When Broadway almost made an actual Captain America musical in the ’80s

Probably one of the most talked-about moments from the recent Hawkeye trailer was the reveal of Rogers: The Musical, the fictional Broadway show based on the life of Steve Rogers. Or at least that’s what we can assume based on the title of the show and the one-second clip we saw:

Obviously, Rogers: The Musical isn’t real. But there was at one time a plan to make a real musical based on Captain America.

We have to rewind the clock quite a bit for this one — even farther back than the infamous Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark musical in 2010. As SyFy Wire reports, planning was underway for a Captain America Broadway show in the mid-1980s. And we’re not just talking about an idea being thrown around; the show made it quite far in development before Marvel ultimately pulled the plug. Here’s how it all went down.

See the track listing for the Captain America musical

The New York Times Broadway section reported on April 5, 1985, that a Captain America musical was in production, with Mel Mandel and Norman Sachs writing the music and lyrics. Actor John Cullum was chosen to play the star-spangled man with a plan.

We also know the plot. From The New York Times:

"The book by Mel Mandel and Norman Sachs… has Captain A. going through a mid-life crisis. Fortunately, the action speeds up – his girlfriend, a candidate for president, is captured by terrorists and held hostage at the Lincoln Memorial."

More plot details revealed that his girlfriend, Sharon Phillips, would be kidnapped under the orders of villain Jay Peters, the CEO of a cosmetics company. If she became president, you see, Sharon planned to ban the “brainwashing face cleanser” Peters produced, so obviously something had to be done.

And that’s the show in a nutshell. Reportedly, Cloris Leachman and Linda Lavin were both reportedly considered for the role of Sharon, although it’s not clear if the part was ever cast.

And now for the good part: we know the names of some of the songs planned for the show. These tracks definitely spark the imagination:

• • “Fly the Flag”
  • “Into the Gym”
  • “Nobody Asked Me to Lead a Parade This Year”
  • “Both Ways”
  • “If I Could Fall In Love”
  • “Marvin Mittleman”
  • “The First Presidential”

The fate of the Captain America musical

As evident by the lack of a Captain America musical in our lives, the show never ran on Broadway, nor anywhere else for that matter. The budget for the musical was $4 million (roughly $10 million today), and the funding goals could not be met. Additionally, Games Radar reports that the show was torpedoed after Marvel was acquired by an investment group owned by an actual cosmetics executive.

Anyone who knows their Marvel history knows the company hit a rough patch starting in the late ’80s and lasting through the early 2000s. It’s what led them to sell the movie rights to their characters to studios like Fox, Universal and Sony, so maybe it’s not a surprise that the Captain America musical was seen as an unnecessary expenditure at the time.

That said, some folks did get to see previews before the show was axed. In order to get funds for the show, there were some short performances in New York City put on to drive interest. So, if anyone has any memory of seeing one of these events, please do speak up now!

Because even if Marvel was struggling in the ’80s, the world can’t get enough of it now. Perhaps there can be a revival of this idea. We can certainly leave behind the plot of the old show and trade it for the biographical one teased in Hawkeye.

Could the stage be the next frontier for Marvel Studios? If Game of Thrones and Harry Potter can do it, why not the MCU?

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