. "I think they're pushing things a little faster for the show to get it open, to get it moving, and instead of testing -- they probably tested until they got it right instead of testing until they got it right every time."

The stunts, he adds, are "pretty dangerous. If you lose a line and -- some of these winches will move you like 40 feet per second and it's like being in a car accident, like getting hit by a car."

Smyj says he's "not very optimistic" that the show is really ready for safety primetime. He said again producers should "bring in somebody with a different perspective. You bring in some of the big guns who do this type of thing constantly, rigging guys who are there all the time. And it might just be a different perspective from the rigging guys who set it up, to evaluate what they did, to step away from it from a different view.

"I really think that they need to be careful, because the city is talking about pulling the plug on this. And If you've got 65 million (dollars) in, you might want to get the best people possible in there to review everything."

Smyj says other industry insiders - his fellow stunt coordinators - agree with his assessment. "They see what's going on," he says. "They know the show is being pushed. It's a budgetary thing. It's something you deal with as a stunt coordinator. You have to be -- to work with the company, it's a business at the end of the day. You have to make it work."

He says the "Spiderman" producers asked him to be part of the production, but he declined, because he prefers movies to doing things live. And, he admitted, in light of what's happened since, he doesn't regret the decision he made.