It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
#1It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 8:22pm
I understand that this show was a flop but I was thinking about how it might fare if it were to be revived today. As a limited run, maybe?
I don't know much about the show but I've loved all of the songs I've heard (Strongest Man in the World and You've Got Possibilities being favorites). I've seen clips of the made-for-television version on the Look Up in the Sky DVD with an overly giggly Lesley Ann Warren. I don't know how Lois was portrayed in the stage version but in the few clips they showed Lesley made a strong, independent women into a brainless school girl.
So, could this work with the right cast and right director?
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#2re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 8:53pmAs a campy Off Broadway show, yes!
#2re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 9:14pmI love the show and would like to see any actual production make it...I think it could do really well as an off-Broadway show or as a limited run.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#3re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 10:26pm
I saw the original & it was really a fun show
Bob Holliday played the title role like Dudley Dooright. I can see Cheyenne Jackson playing him in a revival.Jack Cassidy
played a mud slinging columnist & was terrific. They also had a group of chinese acrobats called the Flying Lings. They feature in the shows finale a boffo number in an abandoned power plant "Pow Bam Zonk"
There was no Jimmy Olson & Linda Lavin played another DP worker reporter who had the hots for Clark. The late Patricia Marand played Lois very mater of factly. Superman singing The Strongest Man In The World to Lois while bending a standing lamp was a hoot
The show just made you forget your cares. It was entertaining & got positive reviews. For some reason, it never caught on. By the way, Holiday wound up selling homes in the poconos
#4re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 10:33pm
I can see Cheyenne Jackson playing him in a revival
He played the role in a concert version conducted by Georgia Stitt in, I think, 2007.
They feature in the shows finale a boffo number in an abandoned power plant "Pow Bam Zonk"
There's a short clip of that number on the "Look Up in the Sky" DVD
The late Patricia Marand played Lois very mater of factly
Good. IMO Lois Lane is one of the orginal women's libbers. What I saw of Warren's portrayal gave me chills and not in a good way. She auditioned to play opposite Christopher Reeve and she lost the role to Margot Kidder for the same reason. She played Lois as giddy and stupid. As a note...Stockard Channing also auditioned and played Lois as too hard.
#5re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 10:34pmI think it could totally work with some book revisions. I'd prefer Superman over Spider-Man any day.
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#6re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 10:36pmActually, Dallas Theatre Center got permission to write a new book, it opens next May in Dallas, who knows if it'll have a life from there.
#7re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 10:41pm
This is a clip from the Look Up in the Sky DVD that I've been referring to. If you're a Superman fan it is a must see.
That actor who is seen lifting the guy is Patrick Wayne. The role of Superman was going to be his but he walked away to be with his ailing father - John.
Casting Superman
ggersten
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#8re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 10:42pm
We saw a version at Drury Lane -Oakbrook (just outside of Chicago). It was okay. The songs are good. The book is very weak. The changes to get rid of the stereotyped "chinese acrobat troupe" as alternate villains led to in this production - russian communist spied. The TV version had just gangsters.
I'm not sure the show could be a hit - it's not really camp enough and it's not serious enough.
But, I do love lots of the songs.
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#9re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 11:00pm
Another production changed the Chinese acrobats to French "Cirque de Soleil" types.
Political correctness says you can't make fun of the Chinese, but the French are fair game.
#10re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/17/09 at 11:44pmI wonder if the new book will use some of the more "recognizable" Superman characters and cut or change some of the "original" ones? For instance, the absence of Superman's boss and Jimmy Olsen, as well as a generic villain who wasn't even generic villain Lex Luthor felt forced.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#11re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/18/09 at 10:45am
The whole TV version is an embarrassment
Pow Bam Zonk in the original was a showstopper & very well staged.
The number with the Chinese acrobats "Everything's Easy When You Know How" was ever never recorded or due to time constraints never put on the LP & never made it to the CD. I think it was never recorded
willrogers2008
Featured Actor Joined: 12/9/08
#12re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/18/09 at 1:14pmEncores! It would be amazing.
#13re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/18/09 at 1:27pm
I really hope that the new book is good; my major problem with the show (only from reading the book and listening to the score) is how it pretty much ignored most of Superman's comic book history and they could easily add a lot to the book to round out the world. Why Jimmy Olsen is not in the show but we can spend substantial time with a new supporting character's secretary is kind of inexplicable. And make Lois' character less Damsel-in-Distress-y. I mean, she always winds up in danger, but it should be because of her own initiative and gutsiness...not because she gets kidnapped on her way home. In the show, her big dream is to be married and settled down in suburbia. This is not the Lois kids even in the 60s grew up reading about and seeing in the cartoons.
Updated On: 7/18/09 at 01:27 PM
#14re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/18/09 at 2:24pmAgreed. Today, thanks to the successful movie series and the Smallville prequel series, people are more exposed to Superman's "extended universe" than they used to be. Superman and Lois Lane are still big names, but more people than usual would know Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olsen, and even names like Bizarro and Mxysptlyk, thanks to pop culture saturation.
jsg03jd
Broadway Star Joined: 11/24/04
#15re: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's Superman
Posted: 7/19/09 at 7:55pm
Yep, I saw Cheyenne Jackson play the title role in the 2007 York Theatre Musicals in Mufti's presentation a few weeks before he was inserted into XANADU to take over from James Carpinello. He was excellent as were most of the other leads. Lea DeLaria played the crazy professor. The weakest link was Shoshana Bean. Because the concert was sung without amplification, voices that had not-so-great technique and lacked the resonance necessary to reach the audience sadly stood out. And on the front Bean failed big time. You could hardly hear her compared to her co-actors and the York is a small space.
It's a quirky, fun show but I doubt it can be revived on a greater scale.
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