It's Super...It's Steady...It's Sleepy Subways!

Back in 1962, 

Michele Lee at the cast recording session 

of Bravo Giovanni.

Whoever Cesar Siepi was,

he seems to have had a lock on the credits!

Okay, so he WAS an Italian opera singer,

a very fine bass, evidently.

The principal bass at the Met from 1950 to 1974,

but that didn't seem to help "Bravo"...76 performances.

Above, at that same recording session,

Cesare with David Opatoshu.

Cesare is evidently "helping" David become a Broadway star!

He even got his name on sheet music

for a song Michele sang...

It's A Bird...It's A Plane...It's Superman

fared a bit better, 129 performances, back in 1966.

Jack Cassidy got the billing this time,

though of course he would have made an overly-snide man of steel.

Bob Holiday was more Super timber-ed and timbre-ed!

Linda Lavin (on the right above, and on the left below)

played Sydney Carlton (?)

and Patricia Marchand was Lois Lane.

The song writing team of Strouse and Lee

produced one song that escaped the show...

"You've Got Possibilities":

It was recorded by Peggy Lee in 1966,

and used in a commercial for Pillsbury Biscuits in 2005.

Go figure.

 

Another show from the 1960s:

Subways starred Carol Lawrence (below)

and Syd Chaplin

(oh and SUPER Orson Bean and Phyllis Newman...in tiny type!). 

Negative reviews and lousy publicity

(NY didn't want people to actually SLEEP on the subway!)

led to a legendary PR step by the King of Broadway,

David Merrick.

Love the pants, Carol!

Zoom in on this!

David (and his slaves)

found people with the same names as the theatre critics of the day,

had them see the show,

and "write reviews" which David had posted and published everywhere

(Walter Kerr..."What a show!").

Yes, it was quickly found out to be a fraud,

but even Bad Publicity is...worth a few more performances.