Judy Harris

Long Time Fan of "It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman" Shares Her Memories

Judy Harris created the first web page dedicated to
"It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman."

As a dedicated chronicler of good Broadway shows, Judy penned one of the finest descriptions of "It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman" ever written. Capturing all the lyrics and giving a blow-by-blow report of the plot, Judy captured better than anyone the joy that Bob Holiday and the rest of the cast brought to audiences. You can visit Judy's site by CLICKING HERE.

Judy's two favorite songs from the show were the Overture (where a few lines of dialogue are inserted, summing up the whole romance of Superman and Lois Lane) and "You've Got What I Need." You'll hear both these tunes in the video above.

Judy was kind enough to share a few thoughts with SupermanBobHoliday.com. Enjoy!

"It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman" features one of my top 3 or 4 overtures and entr'actes. These musical interludes which precede the first and second acts, seem to have disappeared with the advent of the Andrew Lloyd Webber type "sung through" musical. Charles Strouse's music is exciting and melodious and Lee Adams' lyrics are extremely clever and amusing.

My favorite number from the show is YOU'VE GOT WHAT I NEED, which is done in a sort of old time music hall/vaudeville presentation. Before the advent of The Producers, there were not too many duets, even in Broadway shows, performed by two men. There is a nice contrast in this number between the smoothness and excellent singing voice of Jack Cassidy and the more comical and less graceful Michael O'Sullivan. The song eventually builds to their dancing, and it really was a riot to see O'Sullivan kicking his legs and going "whoo." It also still amuses me to hear a man say to another man (a scientist), "You're tops in my book, cookie."

I also admired the staging of the second act IT'S SUPERMAN number, done in the series of boxes to resemble the panels of a comic book; the way the lights would go on in one panel, and then go off and light up in another.

I can't stress enough how perfect Bob Holiday was as both Clark Kent and Superman. It fell to him to perform the first musical number, DOING GOOD, and he just so exactly embodied the reverse transformation from Superman back to the much meeker, less confident newspaper reporter; it made the whole show believable.