A superhero-driven musical is, well, a supercool idea. (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark notwithstanding.) Yet Superhero, the new Tom Kitt–John Logan musical at Second Stage, just doesn’t fly.
Oh, the character does. And not in a scary acrobatic Spider-Man kind of way, but in an inventive wham-bang-pow kind of way. But you’ll have to wait until Act 2 to find out anything substantial about Jim, the bus driver–slash–undercover savior (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder’s Bryce Pinkham).
First, there’s the almost entirely exposition-filled Act 1: Simon (an appealing Kyle McArthur) is a comic book–obsessed teen lost in a world of his own creation, The Adventures of the Amazing Sea-Mariner. He has a major secret crush on a classmate named Vee (Salena Qureshi). Nearly two years after his father’s death, he still can’t, or doesn’t want to, communicate with his mom, Charlotte (Kate Baldwin, looking very chic in an Anna Wintour–esque bob). And she’s struggling with the single-mom life. “See I thought that you’d be here without a doubt/ Helping me to figure this all out,” she sings in what might be Kitt’s clunkiest lyric…ever. The most action-packed scene of the first half involves quinoa and kale.
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★ review here.]
Things don’t really pick up post-intermission, but the tunes definitely improve, starting with “It’s Not Like in the Movies,” which taps into the humanity behind the superhuman Jim. (“It’s not like in the movies/ It’s a little more complex/ It’s not like in the movies/ No CGI effects.”) And even though it sounds like it came from another show, “If I Only Had One Day”—Simon and Vee’s cheers-to-doomsday song—is a twangy, countrified delight. Simon’s “Superman Is Dead” is a forceful angry-revelation number, but it’s weighed down by lyrics like “How could it happen you ask?/ How could our greatest fears come to pass?”
Regrettably, this is not Kitt’s strongest score—and I say that as a fervent fan of Next to Normal, the show for which he and Brian Yorkey won a Pulitzer Prize and a 2009 Best Original Score Tony Award; for N2N, Kitt wrote the music and Yorkey the lyrics. Though Baldwin—who’s never sounded better—is pouring her heart into all those interchangeable power ballads. Tony-winning playwright John Logan, who wrote the Tony-winning Rothko bioplay Red, provided Superhero’s libretto. (Logan also teamed with Yorkey on the book for Sting’s musical The Last Ship, a tidbit that’s curiously absent from his bio.)
Superhero’s real inventiveness comes in its direction (by Jason Moore, late of The Cher Show) and design: When Simon is dreaming up his Sea-Mariner stories, the character comes to life in a drawing thanks to Tal Yarden’s projections. And it’s not just the Sea-Mariner! We also see Crush, his villainous octopus/eel-like nemesis, and “the girl” who falls into Crush’s clutches. Later, Simon presents a beautiful autobiographical comic book–style video for a school project. But these illustrated moments—which capture our attention and our hearts—are so fleeting. It’s almost unfair not to draw them out.
Superhero opened Feb. 28, 2019, at Second Stage Theater and runs through March 31. Tickets and information: 2st.com
