It's Superman , the title character, played by ruggedly handsome young Broadway leading man Matt Cavenaugh, flies in early enough to set the audience buzzing. Sure, you can see the wires hooked to his sides, but it's still a kick when the guy swoops in and then, in that trademark fists-forward stance, flies out again. With a cast of local stars and imported New York pros, including swoony, silver-haired stage and TV veteran Patrick Cassidy as super-villain Max Menken the role his late father, Jack Cassidy, originated , this whole show takes glorious flight, up, up and away beyond all expectations of what DTC and artistic director Kevin Moriarty would do with it.
If they choose to take it elsewhere after the monthlong run at the Wyly, and they should, there are enough winning elements in Superman to make it the next great American musical comedy. Certainly it already has more going for it than most of the Broadway tours now out on the road spare us another dose of Mary Poppins , who flies around in a boring mega-flop. And it has more pop as a pop culture product now that the book from the original version has been replaced with a wise, witty libretto completely re-imagined and written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, a Marvel Comics author, playwright and screenwriter for HBO's polygamy dramedy Big Love.
The score has been updated too, polished and added to for the re-mount by the original composing team, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, both in their 80s. Strouse, with lyricist Martin Charnin, also wrote the songs for Annie. New orchestrations and arrangements by the brilliant Eugene Gwozdz have lifted Superman 's tunes out of the go-go era.
The show sounds hot and contemporary now though the nine-musician pit at DTC is thin , but with a traditional Broadway "button" to every number that gives it all a classic big-musical feel.
The one memorable song from the show's short run on Broadway in , the flirty, syncopated "You've Got Possibilities," could serve as the theme for Dallas Theater Center's current production. This is the first thing Moriarty's directed here that has real possibilities for going places.
There's more work to do on Superman , some tightening at the top of the show, a trim of a song here and there. Maybe a switch in roles between the two leading ladies would make sense. But here's the rare non-hit musical that has been successfully revived and revised, saved from becoming a relic as a Broadway show that didn't live up to its potential.
Visually and technically, it's a stunning piece of big-budget theater. The enormous, complicated scenery by Beowulf Boritt exploits all of the Wyly's whizbang mechanical tricks the show begins with young Kal-El's rocket lifting off from Krypton, which is pretty cool, even if the ship is a little shaky. Jennifer Caprio's costumes come in splashes of vivid solids that make all the characters instantly identifiable.
Lighting design by Jeff Croiter is wowzapalooza. All of it should and will play just fine for kids—nothing in the material is the least bit un-family-friendly. But Aguirre-Sacasa, in his value-added take on the well-known mythology created by Superman comic book writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, is too savvy to stop there. He has cleverly woven in some darker stuff for the grown-ups.
Nothing heavy. Just a hint at themes a few layers deeper than other Superman spin-offs, including the wooden-gestured Christopher Reeve movies and the Smallville TV series.
You don't have to listen all that carefully, for instance, to catch allusions to Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy about a different kind of "Superman" in the struggle between the ordinary human, Clark Kent, who believes in God and man's innate goodness, and Grinchy bermensch Max the show's Lex Luthor-like character, but with hair , who can't tolerate human weakness or gin up empathy. Max manipulates the city of Metropolis to his evil ends, but ultimately fails as a corrupt despot because he spurns the one woman who loves him, his loyal secretary, Miss Nessbit wonderful Dallas musical comedy actress Cara Statham Serber in her first role at DTC.
She becomes an Enron-ian whistleblower, bless her broken heart. Your comment has been submitted. A moderator will be reviewing shortly. Art and the City: A love letter to Dallas theater, and how storytelling can help us through crisis. Don X. Kevin Moriarty. Oscar Seung. Albert Park. Garrett Weir. Dallas Theater Center. Southern Methodist University graduate Kimberly Grigsby Spring Awakening is actually musical director of both musicals.
According to her, each show takes the superhero idea very seriously, but they take different tacks. The hope all the way around is that when Superman sheds its book, like Clark Kent doffing his shirt and horn-rim glasses, the show will finally soar off to the success it never quite achieved the first time around. It's a Bird MacArthur Blvd. Catch up on North Texas' vibrant arts and culture community, delivered every Monday. By signing up you agree to our privacy policy.
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