The Real Man of Steel

Superman hasn’t had a lot of luck on the silver screen for the past few decades, but maybe he’s just trying the wrong artistic medium. Or the wrong story.

The History of Invulnerability, which closes out the Milwaukee Rep season, tells the story not of how Superman came to Earth from Krypton, but of how he came to Earth from the mind of his creator: Jerry Siegel. It’s a tale that takes its audience back and forth through time, Superman joining Siegel on a trip through his memories of inventing Superman in the 1930s, slowly learning of the Holocaust in Europe and fighting to regain ownership of his creation from DC Comics later in life.

This history’s been fomenting in playwright David Bar Katz’s mind for years – in a very real sense, ever since he learned as a child that many of the superheroes he loved were created by Jewish writers or cartoonists, including Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Siegel. Katz says it was a “weird idea” that stuck with him, so when he was beginning to develop a new play in conjunction with LAByrinth Theater Company in New York City, he decided now was the time to flesh it out.

Part of Katz’s drive to write The History of Invulnerability – the “least creative aspect,” he acknowledges – was to get Siegel’s story out to the masses, and pay tribute to his life and work.  “Our society’s dominated by superheroes right now, and it all came back to him, this one person who no one’s ever heard of,” Katz says. “Because that bothered him, I feel like doing him the justice.”

The History of Invulnerability itself begins in the final moments of Siegel’s life, before embarking on the non-linear trajectory of a memory play. Superman himself (played by JJ Philips) serves as a guide to Siegel (Bob Amaral), leading him from scenes where Siegel, along with friend and artist Joe Schuster, invents the man of steel, to vignettes set at a concentration camp.

Bringing Superman into the mix was always a priority for Katz, who sees the co-protagonist as a way to emphasize the divide between Siegel and his creations. “I like the idea of competing narratives – this idea that Superman has his own perspective of his history,” Katz says. “The writer always has this process of: Once you put something into the world, it’s not yours anymore. And that dynamic is a concrete example of how that works, in its extreme form.”

Director Mark Clements will be bringing a multimedia-heavy approach to the production, with projection of images and videos appearing throughout the play as subconscious signposts for Siegel. It’s also something Katz built into the show, to juxtapose Siegel with images of his superhuman creation and his broader thought process. One idea that keeps recurring is what Katz says might be the play’s “thesis”: an overwhelming sense of powerlessness in the face of the Holocaust that Katz believes led Siegel to create a hero like Superman.

The Rep’s production of The History of Invulnerability marks only the third time the show’s been professionally staged, after a debut in Cincinnati in 2011 and a subsequent staging in Washington, D.C. As a New York-based writer, Katz says he has hopes to see it come home some day, but his experiences with regional theaters like these have made him a “convert,” happy enough just to see it staged by fearless artistic directors like Clements.

The play opens Saturday, April 12, and runs through May 4. Tickets start at $20 and can be ordered at (414) 224-9490 or the Rep’s online box office.

 

PREVIEW: Lend Me A Tenor at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre

MCT has saved its funniest show for last: Lend Me A Tenor, a Ken Ludwig farce that has become a classic of the theatrical canon since its premiere in 1986. The play depicts a Depression-era opera house in Cleveland whose leaders think their about to stage the most memorable production in its history, with a world-famous tenor arriving to perform the lead role in Otello. They’re right, of course – but only in the sense that they discover the tenor apparently killed himself immediately before opening night, a revelation that kicks off an evening of physical comedy and mistaken identities.

This particular production marks the continuation of MCT’s longstanding efforts to work with Milwaukee’s college theater programs; in this case, Marquette University, with its professor Debra Krajec designing costumes and both current students and alumni serving in the cast and design team. To judge by MCT’s last collaboration, 2011’s The Lion in Winter, you can expect a fully professional, boffo production.

Lend Me A Tenor opens Friday, April 11, and runs through April 27. Tickets range from $15 to $40 and can be ordered at 414-291-7800 or MCT’s online box office.

 

PREVIEW: My Red Hand, My Black Hand at Uprooted Theatre

Uprooted turns to the work of Dael Orlandersmith for their own last performance of the season, a staged reading of My Red Hand, My Black Hand. Orlandersmith’s known for works that deal with issues of race from untraditional perspectives (her most high profile staging in the city that I can recall was Yellowman, a Pulitzer Prize-finalist that dealt with issues of racial conflict among members of an African-American community), and this play is no different. It takes as its protagonist a woman who is the daughter of a Native American man and an African-American woman, who tells the story of how her parents came to Boston, fell in love, and struggled against the prejudice of each of their families. Uprooted will also package the reading with a talkback following the performance, and a performance by the acoustic band Sorry We’re Open.

My Red Hand, My Black Hand will be performed Monday, April 14, at 7 p.m. at Next Act Theatre. Tickets are $15 and can be ordered online. 

 

CLOSING THIS WEEK:

First Stage: Crash, through April 13

Villa Terrace: Creatures of Doubt, through April 14

 

ALSO ON STAGE:

Splinter Group: Mr. Marmalade, through April 19

Soulstice Theatre: Still Life, through April 19

Fireside: Mary Poppins, through April 20

Alchemist Theatre: Use No Place Soon, through April 26

Renaissance Theaterworks: Skin Tight, through April 27

Next Act: Three Views of the Same Object, through April 27

Theatre Unchained: Company (NEW!), through April 27

Milwaukee Rep: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Stackner Cabaret, through May 18