I Think We Need A Revival Of LIL' ABNER- Page 2

[A Director]

Posted: 4/23/10 at 1:26am

I don't know any director working today who would be good enough for this show.

Oh, my! Guess we won't see a revival in our lifetime.

In the late 60s, Al Capp turned conservative.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/23/10 at 10:16am

The character's name is Appassionata Von Climax.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/23/10 at 10:22am

Isn't that Nick Adams' name in LA CAGE?

[newintown]

Posted: 4/23/10 at 10:28am

It ought to be.

Or Phenomena von Abs.

[mallardo]

Posted: 4/23/10 at 11:27am

Reprise in LA did it a couple of years ago and it played wonderfully - genuinely funny and a terrific score. If there was a Right Wing message in it I missed it, although, as someone noted, Al Capp himself was certainly a very vocal Conservative in his later years.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/23/10 at 11:43am

Anthony Thommasini's NY Times review of the 1994 Encores version:

===

THEATER REVIEW; Those Backwater Folks, Happily Dispensable

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: March 28, 1998, Saturday

In 1994, when the City Center Encores series started bringing back rarely heard musicals in lively concert productions, the focus was on snappy songfests from the long-gone pre-book days of the Broadway musical.

Then, two years ago, Encores tried something more recent, a bleakly brilliant concert staging of the 1975 musical 'Chicago.' It was so successful that it moved to Broadway, where it remains.

Perhaps the folks at Encores are hoping to find another book-driven musical that can make the transfer. This may be one reason they have brought back 'Li'l Abner,' the 1956 musical based on characters created by the cartoonist Al Capp. But it's hard to see success for the show beyond this stylish revisiting.

'Li'l Abner' was one of those Broadway anomalies. Critical reaction was mixed, but it was loved by audiences for its energy and cartoonish satire, and ran for 693 performances. Most critics at the time found much to praise in Michael Kidd's vibrant choreography, and the songs of the composer, Gene De Paul, and the lyricist, Johnny Mercer. But the book by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank was dated-on-arrival.

We are asked to love the residents of Dogpatch, U.S.A., for their folksy goodness and backwater stupidity. The plot turns on a Government plan to evacuate the town for use as a nuclear testing site. When in a typically ebullient ensemble song, 'Unnecessary Town,' Senator Jack S. Phogbound tells his Dogpatch constituents that of all towns in the whole country theirs has been deemed the most unnecessary, the Dogpatchers break into a jubilant chorus. Even in 1956 it must have been hard to find much satirical humor in this. Today it's downright creepy.

As always, you have to be grateful to Encores for providing an opportunity to revisit a bit of Americana. Everything we have come to expect of these productions is in evidence here: a fresh-faced, multitalented cast; imaginative staging from the director, Christopher Ashley; careful attention by the musical director, Rob Fisher, to recreating the original orchestrations; stylish playing from the band, and wonderfully kinetic choreography from Kathleen Marshall, all the more impressive given the space limitations of the stage.

And the Mercer-De Paul score has some tuneful gems. 'Namely You' is an affecting love duet, and in Burke Moses and Alice Ripley, the performance has a Li'l Abner and Daisy Mae who touch its tender qualities. Abner is a difficult role to cast. He has been raised on his mother's home-brewed Yokumberry Tonic, which has made him hunky but drained him of libido. The strapping, muscular Mr. Moses engagingly captures Abner's gallumphing ways. He has a husky baritone voice to match, though in singing so stiffly he overdoes Abner's denseness. But deep down, he loves Daisy Mae, and you know he will eventually realize it.

How could he not, as she is played here by Ms. Ripley, who will be remembered for her recent starring role in 'Side Show.' The original Daisy Mae, Edie Adams, had a sweeter voice. But Ms. Ripley's slightly tremulous, earthy singing has more poignancy, and she doesn't turn Daisy Mae into a cliche of buxom bumpkin innocence.

But Mercer's witty lyrics create a paradox for the actors: characters who sing clever lyrics inevitably sound clever. For example, Abner's breezy tribute to unambitious living, 'If I had My Druthers,' makes him seem downright poetic. ('While you'd druther hustle, accumulatin' muscle, I'd druther watch daisies grow,' he tell his fishing chums on a lazy day.) So the score undermines the dimwitted characterizations.

The most glaring example of the problem involves Abner's mother, Mammy Yokum, played with sass by the great Dana Ivey. This Mammy does not suffer fools gladly, especially her henpecked husband, the wonderful Dick Latessa. When Senator Phogbound shows up and asks whether everyone has been wondering what he has been doing in Washington for the last 18 years, Mammy retorts: 'Didn't care, so long as you was there and we was here.' Yet, even this astute and cynical Mammy initially joins in the jubilation when the town is designated for destruction, until the plot finally allows her to commandeer an escape plan.

Lea Delaria daringly revitalizes the role of Marryin' Sam, originated by Stubby Kaye, whom Ms. Delaria recalls in her physique, comic timing, brassy voice and surprisingly fleet-footed moves. Julie Newmar, who created the role of the sexpot Stupefyin' Jones in 1956, returns to it, and looks astonishingly good. Katie Finneran brings a raspy Jean Hagen quality to Appassionata von Climax, the kept woman of the corrupt industrialist General Bullmoose, an ungratifying role played here by David Ogden Stiers.

'Oh Happy Day,' a song sung by four Government scientists who are testing Mammy's tonic, is more disturbing than satirical, with its talk of genetically engineered assembly-line men and conveyor-belt women, which today is all too possible. To portray six scrawny Dogpatch husbands as changed by the potion into perfectly-bodied males, the production gives us six body builders in jockey briefs. Unfortunately, they stood, moved and acted like those assembly-line men of the lyrics.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/23/10 at 11:44am

Alice Ripley was, as you can imagine, perfection.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 7:33am

Maybe an apology is needed for returning to this thread after a two day pause. However, I watched the movie version of LI'L ABNER last night; it is very faithful to the Broadway show, unlike so many such films. I felt the urge to comment on the NY Times review of the Encores! production of the show, provided by the ever vigilent PalJoey.

First, the critic refers to "the strapping, muscular Burke Moses"--if that photo is accurate, a Cheyenne Jackson will have no trouble usurping the role in any revival. Moses is pitiful looking.

Second, the mentioning that "Mercer's witty lyrics create a paradox for the actors, so the score undermines the dimwitted characterizations..." How do the lyrics undermine anything? This is a satire and where would we be if the Dogpatch citizens spoke only unenlightened lines? The actual truth of their lines is what makes the book funny when they come into contact with the supposed more intelligent outside world.

Lastly, the critic's mentioning "the corrupt industrialist General Bullmose is an ungratifying role". Hardly ungratifying. The role was played on stage AND in the movie by the brilliant Howard St. John, who always played this kind of role. He is always funny in a dead-pan way and steals whatever scene he is in.

And choreographing the energetic dancing originally created by the great Michael Kidd is simply impossible at Encores! Thus, a big plus was simply thrown away.

The Times critic was a killjoy!

[D2]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 8:27am

Anthony Tommasini is the chief music critic for the Times, he is not primarily a theater critic. I think that needs to be taken into account when reading his review of the Encores production.

Updated On: 4/25/10 at 08:27 AM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 10:08am

I can definitely see Nathan Lane as Abner & Rosie as Daisy May

Seriously, this show is ripe for a revival.

[DirectorGP]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 11:22am

GOOD GOD.... NO! The show is so dated and the characters are irrelevant to today's audience.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 11:28am

Theater is never irrelevant

By your way of thinking, any show that takes place over 20 years ago is outdated. "The Country's In The Very Best Of Hands" is still relevant today.

[justafan2]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 11:35am

Who would play Earthquake McGoon? Sherman Hensley?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 11:38am

I cannot think of his name but the guy who played the scorekeeper in Deuce.

[TimesSquared]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 1:00pm

I'd love to see Li'l Abner revived, and I think Cheyenne Jackson was born to play the role. I'm not a hardcore Cheyenne fan, but, c'mon! He does "dopey but sincere" so well! Yes, the show's extremely silly, but that's why Casey Nicholaw would be perfect to direct and choreograph it. I don't think anyone does comedic choreography these days like he does. Imagine what he'd do with the scientists in "Oh Happy Day"?

I wonder if most people today even know of the comic strip, but I think the score has some wonderful songs, and even better, lots of major dance numbers. I know that dance arrangements usually change with each production, but the original dance arrangements are just terrific. They're not all simply variations on tunes in the show, they have great melodic themes all their own.

Another thing I like about this show is the sheer number of over-the-top character roles. Granted, a lot of what was funny in the '50s is just not so funny today, but those David Schramms, Chris Fitzgeralds and Kate Finnerans out there can make comic gold out of thin air.

Would it sell? I don't know. But I think with the right casting and direction it could be one hell of a show.

[bk]

Posted: 4/25/10 at 6:40pm

Oh, yes, let's only do theater that is relevant to today's audiences, because, you know, today's audiences are just so reprehensibly ignorant that they couldn't possibly understand something like, oh, Showboat, or Company, or Follies, or - wait a minute - A Chorus Line or West Side Story or Oklahoma or Carousel or The Most Happy Fella. Yes, let's just pander to the simpletons (and there really aren't that many, although the constant posts about this sort of thing on this board would lead one to think otherwise) who feel that nothing is relevant to today's audiences but something written - today.

[elmore3003]

Posted: 4/26/10 at 2:57pm

There's a bit of bad information in that Encores! review; the original orchestrations, leased by Tams-Witmark, were more tampered with than restored to accommodate transpositions for DeLaria, and - I recall - Burke Moses, whose voice is lower than Peter Palmer's.