The first episode of Hawkeye provided many treats for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially the debut of Rogers: The Musical, a Broadway show about the life of Steve Rogers. In the episode, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) takes his kids to see the show, which includes the instant classic, “Save the City.” The song was written by Marc Shaiman (composer, lyricist) and Scott Wittman (lyricist), who are best known for creating the music and lyrics for Hairspray. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Shaiman and Wittman, and they explained why Ant-Man was featured in the song despite not being present for the Battle of New York. We also wondered how Captain America’s famous line, “I can do this all day,” ended up becoming common knowledge to the people in the MCU.
“No, we had to think about that,” Shaiman explained when we asked if Steve Rogers ever said “I can do this all day” in an interview or publically. “That was definitely something that we talked about with the Marvel people in it. We had to believe that, at some point, many of the bystanders who had been at the battle of New York or other places.” Wittman added, “He was overheard.” Shaiman continued, “Overheard then, or although it’s not shown in Marvel movies, you can believe that, at some point, they’ve been interviewed by people, so maybe Natasha, at some point, said, ‘Oh, stick always with that. I could do it all day.’ Somehow that got leaked out into the world and that they knew that that was something that Captain [America] has said once or twice.” Wittman joked, “They didn’t clearly learn it from seeing the movies.”
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Since Shaiman and Wittman are big names on Broadway, we also asked if they wrote Rogers: The Musical within the MCU canon, wondering if their names would be the ones featured on the playbills.
“That’s a really good question. There was a playbill, and I don’t think we got credit. I think it’s made up people,” Shaiman replied. “Oh, I want to be in the MCU,” Wittman added. “Yeah, we would’ve been alive. We would’ve been alive. Here, look, Louis [Shaiman’s husband], of course, being the comic book nerd, he actually has it. No, it was written… Oh, well, I don’t like these people. Who are they? … Well, we’re going to work on that.”
The first three episodes of Hawkeye are now streaming on Disney+. You can watch our full interview with Shaiman and Wittman at the top of the page.
