Baldwin’s glowing vocals blend especially well with Bryce Pinkham’s shining tenor, suggesting in their duets that Charlotte and Jim might pair off as a future couple. Kate Baldwin, with her bright voice and brisk naturalness, lends personal radiance to the pensive, irresolute Charlotte. While their material is scarcely inspired, the performers make the show’s bland doings easy to swallow. Another asset to the production is designer Tal Yaden’s animated graphic projections depicting the comic book characters that Simon sketches out. Moore provides a smoothly fluent production that is framed by half a dozen askew portals in designer Beowulf Boritt’s urban setting that may tempt a disinterested viewer to wonder what different story angles the writers might have more profitably explored.Ĭhris Fisher, who designed several illusions, delivers a whiz-bang split-second effect that ends the first act on a smashing note certain to wake up any drowsing customers. Logan’s script, though unrelievedly drab and recalling Dear Evan Hansen in its basic mother-son situation, is forthright.
If Kitt’s easygoing, generally understated, Superhero songs tend towards wistful and melancholy in their emotional expressions, his lyrics are neatly turned and germane, and they sometimes are enriched by offstage voices. Gosh, what the heck were they drinking up there in Waterford-Lithium? The director is Jason Moore, stager of Avenue Q and The Cher Show.Ī note in the Second Stage program states that Superhero was developed in 2017 during a residency at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Music Theater Conference in Connecticut. The music and lyrics are composed by Tom Kitt, whose Next to Normal nabbed the Pulitzer Prize. One expects at least a livelier attraction here, considering the sterling credits of the Superhero makers: The book is by John Logan, author of the award-winning Red as well I’ll Eat You Last and Never the Sinner. Rather than developing a high-flying show about grabbing second chances, overcoming limitations, and finding some personal satisfaction with the achievements, no matter how relatively minor, that one manages to attain in life, the makers of Superhero end their plaintive story pretty much where it began as a bereft woman promises her grieving son that someday together they will get beyond their sorrow.Īnd, oh yes, the biggest laughs in the entire two-hour show involve quinoa. Superhero is a capably crafted, agreeably performed, and fairly dull musical that fails to make the entertaining most of its undeniably original idea. So is the revelation of Jim’s true identity, which is at once astonishing and disappointing. The growth of their tentative relationship as well as Simon’s mooning interest in Vee, a bright classmate, are plot elements that are musicalized further in the show’s second act. Let’s not give away more of this story except to note that Simon’s curiosity regarding his shy neighbor causes Charlotte and Jim to try dating. Hanging out on the fire escape, Simon observes an incident that causes him to believe that the quiet, diffident Jim is somebody incredibly greater than what he appears to be.
Two years after the accidental death of her husband, Charlotte is still trying to pick up the pieces of her life, while the disconsolate Simon busily scribbles away at making graphic comics about a superhero.
#BRYCE PINKHAM CHARACTERS DRIVER#
The fellow in question is Jim, an unassuming bus driver who lives in the same building with Charlotte, a youngish college instructor, and her 15 year-old son Simon. Perhaps a more appropriate title for this subdued little tuner would be The Man in 4-B. That’s not at all the case with the Superhero musical that opened on Thursday in a Second Stage Theater production at the Tony Kiser Theater. Yet it’s not inconceivable to expect that a new musical called Superhero might offer audiences a dynamic story, revved-up tunes, and generally some fun, rock-em sock-em entertainment. “What’s in a name?” as a Shakespearean somebody once said. Kyle McArthur and Bryce Pinkham in Superhero.
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