What? You didn’t know there was a musical featuring the country’s favorite webslinger in the works? Surprise!

Producers for the project, with the intriguing and U2-sounding title “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” announced last week the show will open Feb. 18, 2010, at the Hilton Theatre, with previews beginning Jan. 16.

While this whole thing pretty much sounds like a recipe for disaster (see: “It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman”), the musical will be directed by Julie Taymor, who won a Tony award for her skill in successfully translating Disney’s “The Lion King” for the Great White Way.

Also on board is playwright Glen Berger, whose credits include commissions from a number of theatre companies (including Chicago’s Lookingglass Theater) and a pair of Emmys for writing children’s television.

Really odd creative team right? Hey, it could work. Anything can if you throw enough money at it. Industry insiders told the New York Times the budget for the show “would be the largest in Broadway history, about $40 million,” but a spokesman for the project declined to comment.

While there’s no official word on casting, reports have surfaced that Evan Rachel Wood is a go to play Spidey’s sweetheart Mary Jane Watson.

So what’s the plot? Who’s the villain? Will there be an upside-down kiss in the rain? The Los Angeles Times published this statement from the show’s producers that’s heavy on the publicist-speak and light on specifics:

Drawing from over forty years of Marvel comic books for inspiration, SPIDER-MAN spins a new take on the mythic tale of a young man propelled from a modest rowhouse in Queens to the sky-scraping spire of the Chrysler Building, the bustling offices of the Daily Bugle, through the dizzying canyons of Manhattan, to new vistas never before seen.

The musical follows the story of teenager Peter Parker, whose unremarkable life is turned upside-down — literally — when he’s bitten by a genetically altered spider and wakes up the next morning clinging to his bedroom ceiling. This bullied science-geek — suddenly endowed with astonishing powers — soon learns, however, that with great power comes great responsibility as villains test not only his physical strength but also his strength of character.

Spider-Man’s battles will hurtle the audience through an origin story both recognizable and unexpected — yielding new characters as well as familiar faces — until a final surprising confrontation casts a startling new light on this hero’s journey.

They just had to say it didn’t they? “With great power comes great responsibility.” Enough. Who votes we start a petition right now to beg Bono to avoid the phrase at all costs? Judging from some of his past lyrics, the temptation to use it might be great indeed.

I don’t think we really have to worry about The Edge when it comes to this project though. He ventured into superhero territory before when he wrote this ultra-cool theme song used for the first two seasons of the WB series “The Batman.”

Single tickets for the show go on sale in June. Complete info is available at SpidermanOnBroadway.com.