Superhero at Second Stage — Page 3

I was at the matinee today and I agree with others that this needs quite a bit of work.

The characters, plot and music are stuck in first gear the entire show. Little happens or develops and the superhero/supernatural element is little more than a red herring; basically they don’t do anything with it and I really think they should have.

Like N2N (which I loved) and If/Then (which I liked), Superhero deals with grief, loss, people/families attempting to heal and start over. Superhero likes both the punch and the focused structure of the previous two works; the lyrics while not abysmal aren’t really that creative either. I realize Baldwin’s character is stuck in an emotional rut, but she’s a poetry professor, so you really expect some more creative syntax/vocab/etc from her.

Baldwin is an particularly fantastic voice and if there’s any reason to see the show, it’s her. Still, she is required to do a lot more heavy lifting than either Alice Ripley or Idina Menzel were asked to do. It is a strong credit to the actors that I felt anything at all in act two; it was 100% their performances and not the book or score that moved me.

The songs are quite repetitive and since they don’t advance the paper-thin plot much, Kitt needs to find a way to dig deeper into their thoughts and feelings than he currently does. Baldwin sings about 10 ballads that cover a total of three emotions. She sings and acts the crap out of them, but it’s still 10 ballads and three emotions for her to work with.

---

Can anyone report on any merchandise that they’re selling?

Miles...I didn’t see any branded merch either. Also, I sat in A5 on Friday night and thought it was a great seat!

Kate Baldwin deserves an award for her commitment & humility in doing everything she can to make this material work. But there's only so much she can do.

The show itself is deeply flawed, and I doubt will be salvaged by the creative team in a way that makes any kind of major impact. It is very unbalanced - Act 1 is shorter than Act 2, has only a handful of songs, and contains little plot development. Act 2 is nearly sung-through, has plot points & songs hurled at you, and never ends, until it abruptly does.

It sounded nearly identical to If/Then at times, and I genuinely believe Freaky Friday has a stronger score. The show has so much opportunity to transcend it's melodramatic themes, but is ultimately very flat. Don't get me wrong - the set is beautiful, there's one really well staged number, and Kate is wonderful. The concept is admirable - a mature musical about Superheroes, growing up, and grief - but in it's attempts to be the anti-Lifetime movie, it becomes squarely that.

I saw the matinee today, I was able to get a rush ticket on TodayTix. (Price has gone up from $20 to $32 by the way). I’m not one to pick a show apart, and on the whole I was entertained, the cast is great and there’s some great moments. I do have to say that I just left feeling like there’s something missing. There’s a good story there, but it just doesn’t come together for whatever reason, if you enjoy Kate Baldwin, I’d say give it a shot. Running time is 2:15 including intermission now.

Saturday was a challenging day where I certainly could have used a superhero. I lost my wallet and my mom is experiencing health problems while I’m thousands of miles away. Luckily, her health seeks to be stabilizing and someone has emailed me to say they found my wallet. It remains to be seen until they call me what exactly remains of the contents of my wallet.


I offer the above as some lame excuse for a probably very unfocused review of the matinee I saw on Saturday. Despite it’s flaws which I will get to, I walked out of the first act into intermission having had a wonderful time. The actors are all great especially Kate Baldwin of course and and I’m too tired to remember the young actor who plays Simon or look for my packed Playbill but he is a captivating presence. Also the actor who was previously in gentleman‘s guide to love and murder was quite good. I also liked the actress who played Vee. I loved the stagecraft and special-effects as well. Act 1 ended on a promising, thrilling note.

But then Act 2 happened. There is simply no there there. Not much happened - there was one promising surprise towards the end that I thought could’ve been elaborated on quite a bit more. It’s a moment that should really pack more of an emotional punch than it currently does as written.

I did like some of the songs but do you agree that some lyrics need to be strengthened and there is a certain sameness through many of the songs. And the book just needs to be more expanded upon. My favorite part of the show other than the stagecraft was “I’ll Save The Girl,” including the choreography.

It’s clear that they want to become the next Dear Evan Hansen (which I saw again interestingly enough Saturday night), but it needs a lot of work before that could happen.


As far as stage door, that just happens downstairs by the box office and everyone came out except the young man who plays Simon and the guy that plays Jim. Kate Baldwin was lovely.

Update: I’m still glad I saw this for the lovely cast and the parts that do work. I also read comic books as a child. I actually had struggled to read until I discovered comic books. They ignited my love of reading. I also loved most of the early superhero movies (Tim Burton’s Batman, Sam Mendes’s Spider-Man, etc...) until Superhero movies became franchise films that seemed to mostly be indistinguishable from one another. As an adoptee who was bullied mercilessly as a child and is a gay man who lived partially in the closet for a long time, elements of superheroes’ backstories resonate deeply with me: loss of a parent, being raised by surrogate parent(s), history of trauma, the public and private self. Hell, I even enjoyed Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, flaws and all. So I was the prime audience for this. There is a lot of work to be done. Hopefully, that happens. I do know that I heard the young man who plays the bully tell someone after the show that they cut an entire character out of the show either a week before previews began or last week. (I wasn’t clear on timeframe).



Also, I sat front center orchestra. There is some scene work at top of the firescape which you can see fine if you look straight up. Those scenes don’t last too long so it’s not much of a strain on your neck, but the show does make use of projections including on the far right of the firescape which you can’t clearly see from front row so seats a little further back would probably be good. I don’t regret all my legroom though. The stage is also super low so that’s not a concern.



My wallet was also returned to me Sunday morning by the couple who found it with all the contents intact. Just in time before my shuttle to airport arrived. I was prepared to give them the cash from my wallet to thank them, but they emphatically declined. They even drove from their Jersey hotel to my hotel. Which just goes to show that not all superheroes wear capes.

Updated On: 2/18/19 at 03:11 AM

I saw the show tonight and thought it was a beautiful and charming little musical. Is it God’s gift to musical theatre? No. But I had a good time. I thought the score was pretty good and the book was strong. The performers truly elevate this piece with Kate Baldwin giving a masterclass performance and Kyle McArthur giving an incredible debut. I was expecting the worst based on early reports from here but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it and it seemed like the audience was having a good time too, especially during Act I. And it looked pretty much sold out.

its opening night, when do the professional reviews come out?

Variety isn’t a fan, but praises Kate. I think we’ll see a lot of that:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/variety.com/2019/legit/reviews/superhero-review-musical-tom-kitt-kate-baldwin-1203152477/amp/

That's a "see it off-Broadway or never see it" reviews from Jesse Green...

I think Jesse Green's review is spot-on. He really articulates where the creators went wrong, in my humble opinion.

Saw this tonight and I really went in thinking I would dislike it after reading the posts on here.

I really did like it. Yes, there are issues with the a lot of the production but the actors were fantastic. Katie Baldwin was outstanding, as she always is. I’ve seen Bryce Pinkham in a few shows but I was really impressed with him here. The main character, I’m blanking on his name, was fine. I think he’s still very young and will grow into his voice.

If you’re a fan of NTN and enjoy the sadder sort of productions, try this.

Can anyone who saw this in previews say what the scenes were like where Nathaniel Stampley played the school dean? The scenes and role has been cut, but his name is still on the title page. He also appears briefly in an ensemble scene.