Customer Reviews

It's A Bird ... It's A Plane ... It's Superman (1966 Original Broadway Cast)

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SUPERMAN is one of those flop musicals that was just so, so, so close to being a hit. It had all the right ingredients: A very funny book (by Robert Benton and David Newman, who would hit it big the next year as screenwriters of BONNIE AND CLYDE), a tuneful score with at least one obvious hit ("You've Got Possibilities"), a fine cast, a distinctive production, and a rave review from the New York TIMES. So what happened? Basically, the story was weak. (Story counts; Strouse and Adams' next show, APPLAUSE, had a disappointing score and book, but the strength of its storyline helped carry it to the hit column.) The main plot hooks -- Superman doubting himself; Lois Lane considering marrying someone else -- weren't particularly interesting, and the show was dominated to an inordinate extent by characters who were really peripheral: Jack Cassidy as a Winchell-type columnist and Linda Lavin as his secretary. Maybe some of the show's problems were due to Harold Prince's relative inexperience as a director. If Newman and Benton would reunite to strengthen the story just a little (without losing too many of the hilarious lines from their book), this show really could be the hit it should have been in 1966.

Until then, we have the album, and it's great. Except for one horrible number ("It's Super Nice," which apparently was even worse onstage), it doesn't sound like a flop; Strouse and Adams are at their considerable peak with wonderful tunes and witty lyrics (Lois sings of Superman: "Tell me please, when will he learn it's not some silly fly-by-night affair?"). The album is one of the best ever produced by Columbia's Goddard Lieberson, with great stereo sound, superb performances (especially from Cassidy and Lavin), and somewhat more dialogue than usual -- so we get such goodies as Cassidy's hilarious speeches in his two solos. Plus the CD has bonus tracks in the form of demo recordings of cut songs played and sung by Strouse, including the amusing (if dramatically irrelevant) "Dot Dot Dot." This CD was one of the best in the long-defunct Sony Broadway series, and it is one of the most entertaining cast albums of any flop show. It's too bad that the CD couldn't reproduce the brilliant back cover of the original LP (done in the form of an issue of the "Daily Planet"), but you can't have everything. Get the CD and enjoy.

I was lucky enough to have seen "Superman" on Broadway and it was one of the most enjoyable times I've had in a Broaway theater. Yes, it had it's faults, but as a show that entertained an audience, it was (to use a cliche) SUPER. I left the theater smiling and humming the music. There were great flying sequences, break apart props as Superman accomplished his feats, great cheorography including the fights. There was one very funny bit during one of Clark Kent's songs, a telephone booth followed him around the stage waiting for him to get in and change to Superman. A really FUN show.

One of the biggest faults was that the starring role was NOT Superman, but that of an unscrupulous newspaper columunist. Jack Cassidy was given star billing for this part over Bob Holiday as Clark Kent/Superman. This pulled the show somewhat out of focus.Good as Cassidy was, it was wrong to emphasize his part.

Bob Holiday was wonderful in the title role. It's a shame that he didn't go on to other roles. He was every inch Superman and had a great voice and imposing presance. He was able to convincingly create two different characters - Kent and Superman - in one performance. However, the major musical numbers were given to Cassidy as the "star".

One of the true joys of the show was Linda Lavin. Her two songs were absolute show stoppers. "You've Got Possibilities" is a really great show tune. It was obvious she would be the major star she has become. Her performance alone, was a reason to see this show.

The other female lead, Patricia Marand, was also wonderful, again, she should have gone on to other Broadway shows. I did see her opposite Yul Brynner in a tour of "King and I" as Anna and she was magnificent. She is drop dead beautiful, a wonderful actress and singer.

There were many reasons "Superman" did not make it on Broadway - it should have - and for a complete run down check out Ken Mandlebaum's book on Broadway failures "Not Since Carrie".

It is wonderful to have this CD of a show that should have been a classic.

If you didn't think that the tale of Superman could be turned into a musical, well, you are in for a surprise. This is an old-style musical with it's toungue firmly planted in its cheek-no melodrama here. Our high school performed this musical, and it was the most fun I ever had. The songs are goofy and funny, and the story is just as fun. This goes along side Charles Strouse's "Bye Bye Birdie" as a pure, fun-filled delight. It is a hip and cool musical, and this soundtrack is an excellent primer to the actual show.

Because the book writers for this 1966 flop musical (only 129 performances) also co-wrote the Christopher Reeve movies, some like composer Charles Strouse have suggested that the idea was ahead of its time. Actually what this fails to take into account is that what made the Reeve movies a success were the elements that were totally lacking in the musical. The gritty straightforwardness of Superman's origins, and more importantly the faithful depiction of many Superman characters that the show also jettisoned (Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olson and the all but invisible in the show Perry White). The only element of the Broadway show that really made it into the film was the depiction of Clark Kent as a bumbling Harold Lloyd type. It's rather telling that when the Newmans became sole screenwriters for "Superman 3" the series tanked for all intents and purposes.

Back to the musical. There are some good songs, especially "It's Superman" and "You've Got Possibilities" but overall it's not one of Strouse's best. Also, the libretto suffers from serious structural problems, particularly in making Max Menken (Jack Cassidy) the centerpiece. If the show isn't first and foremost about Superman then you're ultimately cheating the audience. In addition, there is a very intrusive and pointless subplot of Lois becoming romantically involved with the villainous Dr. Sedgwick's assistant (note to the listener of the CD. This key subplot is totally missed in the liner notes making them very unreliable in terms of understanding the songs if one hasn't seen the show). All in all, Superman the musical seems to come off like an evening of fun but lacking the all important sense of understanding the character's background and the whole Superman mythos.

The bonus tracks of cut songs from an Adams and Strouse demo record are interesting not just for what they are but for what they tell us about how theater people sometimes haven't a clue as to the mindsets of their audience. The first song "Dot, Dot, Dot" meant for Max as a showstopping number that was also their send-up of Walter Winchell had to be cut after the first preview because it got no reaction whatsoever to everyone's shock. Actually listening to it it's easy to see why the audience didn't laugh or react because it is loaded with show biz inside jokes, naming people the average ticket buyer wouldn't have a clue about (case in point, a reference to obscure film producer Jennings Lang). Strouse and Adams forgot that what goes over with your friends at a cocktail party isn't going to be understood or appreciated by the mass audience who pays to see your final results performed on stage.

The Superman musical has lived on in a weak 1975 TV version, and is apparently still a favorite for the high school and community theater crowd, but don't ever expect Broadway to give it another chance again because this cast album reveals a show that for all its charms was seriously off kilter ultimately in its focus.

...that grounded this show. "It's a Bird..It's a Plane..It's Superman" flew into Broadway in March 1966 and flew out by July 1966 which was a shame because the show was essentialy a lot of fun but had many obstacles that blocked its potential including a whiff of homosexuality which audiences in 1966 weren't ready to accept. More on that later.

The biggest of its obstacles was that "Batman" was all the rage that year and perhaps audiences felt if they wanted camp they could get it free weekly on TV. "Superman" wasn't all that campy but it seemed to be.

Another obstacle was Jack Cassidy was the star and he didn't play Superman. He played a suave, narcissistic reporter on the Daily Planet and Linda Lavin was Sydney his wise-cracking, hard-boiled assistant who had a crush on Clark Kent. Together these two walked away with the show and left Superman hanging mid-air in the wings. Even Lois Lane found a new beau in a lab assistant of a mad scientist named Abner who was the shows villain.

The music and lyrics by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams were pleasent enough but gave Jack Cassidy two big numbers "You're the Woman For The Man" and "So Long Big Guy" and Miss Lavin had a number "You've Got Possibilities" where she tries to seduce and nearly strips Superman of his Clark Kent disguise. Another clever number came late in the second act where the entire stage were cubicles made to resemble panels in a comic strip and all the characters each occupied a cube wondering where the missing Man Of Steel was,(It's Superman).

Now comes the whiff of homosexuality I mentioned earlier. Jack Cassidys character, Max Mencken teams up with the mad scientist, Abner Sedgwick and together they share a mutual admiration number "You"ve Got What I Need" where they call each other "baby" "lovey" and "cookie" and even a little light in the loafers dance together. The song was not at all offensive but the theatre-going audiences were a little different in those days. Most shows survived on theatre parties usually arranged by white-haired matrons whose tastes and sensibilities ran to much lighter and innocent fare such as "Hello Dolly",

Whatever the reason for the failure of "It's A Bird..It's A Plane...It's Superman" may never be known but another clue might be that the character of Superman was under-used.

But the authors of the book of the show got the last laugh when 12 years later they wrote the screenplay for the Christopher Reeve "Superman".

...I am a little hard-pressed, to enthusiastically recommend this soundtrack of the original Broadway Cast of "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman". Not that any of the performers are at fault, they've all got good voices, and are at least competent or better. But most of the songs (written and composed by the same men who brought us "Bye Bye Birdie"), are almost completely unmemorable. The only one to have ANY kind of limited life outside of the show was "You've Got Possibilities", (although I DID like Lois Lane's love ballad "It's Superman" a little, I found the Melody appealing. But that was the only one of Lois' Songs I liked). And what's with all this Max Mencken stuff? I like Jack Cassidy as a performer very much, but He dominates the soundtrack and the plot of the play almost to the point where You get the feeling Max Mencken is the MAIN CHARACTER, NOT SUPERMAN!!! I never heard of any Max Mencken in the "Superman" Comics. There is no Jimmy Olsen in this play, no Lex Luthor, Perry White BARELY appears in the show. The villains are rather ridiculously wimpy and ineffectual (Dr. Sedgwick, etc.). I think I can see why this show didn't "make it" in the annals of Broadway Musicals. I'm not saying "definitely DON'T buy it", I'm just saying don't get your hopes too high on this product if You are a BIG Superman fan. (Jerry Seinfeld, are You listening?).

Some reviewers below have attributed the short run of this Broadway musical to the obvious conclusion that it was a [commercial] flop.
NOT SO! It was a huge sell-out success [with an unprecedented four matinees per week in addition to the standard 6 nightlies per week], and would have continued for many years were it not for the ongoing suit between Superman's creators, Mssrs Siegel & Shuster, and DC Comics. Siegel and Shuster's lawyers served notice on the producers of the show that the profits would be frozen as being in question due to DC not having the right to option the character, and the legal situation was though so expensive to fight from the producers end that they folded the show. A similar situation forced another critically and commercial Broadway hit to cease: A Day In Hollywood A Night In The Ukraine, a musical revue which featured three young and brilliant actors succesfully playing the roles of the Marx Bros [especially the woman mime who played a male Harpo], was sadly sued out of existence by the heirs of the brothers.
As librettist/lyricist Dick Vosburgh puts in his liner notes to the original Broadway cast album, few could have dreamed that he, "a Marx [Brothers] obsessed New Jersey-born comedy writer living in England, would adapt [Anton Chekhov's play] The Bear as a musical in the [Marx Brothers'] Night at the Opera style, find a man capable of both playing the 'Chico' [Marx] role, and of writing the music [Frank Lazarus], open in a tiny off West End theater..., see it transfer to the West End..., win a couple of awards..., and wind up a Broadway hit directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune...." (Opening at the Golden Theatre in New York on May 1, 1980, the show ran a healthy 588 performances.)

Opening in 1966, the musical "It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman" ran for only 129 performances before disappearing into that great phone booth in the sky. Obviously it wasn't going to be giving "Cats" or "A Chorus Line" a run for their money but, to be honest about it, Superman wasn't really the most promising subject material for an on-stage musical.

Available on CD, the music for the production shows where most of the promise went. Especially in the Overture, which straddles the line between the basic jazzy and the attentively heroic. It makes for good music for changing into one's super-costume, as does the Entr'acte.

The rest of the music settles itself squarely on the talents of the performers, and it can't be denied that at least some effort went into gathering people who could sell songs with their voices. Bob Holiday's rich voice ably connects with the persona of The Man Of Steel undergoing a personal crisis, especially in the number "The Strongest Man In The World". And, in spite of all the competition available onstage, his clear tones can easily be heard in the Finale.

That competition, by the way, includes Lois Lane, here being assayed by Patricia Marand's full-bodied voice warbling its way through numbers such as the wistful "It's Superman" and "What I've Always Wanted". Much better for her, though, are the all-too-brief comedic jibes she exchanges with veteran actor Jack Cassidy during his number "You're The Woman For The Man" (listening to this song one can almost see Cassidy's patented Lothario grin as he tries to put the moves on Lois).

(The CD, by the way, also includes bonus tracks of songs which composers Charles Strouse and Lee Adams wanted for the play but which were subsequently dropped. One of them, "Dot Dot Dot", is worth listening to if only to imagine what Cassidy's voice and character persona could've done with it.)

Other pieces worth listening to include a reprise of "It's Superman" where most of the company hold forth on the subject of everyone's favorite Kryptonian, as well as the number "You've Got Possibilities" which bears mention if only for the fact that, out of all the numbers in the production, it achieved that Holiest Of Holies: eventually being used in a television commercial! And for a quick and undeniably unique lesson in Nobel Prize winners, it'd be difficult to top Michael O'Sullivan's rendition of "Revenge".

Admittedly the overall effect will be of severe interest for those with one foot firmly strolling down old school Broadway. And it won't make people forget the soundtracks of John Williams. But the music deserves to rise above the level of a curiosity and, as part of the overall Superman legend, cannot be entirely ignored.

This is a weird little oddity to say the least. So let's take the world's greatest superhero and add all the classic musical elements and what do you get: "It's A Bird ... It's A Plane ... It's Superman". The more appropiate title would have been "Superman The Musical". Because that is exactly what this is.

Overall this is your typical Broadway muscial comedy. The music, lyrics, everything points to that fact. Not to mention the fact that the book of the play was written by none other then Superman The Movie screenwriters David Newman and Richard Benton. It seems to be nothing more then pure camp to me. Not that the cast can't sing. They certainly can. But the problem is (at least from listening to the CD and looking at the pictures in the booklet) that Superman is one of those things that never should have been a musical. The story makes even less logical sense then say Superman III (can't find a good plot summary on the internet and the one in the booklet is both copyrighted and too long for me to type)!

It's not bad as a musical. But honestly some of the lyrics make no sense example being Superman in the song "Pow! Bam! Zonk!" going "I could use a t-bone steak / I haven't felt this could sense Krypton knows when". What the heck?!?! This doesn't sound remotly like something Superman should say let along sing! As I said this is a weird little oddity.

Then there is Harold "Hal" Prince the direcotr. Now let's condier some of the lays of his illustrious carrer such as West Side Story, On the Twentieth Century, Evita, and the classic Andrew Llyod Webber version of The Phantom Of The Opera. How in the world did somebody as good as this guy lead up this turkey? After all the musical was by all accounts a dud, lasting only 129 performances.

My opinion is that this was a bad idea badly executed. Is it worth a listen? Sure if you're a die-hard Superman or Broadway fan. Otherwise, you probably want to avoid this.

"Superman: The Musical?" You might claim it sounds like a bad idea. And as a life-long Superman fan, I would agree. But when I found out about this show, I rushed to find the soundtrack. Fearing what would happen to Superman without the music of John Williams. But the Man of Steel soars with the music of Strouse and Adams, the same composers of "Bye Bye Birdie." The music is delightfully simple, with no hard edges or philosophical meanings. The lyrics and melodies connote an age of innocence, a comic book culture in which simple actions offered role models and uncomplicated heroes. The CD is reasonably priced with 23 tracks, including 4 bonus tracks. The booklet comes with a synopsis of the show and pictures from the production. A must for fans of Broadway, obscure musicals, or Superman fans.