New Arachne Christina Sajous on Flying High in Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark

As Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark nears the end of its first year on Broadway, new principal cast members are starting to swing into the Foxwoods Theatre, including American Idiot and Baby It’s You veteran Christina Sajous. Just before her November 15 debut as spider goddess Arachne, Sajous dished with Broadway.com about her new action-packed gig.

“I’m so excited,” Sajous said. “I’m anxious. I just want to get on stage and do the show!” Sajous will be in familiar territory soaring over the stage, thanks to her experience in American Idiot’s “Extraordinary Girl” number. “It was like muscle memory,” Sajous said of her first flight rehearsal for Spider-Man. “My body just knew exactly what do to. I have to do back flips as part of a seduction scene, and I just did it so easily, knock on wood!”

Knock on wood, indeed. Sajous said she is fully aware of the injuries, delays and other issues that plagued Spider-Man during its extensive preview period, but didn't hesitate to join the show. “This creative team is the most fearless, down-to-earth group of people I’ve met in my life,” she said. “I’ve never walked into a theater and felt such a support system of cheerleaders, and that’s probably because they’ve been through so much craziness together. We had injuries in other shows I've done; they just weren’t written about like this show has been. I feel like everyone is cheering me on.”

Among her cheerleaders is Spider-Man’s leading man, Reeve Carney. “He’s really a sweetheart,” she said of her new co-star. “You would think because he’s playing Spider-Man, this huge symbol of our pop culture, he’d be a little cocky, especially with how amazing his voice is, but he’s the exact opposite. He’s so humble and generous.”

Spider-Man marks Sajous' third time tackling a rock score on Broadway, following Green Day tunes in American Idiot and Shirelles classics in Baby, It’s You. “It’s so cool that I’ve been able to sing such a rollercoaster of different music,” she says of her budding career. “What’s great about music like that is, as a performer, there’s always some type of source,” she says, noting that while Bono and The Edge created original music for Spider-Man, “you can go back and listen to the style of U2 albums if you need help to articulate the music. With the Shirelles, I could watch clips of them on YouTube. It almost makes my job easy.”