It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman at City Center

[dfw2sfo]

Going to see Superman this afternoon. Has hotties Edward Watts and Charlie Williams. Looking forward to it.

[skynyc]

Seeing it tonight... Will review this week later...two debacles and hopefully a retro-charmer.

[Doe Be Doe]

I saw it Friday night with a friend who is much better at theatre criticism than I am. She did not care for it. I enjoyed it. I went with no hope for having a good time and found it wonderfully campy. The second act was a little silly.

 

All of the actors acted and sang well - very well. I especially liked Jenny Powers as Lois Lane - pretty and a good singer. Craig Henningsen as a flying lings was rather good looking.

[skynyc]

Just home from this ridiculous romp of a show, and it appeared that City Center was a total fun zone. Everyone I could see seemed to be caught up in the madcap, comic spirit. (I will leave it to our resident hater to offer his rebuttal shortly.)

David Pittu was chewing the scenery in just the right amounts, and his duet with Will Swenson as the slimy gossip columnist brought down the house!!! Alli Mauzey was clearly having a blast in the role that enabled Linda Lavin to catch the eye of casting people all over town. (And Miss Mauzey is doing Glinda in Wicked right now. Glad to be taking my mom in another month.)

The dancing was all straight off American Bandstand in the sixties...the twist, the frug, and the mashed potato. What a hoot...and how nice to see Charlie Williams and Ward Billiesen on the stage again. And the dancing/fighting/acrobatics of the Flying Lings was loads of fun.

Jenny Powers took the weekend off from Irish Rep's Donnybrook, and now I need to get a ticket to that...I have never found her so appealing (Of course, it may just be my jealousy that she's married to Matt Cavanaugh.)

Ed Watts has the hardest job in the show. His straight-man role (Superman) is nearly impossible to make interesting. But he was able to find the humor in most of his lines, and played it with just the right amount of earnest swagger.

Of course, one of the principle reasons to go to Encores is to hear the Golden Age scores being played by a large orchestra, and this was no exception. An Entr'Acte!!!. LOL

The unseen star of tonight was John Rando who directed this with such panache. The tongue was firmly in cheek all evening, from the "flying" on and off, to the sets reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein, and costumes straight off the pages of DC comics.

I am sorry to have not seen this earlier in it's run...I would probably have bought a $20 balcony side seat to see it again.