Challenging “Spider-Man” head on was more an accident of schedule than intentional, given the Broadway show’s delayed opening, but Cirque is not shying away from comparisons. “At first we thought of acknowledging it and have Spider-Man show up on the
stage as if he was on the wrong
call,” says François Girard, the director of “Zarkana,” who comes to Cirque from the opera and film worlds. He saw an early
preview of the musical. “I thought: ‘Where are the webs? It should be all about the webs.’ So look — we got webs.”