Bam! Sock! Zap!
Michael Uslan’s destiny was set in motion by a television show he hated.
Zok! Whap! Oooof!
A comic book collector since age 3 and a serious Batman fan since he was 8, Michael cringed as he watched the Caped Crusader reduced to a campy clown. Batman dispensed with the comic book’s darkness, replacing it with swinging ’60s camp.
Biff! Bang! Pow!
Michael was 14 when Batman premiered on television in January 1966. He vowed to restore Batman’s public image to its dark, dramatic origins. And he did.
Michael Uslan is the executive producer of every modern Batman film, from the eponymous, Tim Burton-directed 1989 hit through Matt Reeves’ 2022 The Batman. Michael’s memoir, The Boy Who Loved Batman, told how he fulfilled his vow. Now, Michael’s story is coming to real-live life on the Jaeb Theater stage.
Biff bang pow, indeed.
Try-out in Tampa
They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway and they are. Piercing and unforgiving, those bright lights will expose any and all shortcomings of a new work. That’s why a show that premieres on Broadway has most likely been performed many times, tweaked and reconfigured in great or small ways.
The Boy Who Loved Batman had its premiere at the Straz on Oct. 1, beginning a six-week run designed to the ready the show for an eventual Broadway opening.
“A new show needs a place to develop, a place to start,” said Summer Bohnenkamp, Chief Commerce and Marketing Officer/Executive Producer at The Straz Center. “A lot of commercial producers go to a nonprofit where shows can be produced less expensively.
“Producers are looking for talented people in qualified, high-profile locations that are just simply more affordable,” Bohnenkamp said. “One way to do that is to work with nonprofit producers like us.”
The Straz is producing the show in partnership with theatrical production company Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, with Summer serving as executive producer.
Great Minds …
A mutual friend introduced Michael to Bob Nederlander Jr., president and CEO of NWE. Michael hoped for an opportunity to suggest turning his memoir into a play. But Nederlander got there first.
Nederlander invited Michael to visit his office. During the visit he mentioned that he wanted to talk to Michael about “something.”
“Well, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about too,” Michael replied. “You go first.”
Nederland asked, “What would you think about turning your book into a play?”
“It was the fastest the word yes ever came out of my mouth. It was instantaneous,” Michael recalled with a laugh. “That was what we would call in the comic book world the secret origin.”
Inspiration on Stage
Initially, The Boy Who Loved Batman was conceived as a one-man show starring Michael. That idea was discarded quickly.
“I wrote a one-man show and we quickly realized a couple of things. Number one was I am too old to do a Broadway show, eight performances a week,” said Michael, 73. “Number two, there was an opportunity here for this to be something so much more, to really make something special out of this.”
Turning Michael’s memoir into a stage play began in 2021, as Broadway and much of the world was beginning to open up and venture out post-pandemic.
The thinking, according to Michael, “was that post-COVID, there would be a new normal for Broadway. And they felt that what would be needed would be plays that are not only entertaining and fun but inspirational. And my story seemed to fit that bill.”
Saving Batman
Batman, unlike most superheroes, doesn’t have a superpower. His physical and mental strength are the result of determination and willpower.
“Batman’s superpower is his humanity,” Michael said.
Michael’s determination to revitalize Batman took plenty of willpower, especially during the years when studios were, figuratively and literally, slamming their doors in his face.
Michael’s hero continually inspired him when he needed it most.
“That’s the essence of the play, what I got from Batman and what Batman in turn got from me,” Michael said. Batman made a commitment to fight crime “even if he had to walk through hell for the rest of his life in order to do it.,” Michael said. “By honoring that commitment and persevering against all odds, he became the Dark Knight.”
Michael, the boy who loved Batman, honored his commitment and persevered against all odds to become the man who saved Batman, pulling his hero out of the campy quagmire of the TV show to once again take on Gotham’s psycho circus of supervillains.
“He really does think he’s the luckiest person in the world,” Summer said of Michael. “I’ve never seen someone so passionate about what they’ve accomplished and so proud of being a total fanboy.”
The play, Michael said, is “not about a superhero, it’s about a kid, a comic book fan,” Uslan said. “This is really a personal, grounded story about a real kid, and that’s one of the things that people are going to find, I hope, both entertaining and inspirational.”
“That’s the essence of the play, what I got from Batman and what Batman in turn got from me.” – Michael Uslan, author and producer
Don’t miss the world premiere of The Boy Who Loved Batman, on stage now through Nov. 10. Get your tickets here.