Agreed.
The Superman construct is charming because he's -- wink-wink-- two people, and the removal of the glasses reveals the same good looking man, only without the specs. Seymour is depicted as an invisible human being, unnoticed until his behavior changes his profile. The charm was in looking past his nebbishness to reveal a non-traditional hero, to a point. What the original Seymours had, as you note, was a character man ascending to the top of the theatrical food chain. If any handsome guy can have a shot at the part, simply by putting on a geeky jacket and hat, the part loses its distinction as much as the the storytelling is altered. We all understand the commerecial needs, but it's too bad the role wasn't opened to a group of singing actors who never get the girl.
I used to raise a not entirely dissimilar issue about Fiyero in "Wicked." Butz was an iconoclastic young character man (albeit one in a wig) playing a party boy; it made the story quirkier, in my opinion. After he left the show, the role was passed to a long series of young handsome boy-men. It's not quite the same, but it added more texture by having the leading man played by an actor more likely to be a sidekick. |
