And howRiverdales creator almost got him back off the ground nearly 50 years later.
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The Dallas production had attempted to rectify all of that.
All systems were go.
And then DTC artistic director Kevin Moriarty got the letter from DC Entertainments lawyers.
They said, You dont have permission to do this.
Its songs were composed by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, the duo behindBye Bye BirdieandAnnie.
It was directed byBroadway legend Harold Prince, a man with21 Tonys to his name.
All that, and it was a musical aboutSuperman, one of entertainmentsmost enduring pieces of intellectual property.
They didnt think they needed it.
Moriarty replied to DC explaining as much: Were working with the very writers themselves.
But we do not recognize the right of this production to exist.
And were going to do everything in our power to stop it from ever having a life after this.
Which meant that once again, Superman and his musical were getting an early, kryptonite hook.
Then, in a classic instance of New York City networking, a bizarre opportunity arose.
And its Lee Adams and Charles Strouse.
The pair was on the hunt for something that could restore them to glory.
Byron said, Theyre looking for materials.
Why dont you meet with them?
He and Newman felt they needed to bring something to the meeting.
They were young and connected to the hip world.
Once the deal was done, everyone had to actually write the thing.
One aspect everyone agreed on from the jump: They didnt want this to be a kiddie show.
Do you just do the original material?
And how could you, without making fun of it?
There was Max Mencken, a snotty Walter Winchell pastiche who writes forThe Daily Planet.
We had a home in Fire Island, he says.
That hat oh no!
Im not Queen Victoria!
This suit has to go.
The house is dark, reads the first stage direction of the script.
Suddenly, there is the ear-splitting sound of a clanging BURGLAR ALARM.
The ensuing 90-odd pages were light and loopy.
Up, up, and awayyy!
There are more than a few highlights along that journey.
I used to help that punk with long division!
And Fermi for his brilliant neutron system?
That bum, he wouldnt know a neutron if it kissed him!
It was not infatuation,
No, it was much more profound.
Then you smiled and you trembled
And the thunder rolled above.
From that day you cant forget
As you lit your cigarette,
You just knew it was love.
we say,
Then we muck things up
In the same destructive way.
But Morgan is otherwise a dull character.
And the less said about the Flying Lings the better.
Benton, Newman, Adams, and Strouse approached famed Broadway producer David Merrick to back it.
David Merrick was like a Superman villain, Strouse recalls.
He said, Oh, great!
and then he dropped us and lied to our lawyer.
Undeterred, the quartet turned to the 38-year-old Hal Prince.
And I thought that it would be a lot of fun.
So he said hed produce the show, with one stipulation: He also had to direct*.
With Prince onboard, they got the green light to open at the Alvin Theater on 52nd Street.
When the casting call went out, actors clamored to be part of a piece of pop-culture history.
Prince, she recalls with a laugh.
Youre just not midwestern enough.
I was a Jewish girl from Portland, Maine, so yeah, I saw it.
New characters in supporting roles are one thing, but Superman?
Well, thats a cape of a different color.
Everyone thought finding someone with the gravitas to nail the Last Son of Krypton would be an uphill battle.
Then they met Bob Holiday.
At the start of auditions, a bunch of guys were lined up, recalls Adams.
The first guy who walked up was Bob Holiday, and that was it.
Its one of those strange things.
We saw a bunch of other people, of course, but he was obviously the one.
Rehearsals were followed by performances for potential backers, and those were followed by a troubled tryout in Philadelphia.
We got the worst reviews I had ever read in my life from the Philadelphia critics, Benton recalls.
I miss the idea of having a normal life.
Their endurance paid off.
Previews began in the spring of 1966, and the show opened on March 29.
Crowds flocked to the Alvin.
It got as good reviews as any show Ive ever done, Prince recalls.
I add at once that it would be enjoyable in any season.
Everyone involved in the production was over the moon.
He started to believe he was Superman, Strouse says.
The crowd erupted into a standing ovation.
The fervor didnt last.
Enthusiasm swiftly dried up.
Hal Prince didnt have the right advertising for it, suggests Strouses wife, the director-choreographer Barbara Siman.
I dont think he knew what he was doing.
I think he just thought it would take off.
I dont think he produced it properly.
The price may have been another factor.
When purchased at the theater, as was customary, they were $12.
Everybody was seeingBatmanfor free, Prince said, and they go, Ive seen it.
DC never incorporated any of the new characters into the comics.
Its a Birdwas not mourned by the press or historians.
That all changed after he got the Dallas gig in 2007.
A couple of years in, he wanted to stage a musical that would entertain but wasnt overdone.
I asked this in the most careful, sideways way possible.
But he immediately said, Idlovethat show to have a future life!
Moriarty, elated, finished up with Strouse and ran down to the street outside.
He was friends with Aguirre-Sacasa, then known mainly as a playwright, and called him from the sidewalk.
I said, I have a crazy question.
I was just talking to Charles Strouse And thats all I got out, Moriarty recalls.
He said, Oh my God, is itSuperman?
If itsSuperman, Im in!
Somewhat surprisingly given the shows failure in its original run, there had been past attempts at reviving it.
They didnt have a clue what they were doing, recalls David Wilson, who played Superman.
We had a week to rehearse.
A lot of the stuff was just improvised when we got there.
Stay tuned for chapter three: Superman Makes It!
Wilson recalls critics reviews of the performance being abysmal.
And she was, like,horrified.)
But despite its rocky past, Moriarty and Aguirre-Sacasa were undaunted.
Aguirre-Sacasa wrote a book that had no trace of Abner, Sydney, Jim, or Max.
In their place were classic figures from the Superman mythos.
The songs of Abner and Max were given to Lex Luthor.
Sydney was replaced by classicDaily Planetgossip columnist and rival for Supermans affections Cat Grant.
Gone were the Lings; in came a group of old-school Superman villains from the 1930s and 40s.
You kind of make it an old-fashioned musical likeOklahoma!orCarousel, Aguirre-Sacasa tells me.
The whole thing was a fans dream.
But when showtime arrived, DC Entertainment didnt care about any of that.
Then, at the last minute, they got that notice from DCs lawyers.
He couldnt appeal to any creative partners.
Moriarty thinks it was all a matter of protecting the brand.
Or perhaps it was as simple as not wanting to lose control of a Superman product.
Whats more, the players couldnt use the names of any characters not already present in the 1966 version.
But that was just a one-off.
It doesnt even really make a hero out of Superman it makes a ditz out of him.
Its one of those shows where it could have really benefited from being revisited and retooled.
Improbably, DC hasallowed that iteration to become a licensable scriptfor schools or community theaters.
PerhapsIts a Birdwill live on as the kind of thing one fondly remembers doing in junior high.
Nothing would make me happier, he says.
*The original version of this story incorrectly stated thatIts a Birdwas the first show Hal Prince directed.
We regret the error.
