#26
Posted: 7/12/15 at 10:55pm
If you find the right celebrity to headline it, anything is possible!
Who else is ready for a Li'l Abner revival? — Page 2
#27
Posted: 7/12/15 at 11:07pm
I did just hear of a high school in Shaker Heights doing it…maybe 30 years ago!
I think I love you.
I also have to admit I've always wanted to see Tony Yazbeck's Li'l Abner.
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#28
Posted: 7/13/15 at 12:32am
Finding Nemo, I think you're onto something!
#29
Posted: 7/13/15 at 3:00am
Perhaps because I've seen a (brilliant) friend of mine patronized and underestimated because he's from West Virginia, but I don't think it could ever be done in good conscience.
A couple of years ago, I downloaded the score. I had fond memories of the seeing the movie often on TV growing up. I even read (but didn't really enjoy, aside from the schmoos) the comic strip as a child. As I listened to the score, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The entire show rests on a stereotype of lazy, scofflaw hillbillies!
Yes, they exist in a cartoon world. So did the minstrels in a minstrel show.
It's far more than an issue with being out-of-date. I would imagine that most people from Appalachia would find it offensive these days.
(Anecdote - an example of an out of date reference that doesn't matter: Company. It just opened in SF. A friend saw it with his college age kids. Neither had any idea what "a service" would be. Didn't matter. The show still worked. If Lil' Abner's only issue was A-Bomb references, that wouldn't necessarily be a problem)
I think the Hillbilly is pretty much in the same heap as the lazy Mexican with sombrero, the drunken Irishman, scalp-hungry Indians, scheming Jews, and any number of odious racial stereotypes.
Updated On: 7/13/15 at 03:00 AM
#30
Posted: 7/13/15 at 8:09am
The P.C. police come to the rescue.
Poster Emeritus
#31
Posted: 7/13/15 at 9:14am
The world changes and evolves. People come to understand that things that were once considered harmless were actually harmful to others who had no platform to tell the world that this is true. "P.C. police" don't exist, but people who can't or won't understand that the world changes are the first to use that term.
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#32
Posted: 7/13/15 at 11:19am
Encores did it many years ago. There's not enough there to make it worth a full revival. Perhaps a one time NBC live production? Although I don't know what star would have the innocence needed for Li'l Abner.
Don't you need a bigger chorus than usual because the wimpy men turn into muscle men? Encores did this so brilliantly.
But one of the best comic lines is from that show:
Do you get bed and board?
Frequently!
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#33
Posted: 7/13/15 at 11:22am
How did encores turn the wimpy men into muscle men?
#34
Posted: 7/13/15 at 11:38am
How did encores turn the wimpy men into muscle men?
The wimpy men marched down a set of stairs into the trap center stage and the muscle men marched up another set of stairs out of the center stage trap. Maybe that's the way all productions do it, but it was great because it looked like an assembly line. You saw the men descending as unmuscular and then (other) men ascending as muscular. Encores hired a weight lifting club to play the muscle men.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#35
Posted: 7/13/15 at 11:48am
The Tired Businessman market doesn't exist anymore. Bouncing titties are really the only thing this show had going for it.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#36
Posted: 7/13/15 at 12:08pm
I saw this show back in the '60s, and loved it. I also happen to be a huge fan of the comic strip (and currently working through the anthology books).
This show was shown a few years ago at Musicals Tonight. I saw it again there. To be honest, I found it incredibly dated. I don't think it will work financially in today's Broadway environment.
#37
Posted: 7/13/15 at 12:13pm
Do you have a badge for the PC Police?
Kidding.
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