The Story

It's Kitsch... It's Nostalgia... It's a Musical?

Oct. 14, 2007 | By Joshua Garstka, DSJ Staff Reporter

"Superman: The Musical" is playing through October 21.  Courtesy of Amy Brabrand.

�"You’ve got possibilities, though you’re horribly square,” Bethany Bagley (’08) sang in the best-known number from �"It’s a Bird... It’s a Plane... It’s Superman!”

As the title indicates, the entirety of this cheeky musical should be over-punctuated. At least on opening night, the College Theatre production, directed by Gary L. Green, began somewhat low-key, a little bit (though not horribly) square.

Bagley’s showstopper, �"You’ve Got Possibilities” (originally performed on Broadway by College alum Linda Lavin), was sung in a classy, jazzy coo. She played secretary-comedienne Sydney with wits of steel, yet the number – in which she seduced wallflower Clark Kent – felt like a missed opportunity without having Bagley reveal that familiar red letter under Kent’s buttoned shirt (with her oblivious, of course).

The production as a whole veered toward the cautious side until the final number of the first act, in which the over-hip 1960s vernacular of �"It’s Super Nice” caused enormous grins to creep across the faces of the ensemble. It’s as if the cast finally accepted the over-the-top spirit and soared with it.

Though he stumbled on his first entrance from the skies (or the wings, to be exact), Tommy Gillespie (’09) never let his Superman lose his self-assured, goofy smile. His physical transformations between Superman and alter ego Clark Kent were a highlight of the overlong first act, aided by Patricia Wesp’s clever costumes. He was ideal as Clark Kent, whipping off his glasses or shouting �"Great Scott!” in the style of Adam West and other melodramatic superheroes of yesteryear.

Maura Roche (’08), always a vivid stage presence, insisted on acting her way through every moment of Lois Lane. In the process, she added spunk and a fantastic sense of period movement and expression to a milquetoast ingénue. Her warm mezzo, however, couldn’t rescue the dreary nature of her three odes to ultra-domesticity. Try to imagine Roche in a squeaky-clean kitchen washing Superman’s dishes in pearls and note the incongruity.

Songwriters Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, following their score for �"Bye, Bye, Birdie,” lent this musical some very catchy numbers, but they belonged mostly to the secondary characters.

When Superman and Lois’s earnestness threatened to overwhelm the show, Nick Giedris (’08) injected a sardonic vitality into the proceedings as the conniving and �"thoroughly immoral” journalist Max Mencken, who seeks Superman’s glory for himself.

Though he didn’t fully explore the oily depths of Max’s shallowness, Giedris scored with vaudeville-inspired numbers such as �"The Woman for the Man,” as he failed to win over Lois Lane. �"That’s six minutes of my day shot to hell,” she responded, but it was the best six minutes of the first act.

Come to think of it, three different men – Gillespie, Giedris and the Jim Carrey-esque Sean Close (’10) – sought Roche’s affections, while the glamorous Bagley had to do her own matchmaking. No matter; the audience enjoyed her paean to Max’s narcissism, �"Ooh, Do You Love You,” and her sweet but sharp-edged one-liners.

But the wholesome heroine got her man in the end. Though it opened on Broadway in 1966, �"Superman” maintained its ties to fifties viewers weaned on television’s happy endings. Both acts ended succinctly but abruptly, as if ready for the Coca-Cola or Alka-Seltzer commercials to air.

Some echoes of the dawning Vietnam culture appeared through Superman’s nemesis. No, not Lex Luthor – he has been replaced by Nobel Prize-losing Dr. Abner Sedgwick. Played by the manic Peter Andre (’08), the scientist asked questions of moral relativism: does �"doing good” truly benefit everybody?

He also belonged to the James Bond cult of villains with plots for world domination and long-winded explanations so thorough that the hero may escape.

Even the villain can be fun with the right show tune. The highlight of the evening was �"You’ve Got What I Need,” a rousing duet for Sedgwick and hoofer Max complete with canes and delusions of grandeur.

Director Gary Green conducted a small but bouncy pit orchestra, accompanying the deliciously retro choreography by Denise Damon Wade. One spectacular sequence, with sets by Michael Mehler, depicted a two-level comic strip with each principal inside a colorful frame, singing their thought bubbles aloud.

With such vivid secondary characters, it’s a shame that Superman and Lois Lane had little to sing about, but this production rectified some of the flaws inherent in the book and score with two strong lead actors. So even though, as Gillespie did opening night, �"Superman” stumbled at first, by the end it flew by, goofy and proud of it.

Superman shows at PBK on Oct. 13 and 18-20 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $8 for students, $12 for regular admission.