When Superman Briefly Flew on Broadway

[macbeth]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 8:57am

This is a great article about the history of Superman on Broadway and how DC prevented the Dallas Theater revival (revisal?) from going any further. It seems like there's some hope at the end though for the project to fly again. (Sorry, couldn't resist). 

Did anyone catch it in Dallas?

https://www.vulture.com/article/superman-broadway-musical-its-a-bird-flop.html

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 10:12am

Saw the original and absolutely loved it. Allegedly it is Sondheim's favorite musical. .The original one is not pc enough as the bad guys were a hand of.

Really liked Encores version of it and glad Holiday got to see it before he died. If it were ever redone in some way would like to have Jimmy Olsen in it. He was not in the original.. Perry White had no songs and. few for him would be great.Never thought encores would do it so glad I saw it

Sadly in today's political atmosphere it would be poison to do This show. You need a real life superman to bring back Broadway.

Updated On: 8/11/20 at 10:12 AM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 11:21am

The original one is not pc enough as the bad guys were a hand of orientals.

Ouch.  Hahaha.  In 2020 we say Asian.  

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 11:30am

“You’ve Got Possibility” is a pretty popular cabaret song. Other than that, I’ve never heard anything else from the score.

Sondheim’s tastes are weird. Didn’t he also say Honeymoon in Vegas had his favorite opening number since The Music Man?

[darquegk]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 11:41am

Sondheim also praised the South Park musical highly, before Marc Shaiman was a Broadway regular.

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 12:17pm

The show is oddly constructed. It attempts to ape the Adam West Batman show by making Superman a lunkheaded square. His songs are the worst in the score. Lois gets some clever songs but the best material goes to the villains and Linda Lavin's snarky secretary.

The plot involves the villains trying to humiliate Superman by inviting him to a pompous award ceremony while a major crime is happening off stage. Then the mad scientist character psychoanalyses him saying that he'll never overcome his guilt over his planet blowing up. This gets him to give up crime fighting. He snaps out of it when Lois is endangered, rescuing her and letting one of the villains die. In the end he whisks Lois away from her nice-guy boyfriend making him seem like a jerk.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 12:22pm

Disagree re Superman 's songs . Doing Good. Strongest Man in the World and POW BAM ZONK are clever and witty. To each his own I guess

[Jarethan]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 12:27pm

I enjoyed this quite a bit when I saw it years ago.  Linda Lavin stole the show, although I think that the woman who played Lois Lane (Patricia Maraud) received the Tony nomination (larger role).  I remember the sets as being delightful.  Memory may be wrong now, but I remember lots of primary colors.

[joevitus]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 12:31pm

MrsSallyAdams said: "The show is oddly constructed. It attempts to ape the Adam West Batman show by making Superman a lunkheaded square. His songs are the worst in the score. Lois gets some clever songs but the best material goes to the villains and Linda Lavin's snarky secretary.

The plot involves the villains trying to humiliate Superman by inviting him to a pompous award ceremony while a major crime is happening off stage. Then the mad scientist character psychoanalyses him saying that he'll never overcome his guilt over his planet blowing up. This gets him to give up crime fighting. He snaps out of it when Lois is endangered, rescuing her and letting one of the villains die. In the end he whisks Lois away from her nice-guy boyfriend making him seem like a jerk."

Didn't ape the Batman t.v. show, at all--they both appeared at about the same time, within a month or so of each other. And Superman wasn't made into a lunkhead at all. What's sweet about his character is that the villains realize his need to be love his his Achilles heel. Superman's songs are great, especially "Doing Good" but also "The Strongest Man in the World." 

[morosco]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 1:20pm

Its songs were composed by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, the duo behind Bye Bye Birdie and Annie.

At this point I lost confidence in the author and stopped reading.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 1:37pm

I really liked Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's new book for the production in Dallas. I actually liked that he kept the original character names and just made Max Menken a Lex Luthor type instead of a columnist and wrote Lois as a little less of the damsel in distress she is in the original book. I thought the original book was unsalvageable, but the Encores! production made a pretty good case for it with just a few cuts here and there. Ultimately, for a commercial Broadway revival, I think Sacasa's book has the best chance for success if DC will ever allow it.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 1:47pm

morosco said: "Its songs were composed by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, the duo behind Bye Bye Birdie and Annie.

At this point I lost confidence in the author and stopped reading."

I bit my tongue here as well.  Martin Charnin was lyricist of ANNIE, not Lee Adams.  

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 8/11/20 at 11:53pm

I saw the Dallas Theatre Center production. My father is a huge Superman fan (and saw the original Broadway production as a kid), and we flew there specifically to see it. I grew up with the cast recording, which I always thought had a few good songs, but was overall too cheesy. I also saw the TV movie version a long time ago. So basically, I came into the production being familiar with the show and already having some opinions about it. I thought the Dallas production was fun, but that there was no way it would ever go any further. Even with the new book, Superman is just a ridiculous idea for a musical (and I really like Superman). 

They also cut the song "Revenge" (and the character who sings it), which was a shame. If the show had more fully committed to its own silliness like it did with that song, it might have been something. Otherwise, it's really just a very niche show for cross-over Superman/musical theatre nerds.

[joevitus]

Posted: 8/12/20 at 12:25am

CATSNYrevival said: "I really likedRoberto Aguirre-Sacasa's new book for the production in Dallas. I actually liked that he kept the original character names and just made Max Menken a Lex Luthor type instead of a columnistand wroteLois as a little less of thedamsel in distress she is in the original book. I thought the original book was unsalvageable, but the Encores! production made a pretty good case for it with just a few cuts here and there. Ultimately, for a commercial Broadway revival, I thinkSacasa's book has the best chance for success if DC will ever allow it."

The original book was perfect. Lois needs to be a damsel in distress. This isn't about rounded characters and modern sensibilities (even for 1966, when it was written). This is about Pop Art and reproducing a (remembered) sort of comic book with a light touch of irony in the reproduction. 

[bk]

Posted: 8/12/20 at 12:52am

This is a wonderful article?  It is so riddled with errors that it's a joke - not a funny joke.  I mean, one person has pointed out ONE error - how can no one on a theater chat board like this not know what the others are?  Happily, in the comments on the article someone has pointed out each and every one of them.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 8/12/20 at 1:31am

bk said: "This is a wonderful article? It is so riddled with errors that it's a joke - not a funny joke. I mean, one person has pointed out ONE error - how can no one on a theater chat board like this not know what the others are? Happily, in the comments on the article someone has pointed out each and every one of them."

bk, AKA someothertime, your knowledge of this musical and all related matters, as well as the amount of time you spent filling out the comments section of a Vulture article are both  truly impressive

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/12/20 at 6:47pm

joevitus said: "The original book was perfect. Lois needs to be a damsel in distress. This isn't about rounded characters and modern sensibilities (even for 1966, when it was written). This is about Pop Art and reproducing a (remembered) sort of comic book with a light touch of irony in the reproduction."

I don’t have too many issues with the original book. As I said I liked Jack Viertel’s edits for the Encores! production. Compared with the original, he just made a few trims here and there to streamline some of the scenes and get to the songs faster. There was some new material written for Lois and Jim in act one before she sings “What I’ve Always Wanted.” I’m not sure where that extra dialogue came from or if he wrote it himself but it was nice. There was some new material for Max at the top of act two as well. He also rewrote Father Ling’s broken English and reduced the number of scenes the Flying Lings were in. Short of cutting the Flying Lings all together I’m not sure what else could have been done about that.