Posted: 7/12/15 at 7:42pm
It's never revived and it's such a fun show! Ive been in it twice (only in the chorus but It was still so much fun). I think there could be some great imaginative casting for it also!
Updated On: 7/12/15 at 07:42 PM
Posted: 7/12/15 at 7:49pm
Count me in
Posted: 7/12/15 at 7:51pm
It's just so much fun! I dont think it has ever had a Broadway revival? I wonder why? it was a hit when it opened.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 8:11pm
The reason is there is a list of about 10/15 musicals that will always be revived. Shows like this are not on it.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 8:13pm
Because there is absolutely no audience for it: the comic isn't nearly as popular as it was when the musical was written, so there's little name recognition except for people who love the film adaptation. The storyline is very dated and sexist, as are the costumes. Although the score is great and features some of the best lyrics pre-Sondheim, the show just doesn't hold up today like it did in the 50s.
If it opened, who is going to see it?
Posted: 7/12/15 at 8:18pm
Enough with the PC nonsense re sexist. Look hard enough & you will find something objectionable about any show if you want to nitpick.How many Broadway musicals are dated & still get revived? The costumes? It is a musical about a mythical village of hillbillies. Should they be wearing white tie & tails & evening gowns?
Posted: 7/12/15 at 8:19pm
It could use a revise- I've always posited that using the musical AS the whole franchise, treating it as if it were an original property instead of an adaptation, is the only possible save.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 8:31pm
Having an audience for something has always been second to finding a star to do a show. It's still popular enough and many people still love the show. We've had old shows like Music Man, King and I, South Pacific, Carousel, Godspell and Oklahoma be revived in the last 20 years, I think Li'l Abner has a shot. I'd rather see that than see gypsy and Fiddler on the roof be revived for the 1000th time.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 8:34pm
The problems are inherent in the costumes - the costumes have to be the same, just like Charlie Brown must have the yellow shirt with the black stripe and Annie must have the red dress. Things that were perfectly acceptable back in the 50s now leave a bad taste in the mouth. The show, excepting the score, simply hasn't aged well. That doesn't mean it CAN'T be revised, the show is an example of the mentality from another era, and it can be viewed as such. But I don't think there is an audience for a full scale revival - especially with the fantastic film adaptation readily available.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 8:46pm
Oh I see. You think it's a show of it's time. But couldn't the costumes just be changed? You said you think there's no audience for the show anymore, so then wouldn't that mean the audience wouldn't care if the costumes were completely different that weren't sexist?
I don't think any show that is dated, is destined to stay in that era. With great directors that have done such wonderful things for revivals like what Diana Paulus did for Pippin and what Sher did with King and I, I have no doubt one of the directors on broadway could get Abner makin money.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 8:55pm
Look hard enough & you will find something objectionable about any show if you want to nitpick, wrote the man who won't see shows with a message.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:01pm
Like I said, you can't change the costumes because the characters are from a very popular franchise. The characters are always in the same outfit, much like cartoons.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:10pm
They could sell sippy cups of Kickapoo Joy Juice.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:18pm
Now you are getting with the program
General Bullmoose T shirts?
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:18pm
It's a problematic franchise because it's based on a long-forgotten franchise, it's somewhat inherently sexist and offensive, and also because we have white trash now, but we haven't really had hillbillies for a century. They were anachronistic even in the days when Jed Clampett and his clan moved to Beverly.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:27pm
If it happens, I hope Roxy is invited to cut up a rug at the opening night party. I mean, with white-hot cultural references like "General Bullmoose t-shirts," he could be lead producer.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:30pm
My stepmom, nee Sharon Shore, was a Dogpatch Girl in the 1957 original production, and appeared with two others on the cover of LIFE magazine. That's her on the right.
She and Shelah Hacket were room mates, sharing Michael Kidd's apartment on W 58th Street. Shelah, of course, later became Michael's wife. I was just talking with Grover Dale the other day about he replaced Paul Taylor in the company!
There was a great Lil' Abner reunion a number of years ago at my parent's house in Brentwood, CA. Julie, Tina, Grover, Michael and many others were present. I have the pix and will post them some day.
So I'd love to revive it…if people would come…as admittedly the franchise is a bit forgotten. I did just hear of a high school in Shaker Heights doing it…maybe 30 years ago!
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:30pm
ENCORES! did it about 20 years ago, and did not do it justice, though it was great to hear all those songs with a big noisy band. Wish they'd do it again. That's about as much audience as it will ever find in the 21st century, but what a swell score!
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:32pm
Darquegk, do you think they could re-do the book to make it less offensive? Sort of like the treatment SIDE SHOW got?
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:39pm
Wow ddenoff2, that's so awesome! Your step mom must be so cool! I bet she has awesome stories to tell about the cast and show. She looks great on the on the cover of the magazine.
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:44pm
I don't think the problem is the costumes, it's the Cold War mentality that informs the humor and the plot. Also the view of progress and the Future (another theme in the show) is rather "Jetsons" and not the way things actually turned out.
As for sexism, I think we can accept that as just one more aspect of the "backwardness" of Dogpatch, especially since the women are quite active in the plot. Sadie Hawkins Day is, after all, a rather feminist touch. (Worse, in my view, is the homophobic notion that men with muscles must be queer.)
But General Motors no longer rules the stock market and we don't conduct open-air A-bomb tests any more. As we've seen in the past few weeks, even the veneration of Confederate icons is on the wane. The producers of a revival would have to provide a glossary to everyone under 50.
All of which is a shame, because I would argue it has the funniest score ever written. Few musical comedies have more than one or two numbers that are truly witty. In Li'l Abner, all but a couple of ballads are hysterical!
P.S. While we're talking, what does "Don't that take the rag off of the bush!" mean anyway? The mind reels!
Posted: 7/12/15 at 9:55pm
I'm gonna watch the movie tonight!
Posted: 7/12/15 at 10:16pm
Honey, that means just what you think it means!
Posted: 7/12/15 at 10:49pm
Maybe someone can write a new book, a la Anything Goes in the 1980s? Change the name and call it "Shmoosical?"
Posted: 7/12/15 at 10:55pm
If you find the right celebrity to headline it, anything is possible!
