It’s a Bird……It’s a Plane…..No, It’s the Man of Steel on Broadway
One of the most popular superheroes took the jump from page to stage. In 1966, creators David Newman and Robert Benton (the same screen writers for the 1978 film Superman) came together to try and figure what Broadway’s next big hit could be. They […]
One of the most popular superheroes took the jump from page to stage.
In 1966, creators David Newman and Robert Benton (the same screen writers for the 1978 film Superman) came together to try and figure what Broadway’s next big hit could be.
They took a leap of faith and thus created the musical “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman.”
Upon creating the show, Newman and Benton had to talk over the idea with DC Comics.
The team and DC Comics came to an agreement that the only characters they would be allowed to use were Clark Kent/Superman, Lois Lane, Perry White and Jimmy Olsen.
They had to come up with their own unique villian for Superman to face.
They introduced the character of Dr. Abner Sedgwick who was a mad scientist because of constantly losing the Nobel Prize. The other is Max Mencken who wasn’t fond of Lois Lane swooning over Superman.
One of the newest members to The Daily Planet team was Sydney Carlton. Her character is known for singing one of the popular songs from the show, “You’ve Got Possibilities.”
The other challenge the team faced was how to make the show seem more adult when the character of Superman was geared toward children.
The show opened on March 29th, 1966 to good reviews from critics on Broadway.
Fans were loving the show and kids were going crazy for Superman. They would even allow the kids in the audience go backstage and meet the actor in character.
After a while, the hype of the show died down.
On July 17 1996, Superman took his last fly on Broadway. It became the biggest Broadway flop of the time.
Even though the show wasn’t crazed by fans, there were attempts to revive it.
In 1975, ABC aired a TV-movie version of the musical which was thrown together in a short, three day shoot.
The show was again not well received by audiences. The show was thrown together in a week and most of the show was improvised by the cast.
The show has rarely been put on since and it’s not really remembered in the Broadway community.
As a Superman fan, I’m not a huge fan of the musical myself but I do like some of the songs in the show.
The Man of Steel didn’t get to fly around for NYC for too long, but he is still flying high on both the big and small screen!
