Word: superman
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...social satire. It is sometimes difficult to remember that the playwright was also a serious thinker with serious, if now some what outmoded, philosophical ideas that he incorporated in many of his major plays. In this vein, a particularly successful fusion of comedy and philosophy is "Man and Superman," now enjoying a lively and stylish presentation at the American Repertory Theatre...
...surface, "Man and Superman" is a delightfully Shavian romantic comedy which reverses conventional roles by making the woman the vigilant pursuer and the man the hapless prey. The woman, Ann Whitefield (Kristin Flanders), is past mistress of twisting men around her little finger, and she has designs on her childhood companion, Jack tanner (played with dynamic vigor by Don Reilly), a young man and a decided taste for overbearing oratory. Much to his consternation, Jack is appointed one of Ann's guardians after her father's death--the other one being a confirmed old conservative, Roderick Ramsden (Alvin Epstein...
...this Hell is the refuge of people bored by Heaven, such as the Statue; the Devil is an amiable aesthete with a nihilistic view of man's destiny; and Don Juan himself is a man bored by the mindless hedonism of Hell and consumed with the idea of a Superman--a being detached from crude physicalities and endowed with a perfection of intellect that marks the final step of human evolution. Don Juan and the Devil engage in a lengthy debate that ends with Don Juan's going off to Heaven for more thorough contemplation of his ideas...
What remains, however, and what ties the dream back to earth is the idea of the life force which inexorably draws men to women. The life force fuels the positive evolution that allows man to reach the ultimate status of Superman. When Dona Ana concludes the Hell Scene with her cry, "Then my work is not yet done!" we know what is in store for her modern-day counterpart (and don Juan's) upon the latter's waking...
What are the standouts among the loopy score? Superman: The Escape, which opened--after a year's delay to get all the kinks out--at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif. It is the tallest (415 ft.) and fastest (100 m.p.h.) roller coaster ever built. Chang, which opened in April in Louisville's Kentucky Kingdom, claims the "tallest vertical loop for any roller coaster" (121 ft.), while a new ride 200 ft. tall at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pa., is distinguishing itself as "the tallest, longest and fastest steel roller coaster on the East Coast." The Great...