| It's A Bird... It's A Plane... It's Superman |
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Original Broadway Cast Recording |
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| Music | Charles Strouse |
| Lyrics | Lee Adams |
| Book | David Newman Robert Benton |
| Basis | Superman series of comic books |
| Productions | 1966 Broadway 1975 ABC TV special 2007 Los Angeles Concert 2010 Dallas |
It's A Bird... It's A Plane... It's Superman is a musical with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, with a book by David Newman and Robert Benton. It is based on the comic book character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics.
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The plot revolves around Superman's efforts to defeat Dr. Abner Sedgwick, a ten-time Nobel Prize-losing scientist who seeks to avenge the scientific world's dismissal of his brilliance by attempting to destroy the world's symbol of good. Additionally, Superman comes into romantic conflict with Max Mencken, a columnist for the Daily Planet newspaper, who resents Lois Lane's attraction to Superman.
The musical opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on March 29, 1966.[1] Directed by Harold Prince with choreography by Ernest Flatt, it starred Jack Cassidy, Bob Holiday as Clark Kent and Superman, Patricia Marand as Lois Lane, and Linda Lavin as Sydney. The production received generally positive reviews, but it failed to catch on with the theater-going public and closed on July 17, 1966 after 129 performances. The musical received three Tony Award nominations, for Best Actor in a Musical (Cassidy), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Michael O'Sullivan, playing the main villain), and Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Marand). One of the songs from the score, "You've Got Possibilities" (introduced by Lavin), had some success outside the show as a nightclub and cabaret standard.
Two revivals were staged the very next year. Both the St. Louis Municipal Opera and the Kansas City Starlight Theatre re-staged the show, and Bob Holiday played Superman in both productions. Each was an open air venue, requiring the use of a large crane to facilitate Superman's flights. Other well-known names in these two productions were Karen Morrow as Sydney and Charles Nelson Reilly as Dr. Sedgwick.[2]
The show was again produced at the Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, Connecticut, from June 1992 through July 3, 1992, with Gary Jackson (as Superman), Jamie Ross, Veanne Cox and Gabriel Barre.[3]
On May 14, 2007, the Reprise! Marvelous Musical Mondays program in Los Angeles presented a concert version of the musical. The cast featured Cheyenne Jackson as Superman, Jean Louisa Kelly as Lois Lane, Richard Kind as Dr. Sedgwick, Patrick Cassidy in his father's old role of Max Mencken, and composer Charles Strouse in a special appearance as Perry White.[4] From June 15–17, 2007, the musical was presented in concert by the York Theatre's Musicals at MUFTI series in New York City, with Jackson, Kelly, and Strouse reprising their roles from the Los Angeles concert. Others in the cast included Lea DeLaria as Dr. Sedgwick, Shoshana Bean as Sydney, and David Rasche as Max Mencken.[5] Bob Holiday, the original Broadway Superman, attended the June 16 matinee.
From June 18 to July 25, 2010, the Dallas Theater Center presented a revised version of It's a Bird..., starring Matt Cavenaugh in the dual role of Superman/Clark Kent, Zakiya Young as Lois Lane, Patrick Cassidy as Max Mencken, and Cavenaugh's real life wife Jenny Powers as Sydney Sharp. (Mr. Cassidy developed laryngitis during the run of the show, and choreographer Joel Ferrell took over the role until Mr. Cassidy recovered.) The new book for the show was written by playwright and comic book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.[6] Kevin Moriarty, the Dallas Theater's artistic director, believed that the show's campy, pop art-inflected book had "not dated well," and approached Charles Strouse in 2008 for permission to revise the musical.[7] Strouse acquiesced, and Moriarty hired Aguirre-Sacasa, a "lifelong fan" of the musical. Aguirre-Sacasa moved the musical's setting to 1939, and made the show's primary focus the "love triangle" between Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Superman. Songs were cut, new songs commissioned, the order of songs changed,[8] In November 2009, Moriarty and Aguirre-Sacasa held a private reading of the revised book with the show's surviving creators, Strouse, Adams, and Benton.[9]
Still photos can be seen in the documentary Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman, as well as footage from the TV version.
"It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman" was made into a TV special on February 1, 1975. The show was significantly shortened, and the ethnicity of a troupe of evildoers was changed from Chinese acrobats to Mafia-style gangsters. The show was broadcast on the ABC network under its Wide World of Entertainment late-night umbrella title to poor critical reception. It starred David Wilson as Superman/Clark Kent, Lesley Ann Warren as Lois Lane, Loretta Swit as Sydney Carlton, David Wayne as Dr. Abner Sedgwick, and Kenneth Mars as Max Mencken. Viewers of this re-make felt that the TV production lacked the energy of the original Broadway show.[10]
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Two of the songs have become notable outside of the musical. One, an instrumental version of the song "It's Superman" was used as the introductory music for all the newscasts on WTOP-TV/WDVM-TV (Channel 9, now WUSA-TV) in Washington, DC, from 1970 until 1982. The song "You've Got Possibilities" from the musical was featured in a 2005 TV commercial for Pillsbury Grands! Biscuits.
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