Being Superman I
His strength is legendary, his feats marvels of power and glory, his status as an American icon undiminished even after 70 years. Bursting the bonds of the comic page, he took all popular media by storm: radio, television, film, YouTube. The list of actors who’ve spoken his words, worn his colors, is growing and impressive: Bud Collyer, George Reeves, Brandon Routh, Tim Daly, Gary Robinson…
Gary Robinson? I don’t remember anybody by that name playing Superman!
As a matter of fact, I’m more than a little surprised myself! In my book, Superman On Earth: Reflections of a Fan, I tell the true story of a little boy who grew up wanting to be Superman. I chronicle how I achieved that goal–sort of. I tell of wearing the colors of the Man of Steel on and off stage. The book ends with me thinking I’d not only put such performances behind me but the desire as well.
Looks like I’m going to have to write a sequel. For, as we all know, Superman doesn’t die easily, nor does the dream. Since I wrote SoE, I’ve been fortunate to play the character not once but twice. Just when I was thinking I was too old to slip into those tights again, just when I was ready to pass the mantle onto a Superman Junior, whoever and wherever he might be, I heard the siren call of the Kryptonian once more. And I couldn’t resist.
It all started, or, I should say resumed not long after I got involved in Xenia’s community theatre. Early this year, I was in Crimes of the Heart. A co-player, Cathy Bengson, who also happened to be an X-Act mover and shaker, was telling me about something they had planned for the spring, The Old Time Radio Show. I don’t remember the precise route my thoughts travelled, or even why I mentioned it then, but I told Cathy about the stage adaptation I’d done of an old Adventures of Superman episode, “Flight to the North.” I asked if she thought it might be possible to do it on the X-Act stage. I half-expected her to say, “Who knows?” or something; you know, dismiss the idea in a polite way. Instead, she was intrigued. She asked to see the script. I brought it to her, she read it, and liked it. She said she’d talk to the Powers That Be to see if anyone had any objection to FTN being added as a bonus feature to the Radio show. Evidently, nobody did because that’s exactly what happened.
If performed as written, the script I gave Cathy would’ve run 25 minutes or so. She asked if I could cut it to about 20 minutes. My mild frustration at having to cut was offset by my wild desire to see this thing fly onstage once more. So I clipped a line here, compressed a scene there, and, without too much trouble, complied. All along, she seemed to assume that I’d direct. I wasn’t nearly so anxious to do that as I was to play the Man of Steel once more. If Cathy questioned the wisdom of a 54 year old man man-in-tights, she kept it to herself.
Of course, we had to assemble a cast. I managed to recruit three people from my church. X-Act board member, Cheryl Dern, helped me fill the list. We began rehearsing late in February.
To be continued.
