It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's A Mad Scientist in Superman

That's me, throwing WAY back to my Junior year in high school, where I played the Mad Scientist in the musical It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman.  Here I am in the middle of my number, Revenge, where I really got to let the ham flag fly.  I did Revenge once at an open mike at Flying Dragon, and used it for the basis of a song for the Wicked Witch the year I directed The Wizard of Oz.

Fellow thespian Al Bacon and I sing You've got What I Need, where I frightened large groups of people with my mad dance skills.  Al, on the other, could dance like a pro, and at one point, leaped right over me, Bride of Frankenstein hair and all.

Near the big finitch, where I hold Lois Lane, played by Ann Pepera, hostage, while Superman, played by Tim Deneau, looks carefully for his opportunity.  Ann was a beautiful singer and a varsity cheerleader.  Tim was outstanding at everything - not only an excellent actor and singer, he was at the head of his class in academics, politics, and was about our only All-conference football player.  But most importantly, both of them were very kind and friendly,

I couldn't be in the musical my first two years in high school.  You had to be in the music department to be eligible.So my junior year I joined the choir, just so I could qualify.  There was no way they were going to do a musical about Superman and I not be in it.

I gave it my all in tryouts.  I sang the only song I could remember, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, not knowing anything about pitch or range, I sang it about an octave higher than anyone else had ever sung it. The music directors, who were also the band teachers, were stunned.  I thought I had screwed up for sure.  Instead, they took me to one of their homes after tryouts, and had me sing scales, trying to figure out how high I could go.  They told me I could be a countertenor, a rare voice that if I wanted to develop it, could make me a lot of money in opera and such.  Being a lonely, but romantically inclined teenage boy, I did not place being known for singing like a girl high on my agenda.

Despite my voice, they cast me as the Mad Scientist, a role I ate up with a flourish.  The musical seemed to be only tangentially based on the comic books, but even though I was (and am) a comic book nerd, I let all of that pass.  The script didn't say I was Lex Luthor - didn't even seem to acknowledge him, but to me...I was LEX LUTHOR (albeit a hairy version).

I have recommended this musical to every theater group I have ever been involved with.  They have all passed.  It is super cheesy, and getting more cheesy and creaky every year.  Nevertheless, it is a blast, fun for the cast and the audience.

Would I love to do the Mad Scientist again?  Oh, you bet!  And hear is an extra bonus consideration to any cost conscious director out there -

Unlike when I was in high school -  you no longer have to do anything to turn my hair white.