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Rating:  -
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.)
Rating:  -
It's A Bird ... It's A Plane ... It's Superman (1966 Original Broadway Cast)has long been one of my favorite scores that wasn't a hit. In fact I directed an ill fated production in 1982. Comic stars Jack Cassidy and Linda Lavin out shine the leads of Patricia Marchand and Bob Holiday as Lois Lane and Clark/Superman but it is all a lot of fun.
Linda Lavin's "You've Got Possibilities" is an infectious treat. "It's Superman" is a very catchy Strouse tune. The whole show is a tongue in cheek gem. I especially love the overture.
Rating: -
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.
Rating:  -
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.
Rating: -
I especially LOVE this album because I was a TOTAL Superman freak as a kid, AND my mother provided the wonderful treat of seeing the show, during its very brief run at the Alvin Theatre in New York ; I was 11.
The cast includes Linda Lavin, who played the single mom waitress and title character on TV's Alice from 1976 to 1985. Her character in this show, sensing immense potential in Clark Kent, sings what many would agree is the best song in the show: "You've Got Possibilities."
Jack Cassidy (he was married to Shirley Jones and was the father of the Cassidy kids who, with Jones as the mother, were TVs Partridge Family) plays an interesting permutation of Lex Luthor; he plays to the campy hilt Super nemesis Max Mencken, a jaundiced journalist who's sure he's much more deserving of all the attention Superman gets. He targets the hero's psuper psyche in a way that makes the show refreshingly down to earth in a very funny way ("So Long Big Guy") Cassidy's sweet, pure voice will make your ears smile from head to toe.
Bob Holiday (who now has a non-solitary fortress on the net) is The Man, and his big, booming, beautiful voice is perfect for the part.
Check out the song clips -- to my ears, the music is SUPERlative. Have a party.
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