Saturday’s ‘Superheroes!’ Presentation by the Cincinnati Pops at Taft Theatre was more than I was expecting. I had looked forward to a replay of 2013’s amazing ‘Superheroes!’ concert, but instead found that the show had been refashioned into a full-blown musical, charting the adventures of heroes Conduktor and Rubáto, and villains Purrfect Pitch and Otto Tüün, as portrayed by members of the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati. The plot had the heroes laying waste to the bad guys’ scheme to replace live music with electronic, and — as an aside — destroy the world with a phalanx of gigantic tuning forks. An origin story was tucked in there as well. Songs from Hercules, The Wiz, Newsies, and Hairspray were repurposed to help tell the story along with selections from the Pops’ original Superheroes! concert. Great fun to see the characters I co-created with Cincinnati Pops conductor John Morris Russell live onstage.
Many of the kids, and even parents, in the audience came dressed in their best superhero outfits, and conductor Russell and I had a great time meeting attendees and signing programs and masks for them afterward.
Many thanks to the Cincinnati Pops team and the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati!
That’s me with Joseph Hamzy (who played Conduktor in the show) and Cincinnati Pops conductor John Morris Russell. Other featured performers were Xavier Carnicom, Brooke Chamberlin, Austin Harvey, Trinity Gibson, C. J. Zimmer, Ethan Marx, Marlo D’Ascenzo, Mia D’Ascenzo, and Courtney Hammonds.
Tuning Forks of Doom!
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Here’s a little background on ‘Christmas Never Sleeps,’ with thanks to my friend Marc Vargas, who asked! (Pictured above: The master loose leaf volume containing the entire works!)
