Carolyn and I are back from another evening at the theater. The Reprise! group, which stages classic musicals in low budget productions for runs of three or so weeks at a time, also occasionally does one-nighters. Tonight, they had a one-performance-only "concert" version of It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman, the 1966 musical comedy that lasted but 129 performances on Broadway…and no, this post is not a rerun. I attended a different staged reading of this show, done by a different group, last November.
This one was also quite enjoyable. Superman/Clark Kent was/were played by Cheyenne Jackson. Lois Lane was played by Jean Louisa Kelly. The Mad Scientist was played by Richard Kind. And Max Mencken — the gossip columnist played on Broadway by Jack Cassidy — was played by his son, Patrick Cassidy. The four of them were supported by a cast of eight, plus Charles Strouse, who hosted the first part of the evening and played the small part of Perry White. Mr. Strouse, of course, wrote the music for this show…as well as Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, Annie and many others.
Everyone was quite splendid…especially Mr. Kind, who was hilarious as Dr. Abner Sedgwick, the villain who is repeatedly denied the Nobel Prize he believes he deserves and so plots revenge against the world — and for some reason, Superman. Patrick Cassidy did a great, crowd-pleasing job of imitating his father, right down to the handsome twinkle in his eyes and voice. And yes, his mother Shirley Jones was in the audience, cheering him on.
This production was staged by Stuart Ross, who is best known for creating Forever Plaid, a terrific little musical that now seems to have more branches than Starbucks. I'm guessing Stuart did the rather substantial rewrite on the show's book, which has always needed a major redo. Whoever was responsible, they made it a lot funnier but did not change — perhaps because it would have been too great a change — the big problem with the storyline, which is that Superman turns into a neurotic wimp for most of Act II. I never saw the original version on Broadway but I've always assumed that was a big reason the show didn't work. Via an unconvincing scenario that involves a lot of psychobabble, The Man of Steel loses his nerve and self-esteem. I can't think of a successful musical comedy that so mocks its leading man, and it's worse that it's Superman.
Nevertheless, Ross (or whoever did the rewrite) improved a lot of the other things. Among the villains in the original script were a troupe of Chinese tumblers played as broad racial stereotypes. In tonight's version, they'd turned into French acrobats from a show not unlike Cirque du Soleil. There were also other adjustments to remove things that don't seem as funny since 9/11, as well as a lot of new lines that made the second act much more amusing. I still thought the storyline was silly and forced but at least it was funnier.
A musical about Spider-Man is reportedly headed for Broadway and a Batman musical was, and may still resurface. One of these days, someone's going to give Superman another shot. Before tonight, I would have thought the only way to do that would be to toss It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman and start fresh. Now, I think maybe someone could make it work. It might not be worth the effort but it's not impossible.