‘It’s A Bird… It’s A Plane… It’s Superman!’ the movie (musical)
We here at ComicMix would like to remind people, in the age of talks of Christopher Nolan consulting on the Superman movie franchise (with David S. Goyer rumored to have a script called The Man Of Steel) that Superman Returns wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.
As a point of reference, we would like to show you what the state of the Superman franchise was like just a few years before Christopher Reeve took over the role. This is the televised version of the Broadway musical of It’s A Bird… It’s A Plane… It’s Superman! entitled, simply, Superman (and now I know why all the ads called it Superman The Movie).
If you’re at home on a snow day today, check it out.
Interestingly enough, MTV Splashpage reports that the play is being completely revised and updated (by setting it in the 1930s?) by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, a comic book writer going back to his roots as a playwright. It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman will run June 18 – July 25, 2010 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in Dallas, Texas.
I saw it when it aired on ABC at 11:30pm on a Friday night in 1974. I had to ask my mother's permission to stay up that late. As a kid hungry for anything Superman I lapped it up. Watching it on video nowadays it's winceworthy. Still, if WB released an official version of it I would buy it in a second. It is a shame that the original Broadway show wasn't filmed for later broadcast on PBS as I hear that was more palatable than the tv remake.
I'm not old enough to have seen it when it aired but i would love to see it. I have spent the last couple days searching for a complete version of it and all I've come up with are some youtube fragments. If an official version ever comes to light, i'd buy it aswell. Buy it and subject my friends to it. To most people today, it might be considered torture; but to us, watching it would be one of life's little joys.