It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s a New Book for Superman Musical

A new production of the cult musical It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman will premiere during the Dallas Theater Center’s 2009-2010 season. According to The Dallas Morning News, the Center’s artistic director Kevin Moriarty and comic writer-turned-playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa have acquired the rights to create a new book for the musical, which features music by Charles Strouse and lyrics Lee Adams, the team behind Bye Bye Birdie. The new It’s a Bird is scheduled to run from June 18 through July 25, 2010. Details about casting and the creative team have not been announced.

The Broadway production of It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman was directed by Harold Prince and starred Jack Cassidy as Max Mencken, Bob Holiday as Clark/Superman and Patricia Marand as Lois Lane. It opened at the Alvin Theatre now the Neil Simon Theatre on March 29, 1966, and earned some favorable reviews “it’s fun,” said The New York Times but failed to connect with ticket buyers. The show closed on July 16, 1966, after 129 performances. It’s a Bird was made into an ABC special in 1975, starring David Wilson, Lesley Ann Warren and Loretta Swit.

Subsequent stage productions include a 1992 production at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, as well as a 2007 concert version in Los Angeles starring Patrick Cassidy, Cheyenne Jackson, Jean Louisa Kelly, Richard Kind and Charles Strouse, in a special appearance. Jackson, Kelly and Strouse reprised their roles in later that year in a concert performance in New York City as part of the “Musicals in MUFTI” series. They were joined by Lea DeLaria, Shoshana Bean, Stan Chandler and David Rasche, among others.

Also featured in the Dallas Theatre Center’s upcoming 2009-2010 season are the world premiere of the musical Give It Up!, an update of Lysistrata by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, and Neil LaBute’s trilogy, The Beauty Plays The Shape of Things, Fat Pig and Reasons to Be Pretty as well as new productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Death of a Salesman.