Please If There Was Ever A Time To Revive Li'l Abner Do It Now

I've seen the movie a few times, but recently got a hold of the OBC album and I can't believe how great this show is. Sure it would have to be updated but if not now, when? The orchestrations, the songs sound like new. These Goddard Lieberson recordings from the 50's and 60's are truly theater treasures.

Can you imagine Alec Baldwin singing "What's Good For General Bullmoose?" or "The Country's In The Very Best Of Hands" being staged in the current political climate? I can't imagine seeing Edie Adams, Tina Louise and Julie Newmar, Charlotte Rae, onstage, (and they did use Peter Palmer for the movie).

I looked and Encores did it in 1998 with Burke Moses, Katie Finneran and Lea DeLaria. Kathleen Marshall did choreography. I wish there was video of these classics so us young'uns could see them. At least, the recordings are superb. From horns to timpani to strings, they must have had a 40 piece orchestra for every show back then. Check them out, just google Lieberson and enjoy.

It's funny that you should mention this today. I'm working on a special project for my church and my choreographer danced in the original production. We were at her studio today and she has big blow-ups of pictures from the show on the walls.

That was the first musical I ever did. It was 7th grade; I was 13. I played the inventor that created the hot girl that froze everybody in their tracks. Stupefyin' Jones? That was the girl's name; what was my name? I still remember my one line: [Lamenting the way things used to be] "That beautiful intersection of Sheepdip Drive and Hogfat Boulevard...". Times were simpler then.

By the way, I assume there IS a video of it, at the Lincoln Center Library of Performing Arts in NYC. I mean, they have everything else. If you ever find yourself in the city, check it out!

Sorry to put on my PC shaming hat here, but I must point out that friends from Appalachia consider "Hillbilly" a hateful slur. I still remember the deep hurt in his sweet face after innocently asking a coworker from the hills of Kentucky if he was a hillbilly, years ago. Also, the incessant quips an artist friend from West Virginia had to fend off when he spent a year at Oxford on a scholarship by those jokingly expressing surprise he wore shoes and could actually converse intelligently.

Yes, it's a musical, based upon a satirical cartoon full of outrageous characters that are not meant to be taken seriously, but they're still based upon hillbilly stereotypes of lazy, ignorant people. Some of whom sleep with hogs.

You may only see the satire and the political humor, but good people from large swaths of the country will be offended. And we know the folly of telling someone from a different community that they shouldn't feel insulted.

Updated On: 3/19/17 at 08:53 AM